Good morning, Snippy.
The reason everybody is worried about the survivability of towed artillery of all sizes is computer controlled counter battery fire radar systems. That is, exotic radars that can track artillery shells and direct fire on the piece shooting.
An example, current state of the art:
AN/TPQ-47 Firefinder Block II Radar
The AN/TPQ-47 (Formerly AN/TPQ-37 P3I Block II) is the next generation Firefinder, which will replace the AN/TPQ-37 antenna transceiver group (ATG) utilizing advanced technology that will provide rapid and increased target location, improved accuracy, and target classification at greater ranges. This is a new capability to provide the warfighter continuous and responsive counterbattery target acquisition for all types and phases of military operations. This system will compliment the next generation of longer range weapons and munitions being developed for fire support, and revolutionize the way the Army conducts the weapon locating mission.
The AN/TPQ-47 will provide a significant capability to the Army by doubling the current artillery detection range of the AN/TPQ-37. It also adds a new mission area for Firefinder to detect Tactical Ballistic Missiles out to 300 kilometers in range. Proposed requirements for the AN/TPQ-47 include increased range and accuracy for both conventional artillery (60 km) and tactical ballistic missiles (250+ km) locations, enhanced survivability against DF/ARM threat, drive on/off C-130 and larger aircraft, on-board pos-nav system, remote operational capability, and ability to process stored targets on the move. The improvements are especially critical in the role the AN/TPQ-47 can play in deep operations and the active, passive defense attack operations against tactical ballistic missiles. Other capabilities include target classification, reliable target identification, automated emplacement and greatly reduced operating and sustainment costs.
The AN/TPQ-47 configuration includes the Operation Central, the Antenna Transceiver Group, the Prime Power Group, and the Portable Operations Suite. The upgrade will replace the Antenna Transceiver Group to double the current range performance for detecting incoming fire from mortar, artillery, and rockets, and provide improved targeting capability for counterbattery fire. The AN/TPQ-47 will detect tactical ballistic missiles at ranges out to 300 kilometers. The upgrade integrates with the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) software to ensure rapid counterfire.
The AN/TPQ-47 is designed to deliver superior transportability and mobility. It can be transported in a single C-130 sortie or by CH-47 helicopter lift. Rapid emplacement and displacement can be accomplished by a six-person crew.
The AN/TPQ-47 Firefinder's modular field-repairable design minimizes down time to maintain high system operational availability. An auto calibration algorithm allows the antenna to be recalibrated in the field.
The Q-47 provides a substantial increase in range and accuracy over the Q-37. Like the Q-37, the Q-47 is optimized for rockets and cannons. The probability of locating an enemy system in normal mode is .85 or higher throughout the entire range fan for a specific target category. The Q-47 can locate light and heavy mortars at ranges out to 18km and heavy mortars out to 30km with the same probability of location. It locates artillery and light rockets out to 60km and heavy rockets out to 100km. General planning ranges are 18km for mortars, 60km for artillery and light rockets and 100km for heavy rockets.
This new system differs from the AN/TPQ 37 by being more easily transported (fits in a C-130) and being more resistant to direction finding and anti-radiation missiles. What this means is that this gadget shoots a huge and powerful radar beam into the sky, and reasonably simple machinery can figure out where it is from it's radar emission and Viet Nam era missile technology can then take it out.
Pretty soon enough the sky from five feet up will be full of awfully smart pilotless aircraft. Ten years, maybe. You stick out, you dead.
Personally I think that counter artillery radar systems will not be useful for very long.
Radio, radar, and even electrical generators and vehicle electrics can be readily localized these days. From orbit you can pick up a wrist watch chip. (Or a submarine hundreds of feet down.) A cell phone is like a searchlight at night used to be.
Future war, my lifetime and yours, will be like World War Two submarines trying to stay alive - run silent, run deep. Hide. Every sensor will either be passive or protected like heck.
The Indians are buying AN/TPQ-37 sets from us. Times keep changing.
