July-August - Air Defense Artillery School

THE .50 ~II\CHI:\'E GlI:\' AS 1\ SlIBCALlBEH "-10" 23"
Figure 4
OTlU~H POSSIBLE SUllCALIBEH \\'EAPONS
\t rangcs bclow 800 yards the caliber .30 rifle, 1\ II. has
WI ed a fairly satisfactory subcaliber weapon. although its
3eer is less dependable than that of the caliber .50 and
ralla;..: errors have been pronounced when the director
a~ not almost exactly in the rear of the gun.
1 ~3kness in the use of the caliber .30 rifle-the
One minor
necessity of
, loading during cert?in courses-can be counteracted' by
suo~titutinv the Browning automatic rifle. caliber .30. or
he caliber"' .30 air-cooled machine gun. The caliber .30
ater-cooled machine gun is not considered
IlUocaliber weapon for the -IOmm .
a satisfactory
.\ subcaliber weapon with an extremely low muzzle veloc-
I lI'ould have two important ad,'antages. In the first place,
t 1I'0uld permit safe firing on courses where A1\ firing is
ot now possible and on certain types of track-borne targets
m3de to simulate low Hying aeroplanes and mechanized
(chicles. In the second place, it would permit greater
alism in firing, bot.h in relati\'(' speeds and appearance of
the target. \ Vith a low velocity ammunition, for example,
(XI feet pc, ,ccood. 0' oodoooh t1"o of 40",,,, 1"01"'"
r
t
i
Figure 5
Figure 6
tionate reductions could be made in the range, size, and
speed of the target, and conditions more clearly duplicating
those met in firing on planes moving at combat speeds could
be achieved. Realism in the appearance of the target could
be achieved by the use of small radio-controlled planes. For
example, almost any service condition of course and speed
can be reproduced to a one-quarter scale when using the
OQ radio-controlled target plane. Its size-12 foot wing
span and 8~ foot length-corresponds on this scale to a 48
foot wing span and a 34 foot length, the average size of a
light bomber. The speed, 85 miles per hour, would correspond
to a 340 miles per hour speed which probably exceeds
any that will be met during combat in the near future.
Experiments have been conducted with the .45 caliber
tracer using a submachine gun as subcaliber, but this caliber
had to be dropped when the manufacture of this tracer ammunition
was discontinued. It is hoped that caliber .22
tracer will be made available for tests.
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