Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!samsung!usc!apple!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: creps@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (Steve Creps)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: A-10 Thunderbolt
Message-ID: <11545@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 20 Nov 89 00:50:30 GMT
References: <10370@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
Lines: 36
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: creps@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (Steve Creps)
In article <10370@cbnews.ATT.COM> raymond@io.ame.arizona.edu (Raymond Man) writes:
>
>From: raymond@io.ame.arizona.edu (Raymond Man)
[ stuff deleted ]
>	I think Ray Braybrook (who knows this gentleman?) said
>the whole A-10 concept revolved around the 30mm canon (which
>proved to be a bit draggy). He also doubted the ability
>of the canon to penetrate the frontal armour of the latest
>tanks and wondered if it would worth the exposure to 
>maneuver into position for a side attack.
>
>[mod.note:  Never heard of him, myself.  I think he misses the point.
>	No, I doubt that the 30mm will penetrate a T-72's front armor;
>	but if you've ever seen a demo film of this gun firing, the
>	incoming rounds literally fall like rain, hitting every
>	exposed part of the tank which, from any reasonable angle of
>	attack, includes the thin deck armor.  - Bill ]

   A guy at work (former Army officer) has a practice round 30mm shell
for the A10's cannon, and was talking about it a couple of weeks ago.
He said that the purpose of the (live) round was to act as a sort of
sledgehammer, rather than to actually penetrate armor.  He said the
desired effect was for the rounds to shake the tank apart.

   A side note- he said the Gatling gun takes the rounds alternating
between tracer round, depleted uranium round, explosive round, although
not necessarily in that order or ratio.  (I hope I remembered that
correctly.)

-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Steve Creps
creps@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (129.79.1.6)
{inuxc,rutgers,uunet!uiucdcs,pur-ee}!iuvax!silver!creps