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Aiming Point
In field artillery, the accuracy of indirect fire depends on the use of aiming points. In air force terminology the aiming point (or A.P.) refers to holding the intersection of the cross hairs on a bombsight when fixed at a specific target. An indirect fire aiming point provides a point of angular reference to aim a gun in the required horizontal direction – azimuth. Until the 1980s aiming points were essential for indirect fire artillery. They are also used by mortars and machine guns firing indirectly. Description An essential requirement of an aiming point is that it be at a sufficient distance from the gun using it. The reason for this is that, while firing, guns, particularly towed guns, move back a short distance – perhaps a foot, as their spades embed and may move more in soft ground. When they traverse their barrels their sights also move because they are not at the point of pivot. All this means that if the aiming point is too close then the angle to the aiming ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Artillery
Artillery consists of ranged weapons that launch Ammunition, munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and led to heavy, fairly immobile siege engines. As technology improved, lighter, more mobile field artillery cannons were developed for battlefield use. This development continues today; modern self-propelled artillery vehicles are highly mobile weapons of great versatility generally providing the largest share of an army's total firepower. Originally, the word "artillery" referred to any group of soldiers primarily armed with some form of manufactured weapon or armour. Since the introduction of gunpowder and cannon, "artillery" has largely meant cannon, and in contemporary usage, usually refers to Shell (projectile), shell-firing Field gun, guns, howitzers, and Mortar (weapon), mortars (collectively called ''barrel artillery'', ''cannon artil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indirect Fire
Indirect fire is aiming and firing a projectile without relying on a direct line of sight between the gun and its target, as in the case of direct fire. Aiming is performed by calculating azimuth and inclination, and may include correcting aim by observing the fall of shot and calculating new angles. Description Indirect fire is most commonly used by field artillery and mortars (although field artillery was originally and until after World War I a direct fire weapon, hence the bullet-shields fitted to the carriages of guns such as the famous M1897 75 mm). It is also used with missiles, howitzers, rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, naval guns against shore targets, sometimes with machine guns, and has been used with tank and anti-tank guns and by anti-aircraft guns against surface targets. There are two dimensions in aiming a weapon: * In the horizontal plane (azimuth); and * In the vertical plane (elevation), which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Air Force
An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviation or naval aviation units. Typically, air forces are responsible for air supremacy, gaining control of the air, carrying out Strategic bombing, strategic and tactical bombing missions, and providing support to land forces, land and naval forces often in the form of aerial reconnaissance and close air support. The term air force may also refer to a tactical air force or numbered air force, which is an operational formation either within a national air force or comprising several air components from allied nations. Air forces typically consist of a combination of fighter aircraft, fighters, bombers, Military helicopter, helicopters, Military transport aircraft, transport planes and other aircraft. Many air forces may command and control ot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bombsight
A bombsight is a device used by military aircraft to drop bombs accurately. Bombsights, a feature of combat aircraft since World War I, were first found on purpose-designed bomber aircraft and then moved to fighter-bombers and modern tactical aircraft as those aircraft took up the brunt of the bombing role. A bombsight has to estimate the path the bomb will take after release from the aircraft. The two primary forces during its fall are gravity and air drag, which make the path of the bomb through the air roughly parabolic. There are additional factors such as changes in air density and wind that may be considered, but they are concerns only for bombs that spend a significant portion of a minute falling through the air. Those effects can be minimized by reducing the fall time by low-level bombing or by increasing the speed of the bombs. Those effects are combined in the dive bomber. However, low-level bombing also increases the danger to the bomber from ground-based defe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Azimuth
An azimuth (; from ) is the horizontal angle from a cardinal direction, most commonly north, in a local or observer-centric spherical coordinate system. Mathematically, the relative position vector from an observer ( origin) to a point of interest is projected perpendicularly onto a reference plane (the horizontal plane); the angle between the projected vector and a reference vector on the reference plane is called the azimuth. When used as a celestial coordinate, the azimuth is the horizontal direction of a star or other astronomical object in the sky. The star is the point of interest, the reference plane is the local area (e.g. a circular area with a 5 km radius at sea level) around an observer on Earth's surface, and the reference vector points to true north. The azimuth is the angle between the north vector and the star's vector on the horizontal plane. Azimuth is usually measured in degrees (°), in the positive range 0° to 360° or in the signed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Traverse (gunnery)
Gun laying is the process of aiming an artillery piece or turret, such as a gun, howitzer, or mortar, on land, at sea, or in air, against surface or aerial targets. It may be laying for either direct fire, where the gun is aimed directly at a target within the line-of-sight of the user, or by indirect fire, where the gun is not aimed directly at a target within the line-of-sight of the user. Indirect fire is determined from the information or data that is collected, calculated, and applied to physical coordinates to identify the location of the target by the user. The term includes automated aiming using, for example, radar-derived target data and computer-controlled guns. Description Gun laying is a set of actions to align the axis of a gun barrel so that it points in the required direction. This alignment is in the horizontal and vertical planes. A gun is "traversed" (rotated in a horizontal plane) to align it with the target, and "elevated" (moved in the vertical plane) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Collimator Sight
