Armored Cav: A Guided Tour of an Armored Cavalry Regiment

265 Pages·1994·0.81 MB·English

by  Clancy Tom

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Electonics Unit

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Fi@ing Warheads light Motor ABo@ F.- A cutaway of a TOW-2A wire-guided
antitank missile. J@(K R)14@ ENT@RPRISts, LrD.. R@ L.4tk4 ALPIIER
BEI,Oli@ A cutaway of a TOW-2B wire-guided antitank missile. The two
downward-firing warheads are located at the front ofthe missile. J41K

Ri,,E,rERPRist.@, Lil,., 8k L4i @ Al@PlIER machine gun and cannon feeds
during reloading. This may seem rather crude for an armored vehicle costing
over a million dollars a copy, but it is simple, it works, and it allows the ammo
feeds to be kept compact (unlike, for example, the bulky and complex linear
linkless feed system on the AH-64 Apache helicopter). The Bradley's gun is
stabilized, and firing on the move requires very littie correction. The cannon,
machine gun, and TOW-2
missiles can be fired from either seat. Firing the weapons is not much more
difficult than playing a video game. For the guns, it is simply a matter of
selecting what kind of weapon and ammunition you want, using your hand grips
to put the crosshairs on the target, and pressing the thumb trigger. Seventy-five
rounds of 25mm armorpiercing ammunition and 225 rounds of high-explosive
25mm ammunition are usually loaded and ready to fire; two TOW-2 rounds and
800 rounds of 7.62mm machine-gun ammunition are ready-loaded as well.

The TOW missile is the primary antiarmor weapon of the Bradley, and it has a
long and fascinating history. In 1958 the Army began to investigate the idea of a
long and fascinating history. In 1958 the Army began to investigate the idea of a
Tubelaunched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided antitank missile; hence the
acronym TOW. By 1963, Hughes had built a successful prototype, and the first
production missiles were delivered to the Army in 1969. The first TOW was
fired in combat by a UH-1
helicopter on May 22nd, 1972, knocking out a North Vietnamese T-54 tank at a
range of 900 meters. Subsequent combat involving TOW provided evidence that
it was an immediate classic. Tubelaunching reduces the back-blast problem of
earlier antitank weapons, for a small charge expels the missile from the tube.
When ejected, the guidance fins pop out, and the rocket motor ignites at a safe
distance from the launcher and its operator. Wire guidance means that the
missile is under the gunner's control from just after firing until target impact, or
until the wire runs out. On the TOW-2, there is a xenon beacon lamp in the tail
of the missile, very bright in the infrared part of the spectrum, which makes it
easy to track-even at night through fog, snow, or sandstorms, when the optional
TAS-4 thermal sight is attached. All of this means that if the gunner keeps the
optical tracker's crosshairs on the target, the missile will hit. System reliability in
combat has been over 95%, which is amazing by any standard.

Mounted on a simple tripod, a complete TOW-2 system weighs 280 Ib/ 127.3
kg and can be carried by a three-man crew. The minimum range of TOW is 65
meters, with a maximum range of 2.3 miles/3.75 kilometers (the length of the
wire). The missile is subsonic: 623 knots/ 1,000 kph at peak velocity, which
drops off rapidly after rocket-motor burnout. This happens shortly after
launching, and then the missile just coasts along, with the TOW taking about
fifteen to twenty seconds to reach maximum range. A twin TOW launcher is
mounted on the Bradley Fighting Vehicle; and a single launcher can be fit ted to
a HMM@, or almost any light wheeled or tracked vehicle. It is also used on the
AH-I Cobra and many other helicopters worldwide. There have been five
versions of the TOW, each with increasingly powerful warheads. Total TOW
production is well over 500,000 units to date, with additional units still being
produced as of early 1994. TOW is considered a 11 wooden round," and stays
"fresh" in the canister, with a shelf life of up to twenty years in storage. All
versions are compatible, as long as the launch-control unit has the correct
software updates. The current version is the TOW-2B, which was developed to
defeat the latest composite and explosive-reactive armor systems and is
defeat the latest composite and explosive-reactive armor systems and is
programmed to fly directly over the target, where a sophisticated sensor triggers
two downward-firing warheads. These warheads have dense metallic liners that
become
"explosively forged projectiles" to penetrate the target's thin roof armor.

