asymetric warfare

In article ,
"Paul J. Adam" writes:
In message , Peter Stickney
writes
Actually, John, you don't seem to have much of an understanding of how
tanks work, or what the typical engangement ranges are.
Five miles is right out.
The longest range kill achieved by a tank to date is a 3,000m (roughlt
1.5 Statute Mile shot by a British Challenger II vs. an Iraqi T72 in
the 1990-91 Gulf War.

5,150 metres by a Challenger 1. (Allegedly a first-shot hit)

Thanks, Paul & Andew - I knew it was an exceptional shot, but had the
details a bit mungled up. It doesn't change the point, though.

Even in open country like Iraq, the usual
longest range for a Main Gun shot on an opposing tank was 2000m. In a
European rural environment, the most likely engagement range would be
1000m. In more closed country, like, say, the Northeastern U.S., or
Maritime Canada, engagement ranges as close as 50-100m are not
unlikely.

Open-fire ranges tend to be considerably longer, 2-2.5 kilometres being
frequent when visibility permits: however, the enemy rarely agrees to
cooperatively sit at that range.

Sure. It only makes sense to shoot at the longest viable range.
Hand-to-Hand Combat is what you do when you're unarmed, naked, and one
foot is nailed to the floor, after all.

--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster

On Mon, 22 Dec 2003 19:41:06 -0000, "John"
wrote:

"Duke of URL" macbenahATkdsiDOTnet wrote

John's cutesy-pie combat methods were interesting, slightly, but
suited to a 1930's Boys' Book of How to Have a War.

Everything after the SUV/otto-76 was a bit tongue in cheek though.

Peter did a fine job of dismissing them all.

In the case of the SUVs Peter didn't.. To dodge a tank round all you need do
is side-step half the width of your vehicle.

At 1,000 yards the travel time of a 120mm APFSDS round is .52
seconds, Average human reaction time for someone doing nothing but
sitting there and waiting for an event they have to respond to by
flipping a switch is .3 to .8 seconds with a good 60% being above the
..5 second mark. Someone performing a complex task in reaction to a
signal, like driving around and then having to dodge in a specific
direction at a signal ranges from .35 to 1.5 seconds with 85% being
over .5 seconds. - Henry and Rogers, 1960

Assuming that your system is so good that it can classify every
round on the battlefield, tell what is coming and going, be scanning
the air for cluster bombs and rockets and take 0 seconds to illuminate
a light on the dash telling you which way to swerve, it won't help you
at all.

85% of your vehicles will be killed by the first shot because they
didn't respond in time and none of the rest will be able to get that
half width in the .15 seconds they have to move the vehicle. At 40mph
the vehicle will move 9 feet forward in .15 seconds, about 1/2 it's
length, leaving the back half of the vehicle beind the center point.

Claiming that the tanks will
close to ploint blank range is stupid when they are facing concentrated AT
fire.

1,000 yards isn't exactly point blank range.

--
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability
of the human mind to correlate all its contents." - H.P. Lovecraft