New development in weapons and equipment

Title

Language

English

Source

Philippine Armed Forces Journal Volume 6 (No. 6) November 1953

Year

1953

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

.. .. . •• .. ... "' I ' NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN WEAPONS AND EQillPMENT •·SKYSWEEPER" ARTJLI...ERY A 75-mm automatiC anti-ail"crai't gun with radar, and computer on one car. riage, the first fully integrated gun and fire control weapon, has been unveiled by the Army and named the "Skysweeper." It is the Army's largest caliber automatic antiaircraft artillery weapon. The Skysweeper will find and track approaching aircraft as far away as 15 miles. It fires on and defeats air targets as far away as four miles, operates day and night regardless of weather conditions, even when aircraft are invisible in a blanketing fog. It will fire aut,pmatically at planes flying near sonic speeds, at low or medium altitudes. and in the event of closely grouped targets, the operator can make a target selection. • It fires a high explosive shell weigh. ing 12 lh pounds at the rate of 45 rounds per minute. A proximity or radar fused shell explodes automatically at a pre.de. termined distance from the target. Am. munition is automatically ted and ram. med into the gun from two n.round ;::~a:~~:~~ b~ir~~g ~~e~~~~~~red o~:~~~!~ Jy by either the radar-operator or com. puter.operator. The weapon can be emplaced and have its radar operating in five minutes on either rough or level terrain. The unit weighs ten tons and is air transPortable. The radar sweeps the entire sky once every 40 seconds. The computer auto· matically plots range, speed and cours~ of approaching target and translates this information into corresponding gun motion. Development of the gun wu begun by The Skysweeper, the largest caliber au. tomatic weapon in the Army's Arsenal of weaptms, is the latest and most ef. fcctive artille111 weapon against low. flying, high.speed aircraft. It is designed to spot, track and intert:ept in. vading planes. Army Photo. - .. 'lio' ·~ , '.. "I .-. - . •, "" • ~ -~' '• ~J • ~ The MBEf Cat'go tractor, mounted on a light tank t:hassis, is used to tow thr Sky31Weeper gun. In the rear is a moto,. generator whit:h 'upplies electrical power to the gun. mount. Anny Photo. 53 •, 54' PHILIPPINE Ak~I~D FORCFJ.S JO NAL Army Ordnance late iri- World War II. The ..new weapon has been called the fi. n€st weapon of its typeoin the world, reprf'senting an entirely new concept in Army antiait·craft artillery. It is being produced by mass production methods. - lJeport to the Army. NEW AMPl/18/AN A hut:"· tiO-ton, amphibious cargo ve. tude whu:h travels on 10-foot hig-h tires !lnd is capable of transporting heavy 1temg of military !;{)Uipment, was rcc .. ntlr unveiled by the Army in a pub, lie dt>monstration at Fort Lawton. Washington. In a ship-to-shore opera. tion thP new v;ohicle demonstrated its The BARC, as it lcoks from tile air when afloat. The 60-ton amphibiou~: cargo resupply vehicle is shown with the rear of the vehicle towards the camera. Army Photo. A World War II DUKW alongside of the new Army BARC, presents a com ... po.riso11 of size and shape. Armv Photo. ability to take abo:11 d a medium tank, transport it ashore ovet· a soft beach. and unload it well ~·nland ready for com. bat action. Officially designated the BARC, the vehicle operates' on principles similar to those of (he well-known DUKW of World War II, which it closely rcsem ... bles on a magnified seale, as the accompanying photogmphs illustrate. It can perform tasks ashote and afloat far outranging present amphibious vehicles. It can ta),:e heavy loads from shipside j"l deep water, across a beach and over rough terrain to an inland sup ... ply point for direct discharge, or !or transfet· to truck or rail, largely clim ... inating necessity for difficult and inefficient rehandling of cargo at the waterline. The BARC has an over-all length of 61 feet, width of 27% 'feet and a height of 16 feet. Despite its site, it requires only a single operator both on land and in the water and requires a basic crew of only three for all its operations. Each of the :BARC's four whee\s Is separately