Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!rutgers!att!cbnews!military From: grassm@eecs.nwu.edu (Mark O. Grasse) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: M242 Bushmaster Message-ID: <11595@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 21 Nov 89 04:20:26 GMT Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Lines: 35 Approved: military@att.att.com From: "Mark O. Grasse" This is in reference to the talk on the net about the Bushmaster cannon. The M242 Bushmaster is a 25mm, chain driven cannon manufactured by Hughes I believe. It is currently the main armament of the U.S. Army M2 and M3 Bradley Infantry (M2) and Cavalry (M3) Fighting vehicles. On these vehicles it is mounted in a stabilized turret with a Thermal imaging sight system. There is no laser rangefinder and ranging is through stadia lines on the sight reticles. These figures could be off a bit, but there are approx. 300 rounds of ready ammunition stored in the turret and approx 1500 more in the turret bustle. The weapon fires practice, high explosive, armor piercing, and Ithink incendiary shells. The gunner can select which rounds are fired. The Marines also use the Bushmaster on their LAV as one of several weapons systems. The M2/3 also has a 2-tube TOW anti-tank missle system but it is not part of the Bushmaster system even though it is mounted on the turret and uses the same fire-control system. There are versions of the Bushmaster mounted on electrical turrets on HMMMMMMv's. There has been talk of upping it to a 30mm cannon, but nothing yet. The 25mm has a good range, high rate of fire (selectable) and good penetration on things like BMP's, BTR's and other light armor. It is also a very accurate system. m. grasse