asymetric warfare

In message , phil hunt
writes
Indeed. Developing and caching weapons that allow people to be
guerrillas with reduced risk to themselves (such as time-delayed
mortars) would seem an obvious thing to do.

Done thirty years ago with assorted single launchers (basically just a
rail and a stand) to point a 107mm or 122mm rocket targetwards, and a
countdown timer to fire it minutes or hours after the guerilla has
departed.

If you're lucky then you can plant it on the hospital roof, across the
street from the orphanage and next door to the elementary school, and
tip off the news crews so that any enemy counterbattery fire is widely
reported.

--
When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.
W S Churchill

Paul J. Adam MainBoxatjrwlynch[dot]demon{dot}co(.)uk

"Paul J. Adam" wrote in message
...
Done thirty years ago with assorted single launchers (basically just a
rail and a stand) to point a 107mm or 122mm rocket targetwards, and a
countdown timer to fire it minutes or hours after the guerilla has
departed.

If you're lucky then you can plant it on the hospital roof, across the
street from the orphanage and next door to the elementary school, and
tip off the news crews so that any enemy counterbattery fire is widely
reported.

Of course, how hard would it be to add GPS guidance to a Katyusha rocket? If
you could bring the CEP down to 10m or so and still have a warhead of 10kg
(the 122mm Katyusha has a 20kg warhead so this is at least plausible), you'd
have a very, very nasty weapon for insurgents (target checkpoints, the
people trying to evac the victims of the latest road-side bomb, etc.) or
terrorists (target parked commercial aircraft at a gate, the 50-yard line at
the Super bowl, etc.).

The Katyusha has a range of around 20km so the only defense would be hard
cover (tough to arrange everywhere), active defenses (which have yet to be
fielded), or GPS-spoofing. The last is possible but it diminishes the
usefulness of GPS for your side as well.

"David Pugh" -cay wrote in message ...
"Paul J. Adam" wrote in message
...
Done thirty years ago with assorted single launchers (basically just a
rail and a stand) to point a 107mm or 122mm rocket targetwards, and a
countdown timer to fire it minutes or hours after the guerilla has
departed.

If you're lucky then you can plant it on the hospital roof, across the
street from the orphanage and next door to the elementary school, and
tip off the news crews so that any enemy counterbattery fire is widely
reported.

Of course, how hard would it be to add GPS guidance to a Katyusha rocket? If
you could bring the CEP down to 10m or so and still have a warhead of 10kg
(the 122mm Katyusha has a 20kg warhead so this is at least plausible), you'd
have a very, very nasty weapon for insurgents (target checkpoints, the
people trying to evac the victims of the latest road-side bomb, etc.) or
terrorists (target parked commercial aircraft at a gate, the 50-yard line at
the Super bowl, etc.).

The Katyusha has a range of around 20km so the only defense would be hard
cover (tough to arrange everywhere), active defenses (which have yet to be
fielded), or GPS-spoofing. The last is possible but it diminishes the
usefulness of GPS for your side as well.

The problem is there is no system of guidance on the 122, other than
the direction you aim it and the elevation. It leaves, it goes, it
lands.

In article ,
David Pugh -cay wrote:
Of course, how hard would it be to add GPS guidance to a Katyusha rocket?

You can't do it with a civilian 'one chip' GPS, they don't like high
speed.

Since the rockets rotate (I think) the antenna is going to be a problem.

You'll need a gyro in the rocket so it can know where 'down' and 'north'
is since the GPS gives its outputs as long/lat.

Then the guidance has to translate this data into steering commands,
taking into account the altitude and the speed of the rocket so that it
can fly a sane trajectory. And while you *can* get altitude and speed from
the GPS, they won't be especially accurate. If that is a problem, and
I think it is (Imagine the the poor rocket thinking it is 200m west
of the target at 50m and 300m/s, and the altitude from the GPS is in
error by 50m high. Oops) you'll need a pitot and barometric altimeter,
or a radar altimeter.

The guidance is doable, but hard.

If
you could bring the CEP down to 10m or so and still have a warhead of 10kg
(the 122mm Katyusha has a 20kg warhead so this is at least plausible), you'd
have a very, very nasty weapon for insurgents (target checkpoints, the
people trying to evac the victims of the latest road-side bomb, etc.) or
terrorists (target parked commercial aircraft at a gate, the 50-yard line at
the Super bowl, etc.).

If everything went right in the R&D and it was as lean as lean can be
each round would still be as expensive as a MANPADS.

If it was fatter: Copperhead.

-bertil-
--
"It can be shown that for any nutty theory, beyond-the-fringe political view or
strange religion there exists a proponent on the Net. The proof is left as an
exercise for your kill-file."