A collimator sight is a type of optical sight that allows the user looking into it to see an illuminated aiming point aligned with the device the sight is attached to, regardless of eye position (with little parallax). They are also referred to as collimating sights or "occluded eye gunsight" (OEG). Description The basic layout of a collimator sight is a closed tube with a lens at its open end and a luminous reticle mounted near the closed end at the focus of the lens, creating an optical collimator. The reticle is illuminated by an electronic light source (an incandescent light bulb or, more recently, a light-emitting diode) or by ambient light gathered behind the reticle via an opalescent window or fiber optic light pipe. Collimator sights are a relatively old idea, being used in many forms for almost 100 years. Usage Collimator sights, also known as occluded eye gunsights (OEGs), are designed for use with both eyes open. The user aligns one eye with the sight while the o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prism Paralleloscope
A prism paralleloscope is a piece kit used by artillery units as a gun aiming point. It is a type of paralleloscope that uses a prism instead of a plain mirror. Its purpose was to function as an aiming point in the horizontal plane when laying for indirect fire Indirect fire is aiming and firing a projectile without relying on a direct line of sight between the gun and its target, as in the case of direct fire. Aiming is performed by calculating azimuth and inclination, and may include correcting ... artillery. Description The prism paralleloscope entered service with the British Army in the late 1950s. It was permanently fitted in a fibre-glass case with a lid. This case was mounted on two short metal vertical poles so that it was about above the ground, these vertical poles were held together by two horizontal rods slightly shorter than the paralleloscope case. Once mounted the lid of the case provided a 'canopy' above the paralleloscope. Paralleloscopes enter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
M109 Paladin
The M109 is an American 155 mm turreted self-propelled howitzer, first introduced in the early 1960s to replace the M44 and M52. It has been upgraded a number of times, most recently to the M109A7. The M109 family is the most common Western indirect-fire support weapon of maneuver brigades of armored and mechanized infantry divisions. It has a crew of four: the section chief/commander, the driver, the gunner, and the ammunition handler/loader. The British Army replaced its M109s with the AS-90. Several European armed forces have or are currently replacing older M109s with the German PzH 2000. Upgrades to the M109 were introduced by the U.S. (see variants) and by Switzerland (KAWEST). With the cancellation of the U.S. Crusader, non-line-of-sight cannon and M1299 the M109A6 ("Paladin") will likely remain the principal self-propelled howitzer for the U.S. until a replacement enters service. Operational history The M109 was the medium variant of a U.S. program to adopt a c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AS90
The AS-90 ("Artillery System for the 1990s"), known officially as Gun Equipment 155 mm L131, is an armoured self-propelled artillery formerly used by the British Army and subsequently donated for use by Ukrainian Army. It can fire standard charges up to using 39-calibre long barrel and with 52-calibre long barrel. The maximum rate of fire is 3 rounds in 10 seconds (burst); 6 per minute for 3 minutes (intense); and 2 per minute for 60 minutes (sustained). History AS-90 started in the mid-1980s as a private venture on the gamble that the tri-national SP70 would fail. When this did occur, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) issued a cardinal point specification on one page for a new 155 mm self-propelled gun. The MoD was also required to consider the US "Paladin", an upgraded M109 howitzer. AS-90 was designed and built by the armaments division of Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering (VSEL). Between 1992 and 1995, VSEL supplied 179 vehicles at a cost of £300 million ($4 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Panzerhaubitze 2000
The Panzerhaubitze 2000 (), meaning "armoured howitzer 2000" and abbreviated PzH 2000, is a German 155 mm self-propelled howitzer developed by KNDS Deutschland (formerly Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW)) and Rheinmetall in the 1980s and 1990s for the German Army. The PzH 2000 has automatic support for up to five rounds of multiple round simultaneous impact. Replenishment of shells is automated. Two operators can load 60 shells and propelling charges in less than 12 minutes. The PzH 2000 equips the armies of Germany, Italy, Ukraine, Netherlands, Greece, Lithuania, Hungary, Qatar, and Croatia, mostly replacing older systems such as the M109 howitzer. In November 2019, a PzH 2000 L52 gun fired a shell a distance of almost . Rheinmetall started testing a prototype L52 gun barrel with a new charge for a range of at least since 2020. In May 2024, Rheinmetall announced that it would supply "a three-digit number" of L52 gun barrel systems for the Panzerhaubitze 2000 for "a European c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
L118 Light Gun
The L118 light gun is a 105 mm towed howitzer. It was originally designed and produced in the United Kingdom for the British Army in the 1970s. It has since been widely exported. The L119 and the United States Army's M119 are variants that use a different type of ammunition. The L118 uses separate-loading cased-charge ammunition – the projectile is loaded into the gun and rammed by hand, then the cartridge with propellant is loaded behind it. The L119 and M119 use "semi-fixed" ammunition – when it is prepared for firing, the projectile is fitted into the top of the cartridge case and the shell loaded into the gun as a complete round. History Development From 1961 to 1975, the British Army used the 105 mm pack howitzer L5 with L10 ordnance (OTO Melara Mod 56) as its light artillery weapon, replacing the 75 mm howitzer, 4.2 inch mortar, and 25-pounder gun in eight regular artillery regiments. It fires the US M1 type ammunition (called "105 mm How" in the UK). The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
