The gun data computer was a series of artillery computers used by the U.S. Army for

coastal artillery Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications. From the Middle Ages until World War II, coastal artillery and naval artillery in the form of ...

field artillery Field artillery is a category of mobile artillery used to support army, armies in the field. These weapons are specialized for mobility, tactical proficiency, short range, long range, and extremely long range target engagement. Until the ear ...

and

anti-aircraft artillery Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface (Submarine#Armament, submarine-lau ...

applications. For antiaircraft applications they were used in conjunction with a

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

computer.

Variations

* M1: This was used by seacoast artillery for major-caliber seacoast guns. It computed continuous firing data for a battery of two guns that were separated by not more than . It utilised the same type of input data furnished by a range section with the then-current (1940) types of position-finding and fire-control equipment. * M3: This was used in conjunction with the M9 and M10 directors to compute all required firing data, i.e.

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 ...

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

and fuze time. The computations were made continuously, so that the gun was at all times correctly pointed and the fuze correctly timed for firing at any instant. The computer was mounted in the M13 or M14 director trailer. * M4: This was identical to the M3 except for some mechanisms and parts which were altered to allow for different ammunition being used. * M8: This was an electronic computer (using vacuum tube technology) built by

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey, the compa ...

and used by coast artillery with medium-caliber guns (up to ). It made the following corrections: wind, drift, Earth's rotation, muzzle velocity, air density, height of site and spot corrections. * M9: This was identical to the M8 except for some mechanisms and parts which were altered to accommodate anti-aircraft ammunition and guns. * M10: A ballistics computer, part of the M38 fire control system, for

Skysweeper The M51 Skysweeper (Gun, M51, Antiaircraft or Gun automatic, 75-mm T83E6, and E7, recoil mechanism, and loader rammer) was an Anti-aircraft warfare, anti-aircraft gun deployed in the early 1950s by both the United States Army, U.S. Army and Un ...

anti-aircraft guns. * M13: A ballistics computer for M48 tanks. * M14: A ballistics computer for M103 heavy tanks. * M15: A part of the M35 field artillery fire-control system, which included the M1 gunnery officer console and M27 power supply. * M16: A ballistics computer for M60A1 tanks. * M18: ''FADAC'' (field artillery digital automatic computer), an all-transistorized general-purpose digital computer manufactured by Amelco ( Teledyne Systems, Inc.,) and

North American North America is a continent in the Northern and Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea, and to the sou ...

— Autonetics. FADAC was first fielded during 1960, and was the first semiconductor-based

digital electronics Digital electronics is a field of electronics involving the study of digital signals and the engineering of devices that use or produce them. It deals with the relationship between Binary number, binary inputs and outputs by passing electrical s ...

field-artillery computer. * M19: A ballistics computer for

M60A2 The M60 is an American second-generation main battle tank (MBT). It was officially standardized as the Tank, Combat, Full Tracked: 105-mm Gun, M60 in March 1959. Although developed from the M48 Patton, the M60 tank series was never officially ...

tanks. * M21: A ballistics computer for

M60A3 The M60 is an American second-generation main battle tank (MBT). It was officially standardized as the Tank, Combat, Full Tracked: 105-mm Gun, M60 in March 1959. Although developed from the M48 Patton, the M60 tank series was never officially ...

tanks. * M23: A mortar ballistics computer. * M26: A fire-control computer for AH-1 Cobra helicopters, (AH-1F). * M31: A mortar ballistics computer. * M32: A mortar ballistics computer, (handheld). * M1: A ballistics computer for

M1 Abrams The M1 Abrams () is a third-generation American main battle tank designed by Chrysler Defense (now General Dynamics Land Systems) and named for General Creighton Abrams. Conceived for modern armored ground warfare, it is one of the heavies ...

main battle tank A main battle tank (MBT), also known as a battle tank or universal tank or simply tank,Ogorkiewicz 2018 p222 is a tank that fills the role of armour-protected direct fire and maneuver in many modern armies. Cold War-era development of more po ...