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on August 27:
0551 BC Confucius Chinese philosopher
1770 Georg Wilhelm F Hegel German philosopher/inventor (dialectic) (Hegel to Marx to Hitler,Stalin)
1809 Hannibal Hamlin (R) 15th VP (1861-65)
1824 Hiram Gregory Berry Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1863
1826 Frank Stillman Nickerson Brig General (Union volunteers)
1832 James Alexander Walker Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1901
1839 Emory Upton Bvt Major General (Union Army), died in 1881
1865 Charles Gates Dawes (R) 30th VP (1925-29, Nobel 1925)
1882 Samuel Goldwyn pioneer film maker/producer (MGM)
1886 Eric Coates Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, England, composer
1877 Charles Stewart Rolls British auto manufacturer (Rolls-Royce Ltd)
1899 C.S. Forester, England, historical novelist, created Horatio Hornblower
1890 Man Ray US artist/photographer/movie (dada)
1908 Lyndon B Johnson (D) 36th Pres (1963-1969)
1908 Martha Raye [Margaret Reed], Butte Mont, actress / Viet-Nam vet (Martha Raye Show)
1910 Mother Teresa [Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu], Yugoslavia (Nobel 1979)
1915 Walter W Heller economist (Old Myths & New Realities)
1929 Elizabeta Bagrintseve USSR, discus thrower (Olympic-silver-1952)
1929 Ira Levin author (Rosemary's Baby, Boys From Brazil)
1932 Antonia Fraser biographer (Mary Queen of Scots)
1935 Frank Yablans NYC, writer (North Dallas Forty)
1937 Tommy Sands singer/actor (Teenage Rock, Dream With Me)
1941 Yuri V Malyshev cosmonaut (Soyuz T-2, T-11)
1942 Daryl Dragon Pasadena Calif, keyboardist (Capt & Tennille)
1943 Bob Kerrey (ex-Sen-D Nebraska)
1943 Susan "Tuesday" Weld NYC, actress (Dobie Gillis, Wild in Country)
1949 Barbara Bach [Goldbach], Queens NY, actress (Spy Who Loved Me)
1950 Charles Fleischer Wash DC, comedian (Roger Rabbit)
1952 Pee-wee Herman aka Paul Reubens, actor / movie lover (Pee-wee's Big Adventure)
1961 "Downtown" Julie Brown TV host (Club MTV, Inside Edition)
Deaths which occurred on August 27:
1576 Titan (Tiziano Vecelli) Italian artist, dies (plague)
1590 Sixtus V [Felice Peretti/"Montalto"], Pope (1585-90), dies at 68
1840 William Kneass 3rd US chief engraver (1824-40), dies in office
1879 Sir Rowland Hill introduced postage stamps, dies at 84
1958 Dr Ernest O Lawrence inventor (Cyclotron-Nobel 1939), dies at 57
1963 W E B Du Bois scholar/founder (NAACP), dies at 95 in Accra Ghana
1964 Gracie Allen (Burns and Allen)
1967 Brian Epstein Beatles' manager, dies
1971 Bennett Cerf (Random House)/panelist (What's My Line), dies at 73
1975 Haile Selassie depossed Ethiopian emperor, dies at 83
1978 Robert Shaw actor (Quint - Jaws), dies at 51
1979 Earl Mountbatten British adm of the Fleet, assassinated by IRA
1979 Nicholas Mountbatten, Lord Mountbatten's grandson, murdered at 14
1979 Lady Brabourne murdered age 83
1979 John Maxwell murdered age 15
1980 Sam Levenson humorist (Sam Levenson Show), dies at 68
1984 Billy Sands actor (Phil Silvers Show, McHale's Navy), dies at 73
1990 Stevie Ray Vaughan blues guitarist, dies in a helicopter crash at 35
1996 Actor Greg Morris ("Mission: Impossible") dies
Take A Moment To Remember
GWOT Casualties
Iraq
27-Aug-2003 4 | US: 3 | UK: 1 | Other: 0
UK Fusilier Russell Beeston Ali As Sharqi Hostile - hostile fire
US Lieutenant Colonel Anthony L. Sherman Camp Arifjan Non-hostile - illness
US Sergeant Gregory A. Belanger Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Specialist Rafael L. Navea Fallujah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
27-Aug-2004 3 | US: 3 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Lance Corporal Nickalous N. Aldrich Al Anbar Province Non-hostile - vehicle accident
US Specialist Omead H. Razani Habbaniyah - Anbar Non-hostile - unspecified cause
US Private 1st Class Luis A. Perez Fallujah (near) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
Afghanistan
A GOOD DAY
http://icasualties.org/oif/ Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White
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Go here and I'll stop nagging.
