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A chronological synopsis of the history of the technology used in experimental and testing work relating to artillery pieces is presented. The period covered is from the mid-seventeenth century up ...

In order to achieve multi-objective optimization design of ballistics and improve the power of weapons, an optimization model for the internal ballistic simulation design of the propellant charge was established. Based on the requirements of artillery ballistic performance, the model took several influences into account, such as type, charge mass (ω) and web thickness (2e1). The objective function was composed of muzzle velocity (v0), maximum chamber pressure (pm), relative burnout point (ηk) equations. The computational program used recursive algorithm to calculate and select reasonable charge results by looping the internal ballistics and optimization design equation sets. 105 mm artillery and 122 mm artillery were selected as examples to optimize the charge design. The results show that compared with the existing charging scheme, the loading scheme optimized by the model can reduce the relative burnout point of 105 mm artillery by 0.21 in the case of the muzzle velocity, and the maximum chamber pressure have a little difference. The maximum chamber pressure of the 122 mm artillery reduces by 2.83% while the muzzle velocity increases by 1.13%.

Up until the Industrial Revolution, the dynamic mechanical properties of materials were only of importance in warfare, particularly after the powder-driven gun was invented. With the invention of the steam engine, the explosion of steam boilers (which is similar to the explosion of cannon) became a concern. When railways began to be built, the lack of knowledge of the dynamic properties of the iron alloys used in rails and railway bridges was understood to be a problem, but no way of measuring them was devised until the end of the nineteenth century. Ingenious mechanical (and later electromechanical) methods of recording signals onto rotating drums or moving smoked glass plates began to be developed from the middle of the nineteenth century onwards. Optical/photographic methods of recording information from dynamic experiments date from the 1890s. The rod-on-anvil technique (later named after Taylor) was developed in France at the beginning of the twentieth century but not mathematically analysed until the 1940s. The Hopkinson pressure bar was invented just before the start of the First World War and found to be useful in improving British artillery shells. It was then forgotten about until the Second World War when a two-bar version was developed for measuring the dynamic properties of soft materials such as explosives and polyethylene. As the story of high rate mechanical testing from about 1950 onwards is quite well known to the high rate testing community, this date is taken as the end point of this article.

The article presents the new proposal regarding the assessment of accuracy of artillery fire while conducting fire tasks with live ammunition. Simultaneously the assessment of settings determination accuracy through their comparison has been explained.

In this paper, we investigate the way in which French artillery engineers met the challenge of air drag in the nineteenth century. This problem was especially acute following the development of rifled barrels, when projectile initial velocities reached values much higher than the speed of sound in air. In these circumstances, the Newtonian approximation according to which the drag was a force proportional to the square of the velocity ( $$v^2$$ ) was not nearly good enough to account for experimental results. This prompted a series of theoretical and experimental investigations aimed at determining the correct law of air resistance. Throughout the nineteenth century, contrary to what happened before or after, ballistician were—with very rare exceptions—alone in trying to tackle the problem of air resistance. This was a complex problem where theoretical considerations, experimental results, and computational algorithms intermingled with one another, as well as with the development of new materials and doctrine in artillery. By carefully studying the reasons why ballisticians finally opted for a complex empirical law at the end of the nineteenth century, we show that military procedures for evaluating materials became a yardstick for assessing the worth of mathematical theories as well. In conclusion, we try to assess why military specialists were not able to face the challenges posed by World War I and required the help of civilian scientists and mathematicians.