Systems

* The Battery Computer System (BCS) AN/GYK-29 was a computer used by the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

for computing

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 l ...

fire mission data. It replaced the FADAC and was small enough to fit into the

HMMWV The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV; colloquial: Humvee) is a family of Military light utility vehicle, light, four-wheel drive Military vehicle#Military trucks, military trucks and utility vehicles produced by AM General. It ...

combat vehicle. * The AN/GSG-10 TACFIRE (Tactical Fire) direction system automated

command and control functions. It was composed of computers and remote devices such as the Variable Format Message Entry Device (VFMED), the AN/PSG-2 Digital Message Device (DMD) and the AN/TPQ-36 Firefinder field artillery target acquisition

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

system linked by digital communications using existing radio and wire communications equipment. Later it also linked with the BCS which had more advanced targeting algorithms. The last TACFIRE fielding was completed during 1987. Replacement of TACFIRE equipment began during 1994. TACFIRE used the AN/GYK-12, a second-generation mainframe computer developed primarily by

Litton Industries Litton Industries, Inc., was an American defense contractor that specialized in shipbuilding, aerospace, electronic components, and information technology. The company was founded in 1953 and was named after inventor Charles Litton Sr., who was ...

for Army divisional field artillery (DIVARTY) units. It had two configurations (division and battalion level) housed in mobile command shelters. Field artillery brigades also use the division configuration. Components of the system were identified using acronyms: * CPU

Central Processing Unit A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor, or just processor, is the primary Processor (computing), processor in a given computer. Its electronic circuitry executes Instruction (computing), instructions ...

* IOU Input/Output Unit * MCMU Mass

Core Memory Core or cores may refer to: Science and technology * Core (anatomy), everything except the appendages * Core (laboratory), a highly specialized shared research resource * Core (manufacturing), used in casting and molding * Core (optical fiber), ...

Unit * DDT Digital Data Terminal * MTU Magnetic Tape Unit * PCG Power Converter Group * ELP Electronic Line Printer * DPM Digital Plotter Map * ACC Artillery Control Console * RCMU Remote Control Monitoring Unit The successor to the TACFIRE system is the

Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System Project Manager Mission Command (PM MC) is a component of the Program Executive Office Command, Control, and Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T) within the United States Army. PM MC is responsible for the development, deployment, and maintenance o ...

(AFATDS). The AFATDS is the "Fires XXI" computer system for both tactical and technical fire control. It replaced both BCS (for technical fire solutions) and IFSAS/L-TACFIRE (for tactical fire control) systems in U.S. Field Artillery organizations, as well as in maneuver fire support elements at the battalion level and higher. As of 2009, the U.S. Army was transitioning from a version based on a

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...

SPARC computer running the

Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a Free and open-source software, free and open source Unix-like kernel (operating system), kernel that is used in many computer systems worldwide. The kernel was created by Linus Torvalds in 1991 and was soon adopted as the k ...

to a version based on laptop computers running the

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

operating system.

Surviving examples

One reason for a lack of surviving examples of early units was the use of

radium Radium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Ra and atomic number 88. It is the sixth element in alkaline earth metal, group 2 of the periodic table, also known as the alkaline earth metals. Pure radium is silvery-white, ...

on the dials. As a result they were classified as

hazardous waste Hazardous waste is waste that must be handled properly to avoid damaging human health or the environment. Waste can be hazardous because it is Toxicity, toxic, Chemical reaction, reacts violently with other chemicals, or is Corrosion, corrosive, ...

and were disposed of by the

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear w ...

. Currently there is one surviving example of FADAC at the

Fort Sill Fort Sill is a United States Army post north of Lawton, Oklahoma, about 85 miles (137 km) southwest of Oklahoma City. It covers almost . The fort was first built during the Indian Wars. It is designated as a National Historic Landmark a ...

artillery museum.

References

{{reflist

External links

''Web Archive'' - DoD Handbook - Fire Control Systems - General

* ttp://web.mit.edu/STS.035/www/PDFs/Newell.pdf ''MIT.edu'' - The Mechanical Analog Computers of Hannibal Ford and William Newell
''GlobalSecurity'' - Taking Marine Artillery Into The Twenty-First Century

* Military electronics of the United States Artillery operation Applications of control engineering Analog computers Ballistics World War II American electronics Fire-control computers of World War II

Variations

Systems

Surviving examples

See also

References

Further reading

External links