http://www.taps.org/ (subtle hint SEND MONEY)
On this day...
0479 BC. Battle at Plataeae: Greece attack Persians
0413 BC. Eclipse of the moon causes panic on Athens fleet.
1172, Marguerite, wife of Henry Plantagenet, "the Young King," crowned Queen of England
1626 The Danes are crushed by the Catholic League in Germany, marking the end of Danish intervention in European wars.
1667 Earliest recorded hurricane in US (Jamestown Virginia)
1776 British defeat Americans in Battle of Long Island
1783 1st hydrogen balloon flight (unmanned); reaches 900 m altitude
1789 French Natl Assembly issues "Decl of the Rights of Man & the Citizen"
1793 Maximilien Robespierre is elected to the Committee of Public Safety in Paris, France.
1832 Black Hawk, leader of Sauk-Indians surrenders
1859 1st successful oil well drilled, near Titusville, Penn
1861 Battle of Cape Hatteras SC-Union troops take Ft Clark
1862 Battle of Cub Run, VA
1862 Stonewall Jackson captures and plunders Union supply depot at Manassas Junction, Virginia
1883 Krakatoa, west of Java, explodes with a force of 1,300 megatons
1894 Congress passed the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act, which contained a provision for a graduated income tax that was later struck down by the Supreme Court.
1900 U.S. Army physician James Carroll, Havana, Cuba, allowed an infected mosquito to feed on him in an attempt to isolate the means of transmission of yellow fever. Days later, Carroll developed a severe case of yellow fever, helping his colleague, Army Walter Reed, prove that mosquitoes can transmit the sometimes deadly disease.
1896 Zanzibar loses to England in a 38 minute war (9:02 AM-9:40 AM)
1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs' publishes Tarzan
1913 Lt Peter Nestrov, of Imperial Russian Air Service, performs a loop in a monoplane at Kiev (1st aerobatic maneuver in an airplane)
1921 J E Clair of Acme Packing Co of Green Bay granted an NFL franchise
1927 Parks College, America's oldest aviation school, opens
1928 16 die in a NYC subway's 2nd worst accident
1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact, where 60 nations agree to outlaw war (Well THAT worked out real well...there hasn't been one single war since....incursions, police actions, misunderstandings, tiffs, spats, disputes, conflicts since 1928 to be sure, but no wars.)