Artillery guns are deployed at different gun positions to give cover to ground forces during offensive and defensive operations. All these guns have a specific target area which is limited by the type of ammunition, gun, and terrain. During offensive operations, there is an imperative need to change the target area with the advancement of ground forces. This entails changing of gun positions for increasing the range of fire which can be a cumbersome task especially in mountainous terrain where mobility and time are of paramount importance. The muzzle velocity of the gun is reduced when guns fire at a high angle of elevation akin to conditions prevailing in hilly terrain. Thus providing a scope to reduce drag and increase the range in the necessary operating conditions. This study aims to validate and computationally alter the design of the ammunition for further drag reduction while retaining its property to be fired from the same gun with equal lethality and increased range. Drag reduction for projectiles and missiles is undertaken in every possible way to increase the range of target engagement and support the ground forces. Computational analysis has been conducted on the exterior ballistics of a 155 mm M864 artillery shell for reducing its base drag. The investigation and analysis are carried out for the projectile with and without injection. Projectiles with base bleed reduce the base drag through burning solid propellant into the base area. After validating the case for different Mach numbers, the projectile is subjected to change in boat-tail angle for further drag reduction. A higher drag reduction is obtained by the combination of boat tail and base bleed. The boat-tailing aid in reducing the base drag as the base area gets reduced, thus reducing the wake region. The maximum boat-tail angle will vary for different Mach numbers, and based on the operating conditions, a maximum angle can be reached to achieve an optimum design. This may lead to up to 15–20% base reduction and an overall increase in the range up to 2–4 km. Numerically altering the boat-tail angle would lead to a drastic reduction on the logistics of testing and designing the ammunition for military requirements.

MSc (Mechanical Engineering), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus Base Bleed projectile (BB) are artillery projectiles that use base exhaust ejections to reduce the drag that the projectile encounter during its flight. This function is beneficial in extending the range of the artillery projectiles. 20% to 30% drag reduction can be achieved using base bleed unit by relieving between 0.3 - 0.85 of the total base drag force. This can extend the artillery range 30%. To estimate the performance the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) established STANAG a Standard Agreement (STANAG) to deal with the organisation standards. For the base bleed simulation problem (STANAG 4355) recommend two methods to be used to determine the base bleed projectile trajectory. These two methods take into consideration several fitting parameters to establish a model to calculate the base bleed projectile trajectory. These parameters need to be adjusted for every firing condition, which make the model expensive to model base bleed behaviour in real life conditions as it requires scaling parameters to be determined experimentally. This is a proposal for a research to develop a new model that can predict base bleed projectiles trajectory with fair accuracy and can predict these trajectories in various firing conditions without the need to obtain specific scaling factors in every specific case. The new modified model will be validated using published work and test data that can be obtain form available resources. (STANAG 4355) has recommended two methods to be used in Base Bleed projectile trajectory calculation. The two methods recommend in STANAG 4355 require considered amounts of fitting parameters. These parameters must be determined from test results and this have a big cost implication. The STANAG models requires fitting parameters for grain temperature and launch elevation to adjust predicted base bleed effect. The objective of this thesis is to establish an alternative trajectory model for the base bleed projectile, based on principle physics and experimental base bleed performance. The new model suggested by this study is validated using test data. Masters

Since World War I, helmets have been used to protect the head in warfare, designed primarily for protection against artillery shrapnel. More recently, helmet requirements have included ballistic and blunt trauma protection, but neurotrauma from primary blast has never been a key concern in helmet design. Only in recent years has the threat of direct blast wave impingement on the head-separate from penetrating trauma-been appreciated. This study compares the blast protective effect of historical (World War I) and current combat helmets, against each other and 'no helmet' or bare head, for realistic shock wave impingement on the helmet crown. Helmets included World War I variants from the United Kingdom/United States (Brodie), France (Adrian), Germany (Stahlhelm), and a current United States combat variant (Advanced Combat Helmet). Helmets were mounted on a dummy head and neck and aligned along the crown of the head with a cylindrical shock tube to simulate an overhead blast. Primary blast waves of different magnitudes were generated based on estimated blast conditions from historical shells. Peak reflected overpressure at the open end of the blast tube was compared to peak overpressure measured at several head locations. All helmets provided significant pressure attenuation compared to the no helmet case. The modern variant did not provide more pressure attenuation than the historical helmets, and some historical helmets performed better at certain measurement locations. The study demonstrates that both historical and current helmets have some primary blast protective capabilities, and that simple design features may improve these capabilities for future helmet systems.

An optimization method is introduced to design the aerodynamic parameters of a dual-spin two-dimensional guided projectile with the canards for trajectory correction. The nose guidance kit contains two pairs of canards which can provide lift and despinning with a projectile for stability. An optimal design algorithm is developed to decide the profiles of the steering and spinning canards, and their deflection angles are also simulated to meet the needs of trajectory correction capabilities. Finally, the aerodynamic efficiency of the specific canards is discussed according to the CFD simulations. The simulation and analysis results can be further applied to the exterior ballistics design.

