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From: wilkinson@PICA.ARMY.MIL (CCL-C)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: loose threads
Message-ID: <1991Feb7.013344.1181@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 7 Feb 91 01:33:44 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 55
Approved: military@att.att.com



From:     Peter Wilkinson (CCL-C) <wilkinson@PICA.ARMY.MIL>
A recent enquiry concerning the survival rate of pilots in
modern air combat prompted me to have another look at "Air
War South Atlantic" by J. Ethell and A. Price. In 1985, the
authors conducted a two day seminar here, titled "A Critique
of the Falklands War". It was excellent food for thought and
I highly recommend it to any groups who can entice them to
repeat the performance. The book served as the basis for the
lectures, and in perusing the appendices, I gleaned the
following data on losses from both sides:

Shot down by:  Missiles            Guns
        |-----------------------------------
Ejected |      14                  7
        |
Killed  |      21                  7*

* Includes at least two Argentinian "own goals".

"Missiles" includes Sidewinder(9L), Rapier, Blowpipe, Seacat,
           Sea Dart, Sea Wolf, & Roland.

"Guns" includes 20, 30, 35, & 40mm, as well as small arms
       fire.

These data include jets and high performance turbo-props, but
NOT helicopters. From the available information, it seems
that everyone who ejected managed to survive (though some
were badly hurt).


On another subject, someone posted the "fact" that Iraq has
base-bleed artillery projectiles and can therefore out-range
our guns.
Well........base bleed is basically just a much cheaper way
of achieving the same results as rocket assist. And since we
do have HERA, I would say the reach is probably about even.
One advantage we do have is the quality of the package once
it gets there. Does the term DPICM mean anything to anybody
out there? (Dual Purpose, Improved Conventional Munition) In
a 155 this round ejects its cargo(88 little shaped charge
grenades) at a predetermined height above the target, which
then rain down covering an area roughly the size of a
football field.
NASTY!
Iraq has nothing even approaching this.
Then there's Copperhead, which has been discussed here
recently. Too bad SADARM (Sense And Destroy ARMor) isn't
ready yet.



                                      Pete