"Osprey may get turret-mounted machine gun"

Bill Baker wrote in :

On 2007-10-21 07:47:55 -0700, "Paul J. Adam"
said:

Don't forget the sighting system, too - if the V-22s are going in at
night then you need to match the sight to the weapon and its range (so
you can identify targets in time to effectively engage them).

Actually, it seems to me that the V-22 could have a real advantage in
this respect. Contemporary remotely-targeted gun systems can slew, aim
and burst-fire far, far faster than a single gunner can provide it with
targets. And the heavy part of the system is the gun, ammo and
physical aiming hardware, not the targeting vision systems and
associated avionics. So why not take a COTS gun, add another 6
vision/targeting channels and let the troopies in the back pick out
bogies for the gun to shred? A full-360 ventral TV/IR vision system
wouldn't add much weight, and the individual soldier aiming apparatus
need not be more than a headset LCD sight and a joystick plugged into
the targetting data bus. Assign one of the senior NCO's to monitor all
the troopie targeting pippers with an override switch in order to
prevent friendly-fire mistakes or ammo wastage.

Expense might be a prohibitive factor, but probably not weight. Do
wonders for the morale of the ground pounders making the assault,
though.

Au contraire, mon ami.

Check out the Huey NTIS system some time. The targeting hardware is quite a
bit heavier than the gun. Changing out the gun requires a couple of strong
Marines. Changing the targeting hardware, in toto, requires a hoist. No
"four guys on a hernia bar" stuff allowed.

Dave in San Diego

On 2007-10-27 22:19:22 -0700, Dave said:

Au contraire, mon ami.

Check out the Huey NTIS system some time. The targeting hardware is quite a
bit heavier than the gun. Changing out the gun requires a couple of strong
Marines. Changing the targeting hardware, in toto, requires a hoist. No
"four guys on a hernia bar" stuff allowed.

Huh. I'm surprised, but I'll take your word for it since NTIS seems to
be a current-technology system. I wouldn't have thought it'd take a
hoist to lift any subsystem out of a Huey other than the engine pack or
transmission. Besides, if I'm reading the Bell website right it seems
that that targeting system is way, way more complex than what I'm
suggesting. I'm just talking about fixed, passive, relatively
non-enhanced (i.e., no sensor cooling, no heavy optics) VL/IR
sensors...not-so-stupid CCD minicams, essentially.


----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----