This article presents a ballistics module as a part of the fire control system of weapons for fire support (mortars, artillery weapons and rocket launchers). The software is "open" with the prominence of autonomy work. It can be modulated and adapted on the user demand. Moreover, it is independent of the hardware base. Introduction: The fire control system is based on a ballistic module (BM) which determines the firing data for each weapon tool in the battery. Ballistic calculations, for the given position of the target in relation to the position of tools in the given weather conditions, determine firing data (elevation, direction, timing and locating devices) so that the missile seems to cause the desired effect. This paper gives the basic information about the features the BM performs and the manner of their implementation in the fire control system without going into algorithmic solution procedures. Ballistic problem in the fire control system: Ballistic calculation is based on a trajectory calculation of all kinds of projectiles (current, time-fuze, illuminating, smoke, with conventional propulsion, rocket, with built-in gas generator, etc.). Instead of previous solutions, where a trajectory calculation of the fire control system was done by approximate methods, in this BM the trajectory calculation is made by the same model with the same data as for a weapon and ammunition in the process of creating a firing table. The data used in the fire control system are made simultaneously with the preparation of firing tables for a particular tool and associated ammunition,. A modified model of particle, standardized at the NATO level, is also used. Taking into account the meteorological situation, before the trajectory calculation is done, a relative position of the target in relation to the position of the tool should be determined. A selection or loading check is carried out (possibility of reaching a given target) as well as the point at which the fuse is activated. The initial elevation of the tools that is used for calculating the trajectory to the end point should also be determined. The calculation is repeated until the final point of the trajectory coincides with a specific point by a projectile. During the preparation phase of fire, after all input parameters have been defined, the calculation is activated by the appropriate command. As an output from the BM, the initial firing data for the battery are determined: - Type of projectile, type of fuse, angle, distance table, locating devices and timing device (or the flight time); - Information and data: ordinate trajectory, angle of fall, terminal velocity, probable error of range and probable error of deflection. The demands placed on the ballistic module: In order to perform the functions of fire, the BM should provide, in addition to determining the elements for target practice, the solution to the following tasks: - Check the possibility to fire; - Correction and transfer of fire; - Group shooting, and - Planned fire. Ballistic testing of module: All ballistic modules (ballistic model, ballistic data, ballistic module software and the hardware that they will be implemented on) should meet the established requirements. The ballistic testing of the module is done in several stages, using a ballistic computer (BC) simulation model, the entire artillery system simulation program and the computer embedded in the target system. The ballistic computer simulation model allows input of all projected input data and displaying all the results of calculations in a batch and interactive mode. The ballistic model and ballistic data are tested by comparing them with the verification data obtained from simulation programs or parts of programs used for creating firing tables. Conclusion: Modern combat conditions impose increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of artillery fire by increasing the speed of response and shooting accuracy. The approximate methods used in the first stage of artillery computers inevitably caused inaccuracy of such data as well as a number of corrections, which increased the time required for firing at goal. In accordance with international standards, a module for calculating firing elements in the fire control system must be implemented by the same trajectory model and with the same ballistic data for the weapon and ammunition as well as in the procedure for the preparation of firing tables. Technological advances in hardware implementation ensure the implementation of such software. From the above mentioned reasons, the realized ballistic BM module shows the following benefits of the fire control system: significant increase of the speed, accuracy and efficiency of artillery fire, reduction of the number of persons required to perform its functions and a higher technological level.

International audience; Vers la fin du 19e siècle, les mathématiciens et ingénieurs qui travaillent pour l'artillerie n'ont plus d'espoir de trouver une loi élémentaire de la résistance de l'air, ni de parvenir à une intégration analytique exacte des équations différentielles de la balistique. La vitesse et la portée croissantes des projectiles, l'apparition de nouvelles situations comme le tir à longue portée sur des objectifs invisibles, le tir à angle élevé à travers des couches d'air de densité très variable ou le tir contre les avions, amènent à remettre en question les anciennes théories et à s'orienter de plus en plus vers des approches numériques et graphiques combinées à des expérimentations sur le terrain. Dans l'exposé, nous nous intéresserons plus spécifiquement aux méthodes graphiques (constructions géométriques, nomogrammes, instruments graphomécaniques) pratiquées à cette époque par les artilleurs, ainsi qu'aux institutions et aux milieux professionnels qui ont été mobilisés pour les concevoir, notamment pendant la Première Guerre mondiale.

