Re: Aircraft Vs Dreadnoughts (Which is what the topic mutated into :o)

ShldWulf@aol.com wrote:

> Another few points :o)
>
> >The bunker buster (so I have heard) is a former 8" howitzer barrel
with an
> armor
> piercing nose and guidance.<
>
> The ones in the Gulf were. The "new" ones are purpose made 2000
pounders with
> armor/concrete/soil penatrating heads on them.
>
> >At best, the phalanx will degrade the accuracy, as
> it only fires tiny shells for destroying fragile missiles and its
engagement
> range is a tad short.<
>
> 20mm high velocity armor piercing shells, mixed with HE in a standard
load.
> As for range your looking at around 500-1000 yards. The phalanx
corrects each
> shell by moving the gun between shots to saturate the target area. As
for
> "degrading" the accuracy. The shells will rip all the guidence units
to
> shreds. Not to mention the impacts will play a bit of havoc with the
> trejectory once it has done so.

I confess that I am only a spirited amatuer with military technology,
but the
people on sci.military.naval claim that one of the phalanx's
shortcomings is that
the large soviet missiles cover the 1000 yard range of the phalanx in
approximately one second, and the shells do not have enough HE to
reliably
detonate it, nor the momentum to send it off course and it is far too
late for the
missile to "go stupid" and miss, even if the guidance package is
destroyed and
airfoils shredded.

>
>
> >You have a misconception about how semi-active homing
> works.<
>
> Not really. I have a wonderful conception of how it works. It was my
job for
> 15 years :o)
>
> >The only reason for the bomb to travel in a predictable path around
the
> beam is if it was dropped from the aircraft doing the target
illumination.
> For
> best results, you want the a different aircraft to designate the
target to
> give
> the bomber more freedom after the release.  Your description would be
accurate
> for beam riding guidance, but that is another story.<
>
> Actually it's not. Laser Guided Bombs ARE beam riders. It doesn't
matter if
> the launching aircraft is painting the target or another one, the
results are
> the same. The seeker head HAS to spiral around the beam.. that's how
the
> system works. Bomber freedom just means the bomber doesn't have to
move in a
> predictable path while or over fly a heavly defended target. The plane
can
> drop and then peel away outside the targets anti-air envelope. The
bomb
> however does NOT do any radical menuvers or movement and after the
first
> couple of seconds takes up a nice spiral glide path down around the
beam.

We have a terminology problem.	From what I have read, beam riding is
used for
missiles that do not have a sensitive seeker that can detect scattered
energy from
the target.  The tracking radar locks onto the target and the missile is
launched
to enter the beam at a shallow angle, and it steers itself along the
beam (which
is much easier to detect).  As the beam shifts to track the target, the
missile
shifts to stay in the beam.  The warhead detonates when the proximity
fuse detects
the target, or the tracking radar notices the missile and target are at
the same
range.	Needless to say, the warheads need to be large, as accuracy is
inversely
proportional to range.	It is impossible to use beam riding guidance if
the
launchpoint and tracking radar are not on the same platform (or at least
very
difficult) [source: An Illustrated Guide to the Techniques and Equipment
of
Electronic Warfare].

Semi-active guidance homes in on radiation scattered off of the target. 
The early
missiles flew in spirals, because they used a spin scan algorithm to
locate the
target and spinning the whole missile instead of just the antenna
eliminated a
point of failure.  Most semi-active seeker heads now use a two
dimensional
tracking scheme for a home-on-jam capability; unless cost is a serious
issue.	The
Rolling Airframe Missile uses a spin scan tracking algorithm because
very few
missiles have infrared jamming capabilities, and it keeps the cost down.
Semi-active homers can ride the beam, but it is not a necessity and they
often
don't.