powered by an individual 165 hot·sepower industrial Diesel engine dl'iving through a torque converter and torqu.Jmatic transmission. The tramsmission has three forwards speeds and one reverse, with a land speed up to 15 mileS pCT hour. "Steering on land is accomplished by hydraulic control and power, which is used extensively throughout the vehicle. The driver m~y steer by f ront wheels only, 1~aving the rear wheels locked in a st<.'aight posi~ tion, or use front and rear wheel action simultaneously for sharp turns. He can also set the wheels for "crab-steering" to either side. Afloat, the BARC can maneuver almost as easily as a small landing craft. [t is propelled by twin screw propellers, each powered by two of the four en ... gines. The vehicle is the first of four being" constructtd, and is expected to provt>d an effl'ctive remedy in overCOining supply bottlenecks which ha,·e characterized ~orne previous amphibious oper11.tioM - Report to the Armp, . • , " • litAPO,.IIS AND EQ,!JIPM'kNT • si AMBULANCE JEEP DEVELOPED vised from the"spot, and can be relayed An ambulance jeep, to be used for back to the nearest station scores of moving wounded sJrvieemen from the miles away. -' There it can 9e fed into battlefield has been developed and is ex- the network for national telecasting. 'pected to be put into production soon. The system can be reversed to pick Also known as the cross-country ambu- up television programs from a farlance, the new front-line vehicle will be away station and rebroadusting tJlem used on rough terrain. Wheelbase has locally. --science News Letter. been increased to l OQ inch'es, the entire NHW SKBRE Jt:T ·PJGHTER body is inclosed, and a forced-air heater A new und more powerful Sabre jet provides weather protection. It can ac- fighter-the F-86H-recently completed its commodate three •litter patients, or two first flight. ~;~: :;: 96~~u;n~~~~~~~:hle !~!~e~~: pl:n~e d::~g;e~b:: ~a:r;o:~l~~~ :ei;si:~~ '-. conventional jeep. as a fighter bomber and a day fil:'htt'r. F'lELD UNIFORM A new field uniform is being tested by the US Air Foree which may some day replace the present fatigue uniform. It is light green in color and ..s composed of five pieces-shirt, trousers, ja..:ket, and summer and winter hats. -All Hand•. ANTITANK GUN A new r~oilless; antitank gun - on<! powerful enough to destroy the moden1 talfk of 50 tons or more - has been developed in Britain and will soon be issued to field units of the British Armed Forces. -BritV!h Information Senices. PORTABLE TELEVISION TRANSMITTER A suitcase-size television transmitter has been developed to speed spot news to video S'll"eena. Moreover, for persons who live in a mountain-locked community, it may mean that television aignals can be snatched from the akies and sprayed down to antennas in the valley. However, aomeone has to figure out how to make it pay. , The television transmitter plugs into ordinary household electric current. lt takes the picture from the camera in the fonn of electric impulses, and then beams both picture and sound to a receiver. This means that a bad airplane crash In an out-of-the-way place can be teleThe latest model Sabre-the P-/J6/I. Slightly larger than current Sabres, the "H" is the fifth and latest in the Sa bTe series. The F-86H is powered by a J-73 jet engin!:', which incorporates many advancl's in de~iG:n engineering with considcr~bl y more thrust, yet has the same frame size as the older models. Sabre improvement.o;l'Csulting-fromcombat CXJlerience rcmain restricted, but the Ai•· F'orce a nnounced that the "H" has a dam 5hell type canOJIY, a sturdier landing gear, and i'mproved suspension and release ml'l'h::tni~ms for carrying droppable wing tanks in l'onjunction with bombs and rockets for its fighter-bomber role. lt also carries six .50-caliber machine guns. Allcontrolsofthe"H"arehydraulically operated with an all-movable horizor.otllll stabilizer replacing elevators for ~l'l'llll'r pilot control as in the F-8GE. Howt'Vl'r, it will be ~omewhat larger. The F-BSH is in the 650-mile-t~n-lmur clasl, has a combat radius of more than 600 !Hiles, and a service ceilin~ of mort' than 45.000 feet.-News release. ..f L-------------------~------~·~

Media