Efforts to understand the trajectory of cannonballs are an interesting example of the tensions between practical and theoretical knowledge. Although Galileo's 1638 parabolic trajectory was an important theoretical step forward, field gunnery practice was guided by Tartaglia's 1537 ‘mixed motion’ model until the eighteenth century. In 1742, Benjamin Robins published New principles of gunnery, and revolutionized the study of ballistics by suggesting the projectile's initial velocity—not its range—was the appropriate parameter to consider in accounting for air resistance. In 1745, Leonard Euler produced a German translation of New principles, adding his own extensive commentary. Euler's annotated translation quickly became a standard text—Napoleon Bonaparte studied ballistics from the French version—thereby influencing the education of artillery officers and, eventually, of all engineers. This paper surveys the contributions of Robins and Euler to mathematical ballistics theory, examines the influence of the...

Helmet designs have evolved over the last three millennia and the use of helmet may be as old as warfare itself. In 600 B.C. the Greeks in Sparta crafted single-piece helmet from bronze, which provided complete head protection, leaving only narrow slits in front for vision and for ventilation. Later in 250 B.C. the Romans developed several helmet designs, which included the round legionary's helmet and the gladiator's helmet, with broad brim and pierced visor, providing exceptional head, face and neck protection. The use of helmets in battle fields continued until the end of 13th century, which signaled a radical change in the emphasis on head protection. With the invention of gunpowder and the growing effectiveness of firearms over swords and spears, helmets gradually vanished from the battle scenes. The metal helmet that once protected against sword and arrows offers little protection against musket rounds. The United States Civil War provides an excellent illustration—in war soldiers donned cloth hats and caps, with little or no emphasis on head protection. In World War I, the helmet was reintroduced because it protected the head against metal-fragments of exploding artillery shells and indirect fire. The French, owing to General Adrian, were the first to adopt the helmet as standard equipment in early 1915. The British, the Germans, and then the rest of Europe soon followed. In World War I, the German helmet provided the best protection for soldiers. It was manufactured in at least two sizes, and different head contours were accommodated by an adjustable leather lining, which provided comfort and allowed for ventilation. The typical helmet used during that period was a hardened steel shell with an inner liner and weighed about 0.5–1.8 kg. Since then, helmets have been issued to troops in all military conflicts, marking the beginning of the development of modern military helmet. This paper presents the results from experiments and AUTODYN-3D® simulations on the ballistic impact of a KEVLAR® helmet. In the experiment, spherical projectile (~11.9 g), launched from a light gas gun, strikes the helmet with an impact velocity of 205 m/s. The interaction of the projectile with the KEVLAR® helmet is captured using high-speed photography. This helmet-projectile interaction is compared with that obtained from the AUTODYN-3D® simulation. Post-test damage photos from the experiments are also compared with those from the simulations. The response of the helmet from the simulations is consistent with those from the experiments. Also included in this paper are AUTODYN-3D® simulations on two ballistics test standards for KEVLAR® helmets. They are namely the NIJ-STD-0106.01 Type II and the V50 requirement of the US military specification for Personal Armor System Ground Troops (PASGT) Helmet, MIL-H-44099A. For the simulation on MIL-H-44099A, a fragment-simulating projectile (FSP) strikes the helmet with an impact velocity of 610 m/s. The simulation revealed that an impact velocity above 610 m/s is required to perforate the KEVLAR® helmet. For the simulation on NIJ-STD-0106.01 Type II helmet, the projectile is a 9 mm full-jacketed bullet with a striking velocity of 358 m/s. Results from the simulation show that the KEVLAR® helmet is able to defeat a 9 mm full-jacketed bullet traveling at 358 m/s.

After the First World War mathematics and the organisation of ballistic computations at Aberdeen Proving Ground changed considerably. This was the basis for the development of a number of computing aids that were constructed and used during the years 1920 to 1950. This article looks how the computational organisation forms and changes the instruments of calculation. After the differential analyzer relay-based machines were built by Bell Labs and, finally, the ENIAC, one of the first electronic computers, was built, to satisfy the need for computational power in ballistics during the second World War.

