Com-Central.net

Re: AFV firepower?
The AFV ASSOCIATION was formed in 1964 to support the thoughts and research of all those interested in Armored Fighting Vehicles and related topics, such as AFV drawings. The emphasis has always been on sharing information and communicating with other members of similar interests; e.g. German armor, Japanese AFVs, or whatever.

Forum Index › AFV News Discussion Board

View previous topic :: View next topic

Author

Message

mumfordlibrarian
Power User

Offline
Joined: Jan 24, 2006
Posts: 8

Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 10:55 am Post subject: Re: AFV firepower?
Is there anything new in AFV firepower in the recent two years? Paul T. Weaver mumfordlibrarian

TrevorLarkum
Power User

Offline
Joined: Sep 16, 2007
Posts: 1596
Location: Northampton, England

Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 12:32 pm
Post subject: Re: Re: AFV firepower?

I'm not aware of anything that directly answers that. Most modern western MBTs are now fitted with Rheinmetall 120mm smoothbores (even the Challenger looks like it will get one as a retrofit) so in MBTs the question probably comes down to what's the latest news from Rheinmetall:

www.rheinmetall.de/ind...660&lang=3
findarticles.com/p/art..._n28868921

Maybe some of the other guys here have some other suggestions.

_________________
Trevor

Dr Trevor Larkum
Preserved Tanks: PreservedTanks.com
Armour Archive: ArmourArchive.co.uk
EVs

C_Sherman
Power User

Offline
Joined: Jan 24, 2006
Posts: 590

Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 4:51 pm
Post subject: Re: Re: AFV firepower?

Not exactly new, but a lot of AFVs are being kitted out for better crew protection in urban combat. Which is funny, because only 10 years ago there were a significant number of experts predicting the end-of-the-line for tanks! The sophistication of these urban combat kits is pretty high, and there are a lot interesting things being tried.

There is a lot of interest in active defense systems, to defeat increasingly sophisticated and powerful anti-armor weapons. The types of active defense systems under development range from mundane (chaff, shrapnel, etc.) to really exotic (lasers, directed energy, psychokinetics, etc.) space alien stuff. The next 20 years should see some interesting developments on this front...which no one will tell us about because they are so freakin' secret.

Lightweight armor is still a popular field. This is mainly driven by the need to develop lighter individual body armors, but will likely impact AFV armor too.

There are still some eggheads working on alternative gun systems: liquid propellants, rail-guns, and directed energy weapons are among the contenders.

There is still an ongoing effort to force wheeled AFVs to have all the capabilities of an MBT...but that's a whole other debate. This does seem to have ebbed for the moment, but it will be back soon enough.

Chuck

_________________
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it
will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
-Herm Albright

Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc!

Maple_Leaf_Eh
Power User

Offline
Joined: Jan 24, 2006
Posts: 517

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 1:22 am
Post subject: Re: Re: AFV firepower?

The 25mm Bushmaster gun on the LAV III has dramatically changed Canadian infantry tactics. Instead of a mostly exposed .50cal gunner in an M113 or the dinky little Cadillac Gage cupola on the Grizzly, the crews are able to support the dismounts very effectively. After OP MEDUSA in summer of '06, someone suggested the Canadian troops had fired off just about every 25mm round in Afghanistan, everything in nearby ready reserve and in war reserves in Canada. The log weenies had to go scrounging for resupply from every other country that we'd sold LAVs to! The next thing the infantry knew, the Leopards were shipped overseas to add even more wallop to the battle.

Forum Index › AFV News Discussion Board
Page 1 of 1

All times are GMT - 6 Hours

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You cannot download files in this forum

Select Language

Login

`±`Recent Visitors

`±`User Info-big

Com-Central.net

Select Language

Login

±Recent Visitors

±User Info-big

`±`Recent Visitors

`±`User Info-big