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How about an artillery weapon consisting of a massive gatling gun, where each of the six or so barrels was a 155 mm artillery barrel. A high cyclic rate should be possible. Not as high as those of the G.E. Minigun or the GAU-8, but maybe about 800 - 1000 rounds per minute.

An even larger system could perhaps be built for a sea based platform... where each barrel was a 16" gun. The ROF would likely be lower again, but still might be 400-600 RPM. This would require changes to ammunition though... currently, naval ammuntion does not come as a "round" comprising both projectile and propellant, but instead, the projectile and propellant are inserted into the barrel seperately. An actual round of ammunition in 16" caliber would need to be manufactured in order to enable this weapon to function.

The limit on the rate of fire on modern artillery isn't the speed of the action, it's the recoil. Even then, full auto arty is not that usefull because we prefer to aim our shots. Any realist rate of fire for artillery is not nearly enough to justify using the gatling concept.
16" gatlings are simply silly.

Hurray, assuming it's physically possible to build such weapon, which I greatly doubt, you gain the ability to fire off your entire basic load of artillery ammunition in 20 seconds at one target. Real useful…

Few targets are worth more then 24 rounds of 155, and its better to fire from many guns so as to get good dispersion over the target.

Actually, I suppose this weapon might be useful for shooting down Posleen landing craft.

If you need to rapidly saturate an area with HE or other payloads, there's always the MLRS. Which is here now, and can also launch tactical missiles, and is mobile . How the hell would you move a 16inch Gatling assembly at all, let alone in the field? Anti-gravity?

I hear the Swiss have a rapid fire 155 mm cannon. though I don't think it approaches the speed you are thjinking.

Besdies the gatling design is infereior to that metal storm approach.

muhahah...

Azeron wrote:I hear the Swiss have a rapid fire 155 mm cannon. though I don't think it approaches the speed you are thjinking.

If by "rapid fire" you mean self-loading, you'd be right. I don't know the rate of fire, but it really isn't much swifter than the standard manual system.

Also, Manji: I feel like I want to hit you.

Actually, it is fully automatic (crazy, I know...)

Howedar wrote:Actually, it is fully automatic (crazy, I know...)

Why? When would you ever need a fully automatic 155mm piece?

Pablo Sanchez wrote:

Howedar wrote:Actually, it is fully automatic (crazy, I know...)

Why? When would you ever need a fully automatic 155mm piece?

Burst fire to avoide country battery

Pablo Sanchez wrote:

Howedar wrote:Actually, it is fully automatic (crazy, I know...)

Why? When would you ever need a fully automatic 155mm piece?

Shooting down Posleen dropships, distracting Godzilla to buy time for the Super X, saturation bombing of bug strongholds, killing an attacking sandworm....

Sea Skimmer wrote:Burst fire to avoide country battery

That makes sense.

This weapon is a great idea. I'm sure 500,000,000 155 mm shells let loose in 1 minute is a lot cheaper and easier to deploy than a tactical airstrike or nuke.

Manji, do you want to be amilitary contractor? Anyway, I think it would be better to make a faster-firing machine gun instead of a large, slower, less useful one. At 155 mm, you might as well make the bullets nukes.

Looks like Manji has a massive stockpile of 16" guns and is looking for ways to sell them to third world counties in entirely useless bohemith fighting vehicles.

Looks like Manji has a massive stockpile of 16" guns and is looking for ways to sell them to third world counties in entirely useless bohemith fighting vehicles.

Well, if the price is right I'm buying.My own personal 16"!!!Drool

How 'bout it Manji?

Oh, and it's behemoth.No offense intended, and I know it's propably anal-retentive to nitpick something like that, put the above spelling is positively weird

Batman

Imagine what a motor such a huge gun would require to rotate the barrles at a decent speed! And constructing such an enormous barrel assembly without creating structural weaknesses is simply impossible. Imagine the centrifugal forces!

Not only is it completely useless, but also impossible to construct.

Patton said fixed fortifications are signs of the stupidity of humanity (as I read in someone's sig). What would he say about Manji's constructions???

Cpt_Frank wrote:Patton said fixed fortifications are signs of the stupidity of humanity (as I read in someone's sig). What would he say about Manji's constructions???

"Execute this man at dawn."

Assuming he didn't just pull out one of his ivory pistols on the spot and put a round through his head.

LOL!

In wartime, he might!

Nah the gun hte swiss has is part of a fixed foritifcation. feed automatically. Rain like hell down on enemy positions. Muderous rate of fire. Though pointless. 1 nuke and the National redout turns into the national grave

16 inchers are stone age equipment, They look and sound cool but they are worthless this day and age. One good load of cluster bombs on any target would give a desired effect, after the enemy radar and Sam sites are knocked out, but thats what we have the F-117s for. Long live Airplanes that can't be shot down by Third world countries. Anyone know where I can find some figures of how much ammo Iraq poured idioticly into the air.

I dont have a link, but I've read that in the gulf war Iraq fired off over 15,000 tons of AAA ammunition and missiles.

They got 88,000 tons of bombs and missiles in return

And not a single F-117 was shot down, also at the end of the Campaign Iragi Gunners abandonned the SAM sites because F-4 Phantoms would use their own SAMS against them it is classic, use the enemy against himself, and those are Vietnam era aircraft.

The Phantom was first ordered in 1955, it’s a bit older then Vietnam..

F-4 Phantom may be old, but its still a quite good aircraft, heck its still the Front line Air Defense Fighter of Germany, now with AMRAAM among other things. The 21st Century and an aircraft whose design requires dates to

Actually, I've never head of Iraqi gunners going so far as to abandon sites. The main weapon used against them was the AGM-88 High Speed Anti Radiation missile, or HARM. This has a memory mod so even if the target radar switches off it would still hit.

The result though was that after the first couple days Iraq crews took to leaving their radars off completely, and blind fire missiles when planes were around to avoid being shot for dereliction of duty..



But really, the systems weapons where 75% 1960s Soviet, with some 70s French stuff thrown in, and where attacked with thousands of modern aircraft. Only the Soivet Union or possibuly NATO its self could have taken on such an attack force with a hope of winning.