The internal ballistics of a firearm or artillery piece considers the pellet, bullet, or shell motion while it is still inside the barrel. In general, deriving the muzzle speed of a gunpowder firearm from first principles is difficult because powder combustion is fast and it very rapidly raises the temperature of gas (generated by gunpowder deflagration, or burning), which greatly complicates the analysis. A simple case is provided by air guns, for which we can make reasonable approximations that permit a derivation of muzzle speed. It is perhaps surprising that muzzle speed depends upon barrel length (artillerymen debated this dependence for centuries, until it was established experimentally and, later, theoretically1). Here we see that a simple physical analysis, accessible to high school or freshmen undergraduate physics students, not only derives realistic muzzle speed but also shows how it depends upon barrel length.

The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1520/JTE20130136 High-speed video has been used by ballistics engineers as a cost-effective technique to measure the spin-rates of both spin-stabilized and fin-stabilized artillery projectiles. Often at test ranges, state-of-the-art video systems are used to verify critical launch events following muzzle exit. From manual analysis of these videos, important performance metrics such as velocity, pitch angle, and spin-rate can be estimated. To do this, operators step through the video frames and record the time at which certain fiducial markings or numbered stripes are observed on the projectile as it rotates. The different methods evaluated in this paper are automated processes for calculating the muzzle-exit spin-rate from launch videos of spin-stabilized artillery projectiles painted with stripes. Image processing and computer vision techniques are employed to segment the shape of the projectile and extract the stripe pattern in each video frame. The most accurate algorithm estimates are validated to within 0.02 % for both laboratory and computer-simulated flight video and within 0.13 % for manual analysis of real flight video. The sensitivities of the methods to image resolution, video frame-rate, and the length of flight captured are evaluated. Areas of continued research and recommendations for increasing the accuracy of measurements in future tests are also identified.

The "smart gun" is a concept designed to control the muzzle velocity, and hence reduce the dispersion, of projectiles fired from artillery guns by using electrothermal energy. Simulations have been undertaken to assess the potential of the "smart gun" concept. This paper describes experiments conducted in a 30 mm smooth bore ETC gun designed to validate some of these simulations. The ETC gun employed a breech mounted capillary plasma generator. A sequence of electrical pulses were delivered to the plasma generator. The first pulse ignited the propelling charge. A relatively long pulse (the sustain pulse) was then discharged to maintain current flow within the plasma capillary for an extended period of time. At varying times after the ignition pulse, a "boost" or "smart gun" pulse was discharged. The shorter the time interval between the ignition and "smart gun" pulses the more effectively energy is transferred to the projectile and the greater the increase in the projectile's velocity. The results are shown along with a comparison of the simulations. The efficiency with which the electrical energy in the "smart gun" pulse was transferred to the projectile was calculated for each delay employed.

The paper examines the empirical foundation of Galileo's two new sciences, presented in the Discorsi. It argues that the second of these sciences, Galileo's theory of motion, is largely rooted in the practical knowledge on ballistics as it was accumulated by contemporary experts on artillery. The empirical roots of the first of his two new sciences, dealing with the strength of materials, are analyzed on the basis of new sources documenting the practical challenges of the construction of large galleys as they were faced by the foremen of the Venetian Arsenal.

Many of the treatises on mathematics and mechanics written during the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries either explicitly deal with military matters such as artillery, arrangement of troops or fortifications, or claim that mathematics and mechanics are indispensable to military leaders. This article looks at an Italian mathematician, Niccolo Tartaglia, and at the way mathematics and war were associated in his life and work.