In 1993, the Arm awarded Hughes a contract to produce 18,800 Tow . y 2A and
TOW-2B missiles. This works out to a unit cost of about $9,800-a bargain price
to kill a $250,000-dollar Soviet-type tank. To fire a TOW-2 missile the gunner
simply keeps the crosshairs of the sight on the target, and the missile flies right
into it. All you have to do is erect the two-round launcher (it can be reloaded
from a hatch in the rear compartment roof), fire, and track the target in the sight.
Despite fears that the new reactive appliqu6 armor on some tanks might defeat
the TOW-2's warhead, experience in the Gulf War proved this to be false.
TOW-2 can defeat any tank on the battlefield, with the possible exception of an
M I Abrams or a British Challenger 11! The major limitation on use of the TOW
system is that the Bradley has to be stopped to fire it.

The Bradley's guns are also easy to use. Although there is no laser rangefinder,
range estimation is quite simple. You just punch in an estimated range on the
weapons-control panel (there is a reticule in the sight to help you). Crews are
trained to estimate range by judging the apparent height of the target

U.S. AL@MY VEfilCLE SYSTEMS - 77

in the gunsight-the closer the target the bigger it appears. Then you put the
"death dot" of the sight onto the target and squeeze off a few ranging shots. Once
you see the target bracketed, all you have to do is fire as many rounds as you
need. The target quickly becomes obscured with dust and smoke from hits and
near misses, and probably has also been destroyed as well. At 300 rounds per
minute, it feels like you are shooting at the target with a fire hose! But gunners
are trained to conserve ammunition by firing single shots until they see a hit on
are trained to conserve ammunition by firing single shots until they see a hit on
the target; then they fire three-round bursts until the target is destroyed.

Like the M 1, the Bradley has a pair of the new SINCGARS radios for
communications, though the current -A2 versions do not yet have access to the
IVIS system. There is, however, a program under consideration for equipping
the M2A2 and M3A2 with a downgraded IVIS terminal and GPS, but budget
constraints may slow this process down until the new -A3
versions of the Bradley come on-line late in the decade.

If you exit the turret basket and head forward on the left side of the vehicle, you
come to the driver's position and hatch. This is a very comfortable seat with a
friendly instrument console. The Bradley is powered by a 600horsepower
turbocharged diesel engine with an automatic transmission. To start the vehicle
no keys are required. You just pull a knob on the dashboard to activate the fuel
pump, then push the shifter knob to the START position. The engine catches
quickly and warms up smoothly. All that is then required is to shift down to the
DRIVE
position with the selector and press the accelerator. The vehicle accelerates
quickly, and before you even know it, you are doing over 30
mph/48 kph. The Bradley has a top speed of over 45 mph/65 kph, and has no
trouble keeping up with the MI Abrams, either on-road or crosscountry. The
only trick to driving the -A2 version of the Bradley, which has an aircraft-style
control wheel, is that it tends to be a bit loose in the rear during turns. However,
you quickly get used to that; and after a while, driving the beast becomes a joy.

One chore that takes some time is setting up the Bradley for swimming.
Because of all the rivers in Europe and Korea (where the Army expected to fight
during the Cold War), the Bradley was designed to swim like its older cousin,
the M 1 13. But because of the extra weight of the turret and armor, the M2/3
the M 1 13. But because of the extra weight of the turret and armor, the M2/3
requires a bit of additional buoyancy. To make this possible there is an erectable
"swim curtain" of rubberized fabric over a steel frame to keep the upper deck
free of water; and it works just fine.

In conclusion, the Bradley may not be the ultimate armored fighting vehicle, but
it is a mature weapon system that is still evolving to keep pace with rapid
changes in key technologies. Maybe not as sexy as an Abrams tank, but just as
vital and necessary.

The M113 Armored Personnel Carrier

The M 1 13 armored personnel carrier (APC) was the first modern "battle taxi"
for infantry to use on the battlefield. It was designed to take advantage of
technology breakthroughs of the 1950s in casting and welding aircraft-quality
aluminum to create structures with the same strength as much heavier steel
construction. This light weight allowed the FMC designers to use a relatively
small automotive engine to drive a tracked vehicle with a substantial payload
and the ability to float and swim across lakes, rivers, and streams. Even today
when you look at one of the early-production M I 13s, they still have a clean,
almost modern look. It is almost as if Frank Lloyd Wright took a shoe box and
made it into a perfect shape to transport what the U.S. Army calls its "most
precious cargo," the infantry.

Over the years, FMC and its licensees have produced something over 85,000 MI
13s for use by over two dozen countries (the Israelis call their MI 13s "Zeidas").
And while this venerable vehicle is no longer in production at FMC's San Jose,
California, factory, it continues to be produced in places such as Turkey and
Italy. Over 32,000 remain in service with the U.S. Army.

The basic model is the infantry squad carrier. This version of the M 1