1937 George E.T. Eyston sets world auto speed record at 345.49 MPH
1939 Erich Warsitz makes 1st jet-propelled flight (in a Heinkel He-178)
1939 Nazi Germany demands Danzig & Polish corridor
1940 Caproni-Campini CC-2, experimental jet plane, maiden flight (Milan)
1941 Shah of Iran abdicates throne to his son Reza Pahlawi
1942 Cuba declares war on Germany, Japan and Italy
1945 US troops land in Japan after Japanese surrender
1945 B-29 Superfortress bombers begin to drop supplies into Allied prisoner of war camps in China.
1950 General Foods blacklists Jean Muir of Aldrich Family as a communist
1955 "Guinness Book of World Records" 1st published
1961 Francis the Talking Mule is the mystery guest on "What's My Line"
1962 Mariner 2 launched; 1st probe to fly by Venus
1965 Bob Dylan booed off stage in NY's Forest Hills (used an electric guitar)
1966 Francis Chichester begins the 1st solo sail around the world
1966 Race riot in Waukegan Illinois
1972 US bombs Haiphong North Vietnam (About time!)
1974 NY Met Benny Ayala hits a home run in his 1st at bat
1975 Veronica & Colin Scargill (England) complete tandem bicycle ride, a record 18,020 miles around the world
1976 Transsexual Renee Richards barred from competing in US Tennis Open
1977 Toby Harrah & Bump Wills hit back-to-back inside-the-park-homers off Yankee Ken Clay at Yankee Stadium, Rangers won 8-2
1978 Reds Joe Morgan is 1st to hit 200 HRs & have 500 stolen bases
1981 Divers begin to recover a safe found aboard the Andrea Doria
1982 Rickey Henderson steals 119th base of season breaks Lou Brock's mark
1982 Soyuz T-7 returns to Earth
1985 20th Space Shuttle Mission (51-I)-Discovery 6-launched
1989 100 march through Bensonhurst protesting racial killings
1989 Chuck Berry plays Johnny B. Goode for NASA staff in celebration of Voyager II's encounter with the planet Neptune.
1990 WWF Summer Slam-Ultimate Warrior beats Rick Rude
1991 The Soviet republic of Moldavia declared its independence. And the European Community recognized Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as independent nations
1996, California Gov. Pete Wilson signed an executive order aimed at halting state benefits to illegal immigrants.
1997 Former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy was charged with seeking and accepting more than $35,000 dollars in trips, sports tickets and favors from companies that did business with his agency. A jury found Espy innocent in 1998 of taking illegal gifts, but eight others pleaded guilty or were convicted of various charges; President Clinton later issued seven pardons and a commutation
2000 Fighting breaks out between Iranian students and hard-liners in Khorramabad left a police officer
2001 The Bush administration confirmed that Sec. of State Colin Powell would not attend the UN conference on racism in Durban, South Africa. (And so missed a golden opportunity to listen to world leaders tell him just what a horrible place America is, and why America should give them more money. World leaders debate weather America or Israel is the worst nation on earth. Some point out that Israel is given their rampant wholesale slaughter of Palestinians (A good point to be sure), BUT OTOH it is pointed out that America supports and defends Israel and so deserves the title of the most horrible oppressive nation on the planet. However the Iranian delegate (in a stunning comeback) says that it's a given that the Jews control the world and so Israel should be considered the most horrible nation on earth. The conference ends on an upbeat note with a unanimous statement that something needs to be done and America should give them more money & Israelis should lineup quietly to be killed.)
2001 Intel unveils a 2-GHz Pentium 4 chip
2003 American and Afghan forces kill about a dozen terrorist and recaptured a mountain pass in southeastern Afghanistan
2003 Mars comes within 34,646,437 miles of Earth, its closest in the past 60 millennia (DUCK!)
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Gibralter : Late Summer Bank Holiday
Hong Kong : Liberation Day (1945) ( Monday )
Just Because Day
National Golf Month
Religious Observances
RC : Memorial of St Monica, mother of St Augustine of Hippo
Old RC : Feast of St Joseph Calasanctius, confessor
Christian Feast of St Poemen
Christian Feast of St Marcellus of Tomi
Christian Feast of St David Lewis Little
Christian Feast of St Margaret & barefooted
Christian Feast of St Hugh
RC Ebbo, archbishop of Sens
RC Feast of St Caesarius, archbishop of Arles
RC Gebhard II, bishop of Konstanz/patron saint of Vorarlberg
Religious History
1660 Following England's Restoration, books by poet John Milton were ordered burned because of his attacks on the monarchy. Milton had advocated an elder-ruled (presbyterian) church government over that of bishop-ruled (episcopal).