Au début des années 1830, le ministère de la Guerre décide d’améliorer la formation des élèves des écoles d’artillerie en proposant un programme de recherches appliquées dans le domaine de la balistique. C’est dans ce contexte qu’Arthur Morin et deux de ses collègues artilleurs, Guillaume Poiberte et Isidore Didion, proposent d’étudier la résistance des différents milieux à la pénétration des projectiles. Ces derniers vont mettre au point une série d’expériences en plein air sur les lois de la résistance de l’air et de l’eau à la pénétration des projectiles. Arthur Morin qui comme nombre de polytechniciens est préoccupés par l’amélioration des performances de l’industrie et des transports va largement dépasser l’objectif et le cadre temporel assigné par la Commission dite « des principes du tir » en se livrant à des expériences sur la résistance de l’eau à l’avancement des corps immergés et flottants qui s’appliquent aux roues des bateaux à vapeur et à la navigation fluviale. C’est à ces expériences d’hydrodynamique menées par Arthur Morin en plein air de 1836 à 1841 avec l’assentiment du ministère de la Guerre et en marge des questions de balistique, que cet article est consacré. At the beginning of the 1830th, the french war deparment decided to improve the training of the artillery schools’ students and proposed an applied research programm in ballistics. Int his contexte, Arthur Morin and two other artillery officers of the Ecole du génie et de l’artillerie in Metz – Guillaume Piobert and Isidore Didion - intend to developp experiments on resistance of diffferent matters to projectiles’ impact. Particularly on air and water. Arthur Morin as many of polytechnicians interessed in improving national industry and mean of transports’ performances, overcrossed the objetc and the deadline imposed by the « Commission des principes du tir » in testing resistance of water to submerged and floatting bodies wich concern paddle boat and inland navigation. This article analyse the expériement of hydrodynamics conducted in open air by Arthur Morin with agreement of the war department from 1836 to 1841.

Live fire military training involves the detonation of explosive warheads on training ranges. The purpose of this experiment is to evaluate the hydrogeological changes to the vadose zone caused by military training with high explosive ammunition. In particular, this study investigates artillery ammunition which penetrates underground prior to exploding, either by design or by defective fuze mechanisms. A 105 mm artillery round was detonated 2.6 m underground, and hydraulic conductivity measurements were taken before and after the explosion. A total of 114 hydraulic conductivity measurements were obtained within a radius of 3 m from the detonation point, at four different depths and at three different time periods separated by 18 months. This data was used to produce a three dimensional numerical model of the soil affected by the exploding artillery round. This model was then used to investigate potential changes to aquifer recharge and contaminant transport caused by the detonating round. The results indicate that an exploding artillery round can strongly affect the hydraulic conductivity in the vadose zone, increasing it locally by over an order of magnitude. These variations, however, appear to cause relatively small changes to both local groundwater recharge and contaminant transport. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Least squares fuzzy support vector machine is proposed based on the theory of fuzzy support vector classification. Based on the theory of ballistic shock wave, the sound identification of artillery projectile is achieved by training and testing to the two samples data of 130mm and 152mm artillery projectile shock wave.

The paper researches on problems and error values of traditional method measuring real-time temperatures of a gun or rocket charge. Firstly, four error sources are derived from implication of charge temperature affecting the weapon’s firing range in interior ballistics and current procedure for the artillery to measure real-time charge temperatures. Secondly, working conditions in battlefield of several typical gun and rocket charges are simulated and their unstable temperature fields are measured. According to defines of each individual error such as measuring point error and total measuring error, the experimental data are arranged and calculated, and then each individual error and total measuring error at every temperature-read time are gotten. Furthermore, the maximum and mean square deviation of the total measuring errors at all temperature-read time are obtained. From the maximum error and mean square deviation data, it is proved that there exist serious problems in the traditional method measuring real-time temperatures of a gun or rocket charge, and that caused measuring error cannot meet accuracy requirements of the modern artillery. Finally, error characteristics and way to research and develop the future device that can accurately measure real-time temperatures of a gun or rocket charge are discussed.

This chapter is devoted to the discussion of simulation results of several space flight scenarios ranging from movements in Earth or planetary orbits via aerobraking and aerocapturing missions up to re-entry problems, and also of artillery ballistics.

Interior ballistic performance, which is an important tactical characteristic of the gun, is affected directly by erosion and wear of the bore. With the more and more application of the gun in the modern war, the researches on erosion-wear and its influence on the interior ballistic performance have become important. In the past several years, photoelectric test technology has become the key technology in artillery bore peeping and measurement. With lots of image information, we could appropriately test the erosion and wear in artillery chamber. The image data shows that there would be a certain relationship between the texture features of the erosion and wear image and the total round number that the gun has shoot during its useful life. In this paper, the relationship was established along with the erosion and wear feature was extracted by an improved algorithm based on the Differential Box Count. It is showed by our elementary experiment that the relationship proposed has a better coefficient of correlativity than the existing one and easy to operate.

