Subject:
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Re: A really simple technical question
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.build.military
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Date:
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Sat, 22 Mar 2003 02:47:07 GMT
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Viewed:
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349 times
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In lugnet.build.military, Mike Case writes:
> On Thu, 20 Mar 2003 21:36:36 GMT, "Dave Schuler!"
> <dschuler@federatedinv.com> wrote:
>
> > Hello all you military-savvy folks out there!
> > In my ignorance, I have a simple question for your expertise:
> > What distinguishes a tank from a self-propelled howitzer?
> >
> > Thanks for your insights--please redirect follow-ups as necessary.
>
>
> Ultimately, isn't the difference between a tank and a self propelled
> gun that a tank has a turret?
Not quite. A self-propelled gun is a gun, an artillery piece.
Self-propelled artillery has very little armor. Usually just enough to
protect the operaters from small arms fire. The gun is meant to be fired at
great distances, generally over the horizon. There is no turret because
there is no need for one. Turrets are used on tanks to help increase the
field of fire and aid in getting your sights on target quickly, because you
are in close quarters combat (relatively speaking). The gun uses the whole
platform to aim because as soon as you get the gun aimed to where it needs
to be, you usually won't move until your bombardment is done. The
self-propelled howitzer is not a close quarters combat weapon.
The self-propelled gun came about as an improvement to towed artillery used
by the Germans in the Second World War. They were artillery pieces that
were able to keep up with the Blitzdrieg. They can get to the firing line
and on target quicker than towed artillery, because they don't need a
tractor or to be dug in, they just roll up, aim, and fire. There are
however downsides to them. They can't be airlifted by helicopter like towed
artillery, they are much more expensive, and much more complicated to
construct. The US Crusader program shows this perectly.
Hope that helps.
Kyle Henneberque
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: A really simple technical question
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| (...) um, no, I believe you are mistaken. The m109 (which is the howitzer I'm familiar with) had a turret. And that's because, usually, in the same position, you will be tasked with quite a few fire missions - on different targets. So you have to (...) (22 years ago, 22-Mar-03, to lugnet.build.military)
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