Re: [GZG] Real Life catches up to, passes(?), Star Grunt weaponry

Mark Kinsey wrote:

>Probably because your're googling for OISW instead of OICW. ;-)

Well, duh. They're two different weapons, thus two different acronyms 
and two different search terms for Google. Since I was trying to find 
a link about the OI*S*W to give y'all a chance to compare it to both 
the OI*C*W and the XM-25 currently under discussion it would've been 
pretty daft to search for OI*C*W, don't you think?

FYI, the OISW (Objective Infantry *Support* Weapon) was a 25mm 
tripod-mounted thingy, fairly high-velocity (and thus longish range), 
using the same kind of precision airburst tech as is now used in the 
XM-25 (which since it is shoulder-fired launches its shells at a 
rather lower velocity, giving it a correspondingly shorter range). 
After I posted I did manage to get one hit on Google for it... on a 
now-defunct discussion forum.

OICW (Objective Infantry *Combat* Weapon) OTOH was supposed to be a 
GW Space Ork-style kombi-blasta firing both 5.56 rifle rounds and 
20mm precision-airburst rounds (the two weapons could also be 
disconnected from one another to be used separately). It was also 
supposed to be light enough that just about every grunt in the squad 
could carry one. Unfortunately (for the developers, anyway) the 20mm 
round turned out to have a positively tiny lethal radius (IIRC less 
than a meter against a target without any body armour whatsoever), 
which isn't very useful if you need to hit someone hiding behind a 
man-high wall... enough if he is standing up right below where the 
round explodes; not enough if he's happened to take a few steps to 
the side after the last time you saw him. Which is why the XM-25 uses 
a 25mm shell similar (possibly identical) to the one used in the 
OISW, instead of the OICW's 20mm round. (The increase from 20mm to 
25mm calibre might not sound mucy, but it roughly doubles the shell 
volume. Since the fuze is pretty much the same in both shells, it 
allows the 25mm shell to carry much more explosives and fragmenting 
mass than the 20mm round could.)

Here endeth the lesson :-/

>It would be impressive to be able to wipe all mention of something 
>from the internets. Can't really be done though some government 
>agencies which accidentally released information publically wish 
>there was an undo button.

Which is precisely why I was so surprised to not get any hits at all 
for the OISW, particularly considering how much hype I read about it 
on the 'net up to 3-4 years ago...

Later,

Oerjan 

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