Military camps in out-of-area missions are permanently threatened by rockets, artillery projectiles, and mortar grenades (RAM) launched by terrorists. A good portion of these attacks are undertaken by mortars due to their specific advantages for the warfare of irregular forces and their worldwide distribution. The military installations can be protected by counter-RAM systems consisting of several artillery weapons, radar and electro-optical sensors, C 2 and fire control computers. A system analysis has shown that the precision of the sensors is vital for defending the camp with low ammunition consumptions. Furthermore, the type of ammunition is also of great impact: 35 mm Ahead ammunition is hardly suited for this application due to its small hit density and low kinetic energy of the sub-projectiles, especially in the case of mortar grenades. Therefore, 155 mm high-explosive (HE) ammunition is investigated using experimentally determined fragment data. Russian mortar projectiles are considered as worst-case RAM targets and their ballistics are mathematically modeled by an air drag function that is also used for computing firing tables. Due to uncertainties of the target positions that are given by an elliptic cylinder for specific sensor parameters, simulations are conducted in order to determine the ammunition consumption. Penetration and detonation criteria for the terminal impact are also considered and the resulting thresholds are displayed in a 3D fragment map. The results show that HE ammunition is superior to low-caliber ammunition because of their high numbers of effective fragments reducing the number of rounds significantly from hundreds to less than ten.

U.S. military forces increasingly find themselves in situations compatible with the use of non-lethal weapons. Extending the range and spheres of influence of these non-lethal weapons is considered essential as an option in future conflict scenarios. With this in mind, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, and the U.S. Army Armament Research Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) at Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey, have joined together in an effort to produce a non-lethal artillery projectile. With support from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, and Edgewood Chemical Biological Command, Maryland. ARDEC has accepted the challenge of selecting and tailoring the payload and expulsion issues. while ARL will focus on its traditional area of expertise in ballistics and will develop technologies for a non-lethal carrier for the selected payload. The goal of this effort is to project non-lethal payloads to ranges similar to those of standard artillery.

The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1520/JTE20130107 This paper describes a cost effective automated methodology to analyze launch video of artillery projectiles. Image processing and computer vision techniques are used to segment and classify the projectile shape in each video frame. Within minutes of being fired, the initial position, velocity, and orientation history of the projectile in three-dimensional space is determined at the gun site. An overview of several standard methods used by the Army to characterize pitching and yawing motion of projectiles is included, as well as a discussion of the limitations of these methods. Results from real artillery testing using the automated video analysis method are validated through comparisons to results measured using conventional techniques.

Rockets, mortars, and artillery (RMA) are widely held, abundant, and inexpensive weapons that historically have been the most lethal 'killers' on the battlefield. The proliferation of non-conventional warheads (chemical and biological) has increased the RMA threat. Recently, new weapons--in particular directed-energy weapons--have shown promise in providing an active defense against RMA. The development and deployment of these advanced weapons is only part of the challenge of providing a total RMA active defense capability. Developing a BMC3I that can support this air battle is also a major challenge. Threat sizes and threat rates of RMA versus traditional air defense threats could easily be higher by one to two orders of magnitude. The implication of this larger threat on the complexity of a BMC3I system is profound. Relative to traditional threats, fighting such an air battle will result in a large demand on sensors to collect information on this dense threat and in a large surge in the dissemination of air picture, control, and status information through the BMC3I network (weapons, sensors, and command posts). A successful BMC3I system must have the architectural features and algorithmic approaches to manage these tasks efficiently. This paper will characterize the magnitude of this problem and discuss architectural and algorithmic challenges.

The U.S. Army has derived artillery accuracy error budgets based on a time & space ballistic wind variance formula. The wind algorithm uses a midlatitude wind profile to derive the expected ballistic wind component variance. This time variability equation is reevaluated using 190 hourly upper air profiler soundings collected over Platteville, CO, representing 8 days of diverse weather conditions. Comparisons between the computed ballistic wind time variability and the equation estimated variability reveal the formula to be an unbiased estimator with 1 kn precise agreement at a staleness of 1 h. The equation accuracy ranges from 1.5 to 3.0 ballistic kn depending on a time staleness of 2 to 4 h, ballistic line, and season.