1830 English churchman John Henry Cardinal Newman wrote in a letter: 'It is our great relief that God is not extreme to mark what is done amiss, that He looks at the motives, and accepts and blesses in spite of incidental errors.'
1865 Rhenish missionary Ludwig I. Nommensen, 31, baptized four families of the Batak tribe in North Sumatra (Indonesia) the first to be converted to the Christian faith. Nommensen later established a theological training school and in 1878 completed a translation of the New Testament into the Batak language.
1876 At age 13, future English clergyman G. Campbell Morgan preached his first sermon. He later grew to become one of the most famous expository preachers and writers of late 19th century England and America.
1877 Birth of Lloyd C. Douglas, American Lutheran clergyman and religious novelist. Douglas published his first best-seller, "Magnificent Obsession," in 1929, followed later by "The Robe" (1942) and "The Big Fisherman" (1948).
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Need Sleep? Mall Of America Sells Naps For 70 Cents A Minute
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- The Mall of America has a 74-foot Ferris wheel, a shark tank and a dinosaur museum. And now, if all that tires you out, a nap store will sell you some shuteye for 70 cents a minute.
The new store will be called MinneNAPolis. It's just the thing for shoppers -- or their spouses -- who get worn out traversing the more than four miles of storefronts in the Minnesota mall.
Founded by PowerNap Sleep Centers of Boca Raton, Fla., the new store will include at least three themed rooms: Asian Mist, Tropical Isle and Deep Space. Each will have walls thick enough to drown out the sounds of squealing children at the indoor amusement park.
The fee of 70 cents per minute works out to $42 an hour. Some said it would be cheaper to buy an $8 movie ticket and spend two hours sleeping through a movie.
Thought for the day :
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and say the opposite."
Sam Levenson
The additional protection provided against counter-battery fire by a SP gun is overstated against a sophisticated enemy, and not needed against an unsophisticated one. A SP unit would appear to be more useful in blitzkrieg operations, while towed units are more cost effective in fixed positions.
Korea may be the last place that large scale artillery battles will be fought. Due to the redeployment there, SP will probably be more useful than towed. (Before the redeployment from the front, I would have argued it the other way around. )
With the proliferation of smart bombs and armed UAVs, you have to think that artillery will not be as important in the next century as it has been in the last 5. That is somewhat reflected in the reduction in the number of platforms available. At the end of WWII, US field artillery ranged from 75mm to 8 inch. Now I think they have consolidated down to 105 and 155, with only limited ammo types for the smaller guns. (German Artillery had an even broader range).
With out jumping into the hornets nest of wheeled verse tracked vehicles the towed pieces have the ability to be towed by either but are primarily towed by wheeled truck.
The M198 (soon to be replaced with the M777) of the Marine Corps is generally towed by the new Oshkosh seven ton truck. The Army generally tows theirs with their five ton truck. The weight of the "niner eight" is 16000lbs the weight of the M777 is 9000 and change allowing it to be pulled by vehicles as light as the A2 Humvees.
Emplacement and displacement by a fresh crew can be done in sixty seconds (counter battery can be "shot out" in sixty seconds) for the M198. The emplacement/displacement for the M777 is expected to be faster.
As seen in Iraq the M198 and seven ton combo was one of the fastest combat arms of the US military. Key to this was the vast number of improved roads and the open terrain in the south.
The M198 can be air lifted when required which gives it a capability that cant be matched by self propelled guns.
The self propelled guns have a greater range that cant be matched by the towed guns even when firing RAP (rocket assist) rounds.
The Paladin system comes with heavy support vehicles that increase the systems footprint. The Paladin system has a linked system that allows faster targeting and target queuing. The M777 will have a similar system that will allow similar capabilities.
I think the days of the self propelled guns may be numbered. As with many tracked vehicles maintenance cost are greater. The lighter towed guns are faster then the current self propelled system and DODs goals for an expeditionary military works against the heavy self propelled system.
Just my two cents.
