New Gee-Whiz toys
Let’s open with a Happy Veteran’s Day to all! I am officially encouraging you all to ensure some lucky person has carnal knowledge of your closest vet today. Which, being you, should work out well. On to business.
It’s a drone world after all. Who would have forecast few years ago that drones would develop into such an important part of modern war? Reconnaissance, explosives-laden, even kamikaze suicide drones – pick something you want to do that you don’t actually be THERE doing, and someone has a drone for it. The Army believes in them so much they are ordering a MILLION drones. (h/t to Jeff).
“More than 80% of casualties in modern war now come from drones, yet we still have no capacity to build them at scale.- Rep. Pat Harrigan, Defense News
Drones, of course, can be shot down. Big ones like Predators fall to missiles relatively easily if/when they are spotted and there is ADA in the vicinity (a crucial “if”, that). But then we hit that ugly spot where the enemy has launched a bunch of relatively cheap drones, and your defense is a bunch of kazillion dollar missiles. You, my friend, have been had – at least financially – as you are on the wrong end of spending five million dollars on a missile to shoot down a $25,000 drone. So how to take down the drones with appropriate sized cheap weapons?
There are a couple of alternatives in the works.
Sierra Nevada Corp. is introducing the Battery Revolving Adaptive Weapons Launcher—Reconfigurable (BRAWLR).
The BRAWLR stands seven feet tall and consists of four independent weapons systems and associated sensors. It uses these to identify airborne threats, engage them, and shoot them out of the sky. What’s impressive about BRAWLR isn’t necessarily its ability to engage enemy airborne targets. Instead, it’s relatively inexpensive, uses preexisting hardware, and can be built fairly quickly.
The BRAWLR can accommodate a variety of weapons, including legendary AIM-9M Sidewinder air-to-air missiles (AAM), AIM-132 advanced short-range AAMs, and more. While its ordnance primarily consists of AAMs, these can be fired from the ground.
When configured for Beast Mode, the BRAWLR can be outfitted with 46 AGR-20 Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) rockets. One of the most impressive features of the BRAWLR isn’t its lethality; it’s how easy it is to use.
How easy? How about set up and operated by one person in only 10 minutes? Or it can be part of a larger system.
BRAWLR is only one element of what SNC has been producing, as it’s the centerpiece of a truck-mounted air defense system called the Mobile Anti-Air Weapons Launcher-Reconfigurable (MAAWLR). When utilizing the more robust system, two people and 20 minutes are needed to set it up, use it, and then tear it down. More components allow for additional targeting via added sensors and radar equipment. In terms of the types of threats SNC’s systems can take out of the sky, these include aircraft, cruise missiles, and drones. SlashGear
So off-the-shelf proven ordnance in a launcher a fraction the size of a Patriot or similar.
And then there is the old “throw a rock at it” – new version.
Electromagnetic railguns are significantly cheaper to operate than traditional air defense systems, making them an ideal means of shooting down drones and missiles alike.
General Atomics’ next-gen system is designed to do just that, and it’s one of the most effective new systems to employ the technology. Previously, railguns were installed on ships, as they require a great deal of energy to operate and aren’t man-portable by any means. General Atomics’ railgun system is designed to function on the ground off a flat-bed truck, is scalable, and requires fewer logistics considerations to operate. SlashGear II
A railgun launches its projectile with a magnetic pulse. Takes a lot of juice to tow a projectile down a barrel, so till now ships were the preferred test bed (we mentioned that the Japanese are testing one currently.) But if you have the juice to generate the current… try a no-explosive propelled projectile traveling at Mach 6 from the muzzle. Call it almost three times as fast as a typical rifle bullet, or almost double the top speed of an SR-71. LOTS of kinetic energy there. And if you can adjust the launch pulse, which GA says they can, you can vary the launch speed to fit your target. And reduce the power footprint from a full sized ship to a truck trailer? That’s a winner.
Some neat new stuff on the horizon. Hopefully if DoD follows Hegseth’s directive to shorten the acquisition pipeline length AP we could actually live to see these.
Category: Science and Technology
So, if the rail gun consumes less energy, does it not melt itself?
If the projo is magnetically suspended in the tube, near zero barrel friction.
Heat dump is elsewhere, and occurs closer to intended heat sink. And that setup is easier, faster, and cheaper to swap.
There is a second reason why kinetic warhead railguns are used at sea. If you miss at sea the warhead will likely splash down in the water somewhere. If you miss on land, that warhead will go through whatever it finds. Doesn’t matter if it is a building or a train. Conventional missiles such as the Stinger auto destruct in the sky before coming down when they miss.
I don’t think it really matters what the planned costs are for drone defense. Defense contractors aren’t going to be happy until we are paying more than everyone else in the rest of the world for the same result.
I do not celebrate “Veterans Day”.
I have ancestry that comes out of Prince Edward Island, Canada.
I know that PEI sent many young men to the trenches of WWI.
Morrisons, McPhees, McDonalds, Camerons, Alpins, and others. We gave as much as we took, and braved the hardest days of the worst years of the early 20th Century. My people did more than we needed to do.
And we gave more than we needed to give.
The 11th Hour, of the 11th Day, of the 11th Month…….
To end the war to end all wars…
if only that had been true.
I celebrate Remembrance Day
Armistice Day. Wearing my Remembrance Poppy since late October. I lived on the Isle of Skye and Newcastle for six months …. and experienced Remembrance Day there. My hosts were the family of a 30-year retired RN chief petty officer who was in when they still practiced with cutlasses to repel boarders; he retired after “Black Tot Day” when the rum ration was abolished (he said the rum tasted terrible …. but he drank it anyway).
“Sierra Nevada Corp”
I’m enjoying one of their beers this morning with link
sausage and scrambled eggs.
“two people and 20 minutes are needed to set it up, use it, and then tear it down.”
You offer the right incentive to a couple of theoretical E4 Mafia types, they’ll find ways to get that down to 15 minutes.
Add a third person and they can get it down to a half hour
That’s only if you add some board-Soldier type NCO. You know, the ones that’ve maxed every board from promotion to Audie Murphy to Soldier of the millennium, PT stud, perfect uniform, and the leadership skills of a grilled cheese sandwich. We all know them.
Hows ’bout a pulse rifle in the 40 watt range.
I pine of the days when a Bn TF went into a BP with attached ADA assets. MANPADS, Chaparral, Vulcan and SAFAD. Aint nothing like a layered defense. This was also when we had GSR and sometimes EW.
The craziest drone I have seen in the Army so far is a recon swarm of 100 tiny drones that fly and perch themselves on trees, buildings, power line poles, bushes, even flat ground, and turn off the rotors to save battery, and send real-time imagery to their TOC.
Voila, instant surveillance system.
It’s a crazy new world out there.
Leonardo da Vinci designed several versions of offensive / defensive weapons for the Medici military: automatic revolving cannon, firing mechanisms, personal protective gear, and there was sufficient manpower to construct such durable roads they can be utilized today and enable the delivery of a real “Got cha!”.
Speed of sound at sea level approx 1100 fps. So Mach 6 approx 6600 fps.
7.62 NATO round w/ 148 grain bullet approx 2800 fps.