Posted on 08/30/2016 9:53:40 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
The JLTV (Oshkosh Defense)
As the U.S. Army readies to bring its current crop of Humvees into the 21st century with a new vehicle, reconnaissance officials are also looking to replace the Humvee's pre-World War II .50-caliber machine gun with a version of the Apache helicopter’s cannon in 2019. The Army has embarked on a major project to replace the Humvee, officially known as the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWVS). Last year the Army signed a $6.7 billion deal with Oshkosh Defense for 17,000 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTVs). Touted as offering more protection and greater off-road mobility, JLTVs will replace a large chunk of the Army and Marine Corps’ legacy Humvee fleet. The military expects to see the new vehicles in 2018 and 2019.
Col. William T. Nuckols Jr., director of mounted requirements at the Army’s Maneuver Center of Excellence (MCOE) at Fort Benning, Ga., says the shift to new vehicles is a great opportunity for scout platoons to upgrade from the Humvees’ M2 .50-caliber gun.
“The design work for [the M2] was started in 1917 by General John Pershing,” he explained. “I don’t want to bash it; it’s the best heavy machine gun in the world, but technology has continued to move.”
Nuckols explained that, while scouts’ primary role is reconnaissance, they need heavy firepower when they run into enemy forces. “In a chance encounter scouts will be looking to engage the enemy, then disengage as quickly as possible,” he said.
A version of the M230-LF 30-mm. cannon used on Apache helicopters would significantly boost scout platoons’ weaponry, according to Nuckols, citing the cannon’s devastating explosive rounds.
“Having an exploding bullet is good when you’re facing enemy soldiers who are in a vehicle or behind a wall,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Bingo, you both got it.
Everything’s a “Center of Excellence” now. If you see “COE” in the acronym, that’s what it stands for. At the clinic on Fort Meade, there’s a “Hallway of Excellence” complete with a sign hanging from the ceiling, I kid you not.
It began life as a Jeep (M-38 or M-151) replacement.
That's all it ever was and still is. When the AQI and their Shi'ite cohorts stepped up their IED game in Iraq, the Army had no response whatsoever, so they just crammed a ton of armor onto Humvees and suped up the suspension to compensate. It was never, ever meant for that kind of mission, and the results show.
#16: BINGO! We have a Winner!
I’m not so sure.
1. The 30mm is a HUGE mount. I don’t see it being anything other than an electro-mechanical T&E mechanism. That places an additional electrical and maintenance burden on the vehicle and weapons system.
2. The rounds are 2-3 times the size of .50cal. That means MUCH less ammo.
Not only that, but the 30mm barrel has a tendency to overheat and comes with a burst limiter, which is usually set to 10 or 20 round bursts in the Apache. Not exactly a good thing in the heat of ground combat.
I suspect that the light barrel was optimized for the Apache, which has to lift the thing. Perhaps a HB variant like that of the M2 would be a more appropriate solution for a grounded weapon.
What do you expect from the same organization that turned itself inside out and compromised it’s own standards to graduate women from the Ranger Course? As another poster mentioned above, this has less to do with being combat effective and more to do with keeping the defense industry money flowing.
Sounds great but the gun and its mechanism is about 20 feet long and weighs quite a lot (not sure how much). The 30mm rounds are much bigger than .50 cal which means that you’ll either need more onboard storage or carry less ammo.
I can see this as a great addition to the Scout vehicle but they should leave the Deuce in place for close in social work. Just my $.02.
Caveat to my earlier post - I’m no expert but I worked with about 30 Apache pilots and crewmen for several years creating training for the Apache. Learned a lot from them but not everything.
2. The rounds are 2-3 times the size of .50cal. That means MUCH less ammo.
That was my thought, too. About 5 years ago I was working on a Navy contract mounting 30 and 40mm guns on Blackhawks. It put a large amount of stress on the mounts and frames.
The bigger gun isn't much of an advantage if you can only carry 200 rounds of ammo.
“”Centers of Excellence””
21st Century phrase for testing center. We had our code testing facilities renamed centers of excellence. Didn’t matter. Without process and training the apps teams pumped out the same crap code.
Doesn’t the UH-60 DAP (Direct Action Penetrator) have a 30mm option on the stub wings?
I would second that. Also the Russian type large machine guns in 14mm or so. Heck, even a 20mm machine gun exists out there that can be easily crew maintained and with as much power if not more than the Bushmaster 30 mm.
The Bushmaster has a complex timing system of shell delivery and ejection using gears and bike chain that is very delicate. It is fine with an aircraft away from dirt, but on the ground like this and you will quickly chaff the gears and thus loose the timing.
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