HEAVY ARTILLERY - SOUND EFFECTS 2020 ( DEVASTATING POWER).
Octopus ISR Systems announced today the release of a new and unique optional software upgrade for all Epsilon ISR payloads to support advanced image-aiding features: an Artillery Fire Adjustment plugin.
The newly released feature enables coordination of artillery battery fire by providing gun target corrections. The operator marks the impact point with a simple click of a button or joystick, and the software automatically calculates deviations in reference to the gun target line. The feature supports several artillery batteries, as well as mean point of impact (MPI) calculations if necessary. The operator points the crosshairs on the impact point and marks a shot which is added to the defined target. The software calculates the deviation between the target location and shot position (or MPI).
The artillery, target and shot positions can be entered in decimal degrees or in MGRS, and the operator reports GT line (gun target line) corrections in meter.
“As one of the world’s leaders specializing in the design and manufacture of cutting-edge non-ITAR surveillance solutions, we are proud to innovate not only in new product hardware design but also in software development, “ said Konstantins Krivovs, Business Development Manager of Octopus ISR Systems. “Octopus ISR Systems’ intelligent sensing solutions now provide an even wider selection of capabilities which will help our customers to achieve successful mission outcomes.”
Octopus ISR Systems is a trustworthy, well-known brand from UAV Factory, specializing in the design and manufacture of cutting-edge non-ITAR surveillance solutions for both the manned and unmanned industries. Octopus ISR Systems offers airborne surveillance systems of the highest quality for a variety of platforms, providing an efficient solution for situational awareness applications including border and maritime patrol, search and rescue, security, and others.
An M109 Paladin 155mm Howitzer made history recently by shooting down a fast-moving maneuvering cruise missile with a “hypervelocity projectile” able to travel at speeds up to Mach 5, according to an Air Force announcement. Historically, armored vehicles such as tanks, howitzers or infantry carriers have not operated with an ability to destroy fast-moving, long-range cruise missiles, yet the successful demonstration breaks new ground.
The shoot-down, which took place at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, destroyed a “surrogate” Russian cruise missile target using the Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS).
In development for several years now, ABMS represents an Air Force technical initiative to engineer a “meshed” network of otherwise disconnected sensor “nodes” throughout a theater of combat operations. While an Air Force program, the effort is intended by all estimations to inform the Pentagon’s broader Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) technological system.
“Future battlefields will be characterized by information saturation. One of the key objectives of this onramp was to present a dizzying array of information for participants to synthesize, just like they would see in a real operation,” Dr. Will Roper, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, said in an Air Force report.
Firing a hypervelocity projectile (HVP) from an artillery cannon is a concept which has been under-development for many years, dating back to Roper’s time directing the Pentagon’s Strategic Capabilities Office. The origins of the HVP can be traced to the Navy’s Rail Gun developmental effort as well as initiatives intended to explore firing the HVP from deck-mounted guns on Navy surface ships.
Due to its ability to reach speeds of up to 5,600 miles per hour, the hypervelocity projectile is engineered as a kinetic energy warhead, meaning no explosives are necessary. It can travel at speeds up to 2,000 meters per second, a speed which is about three times that of most existing weapons. The weapon brings such force, power and range that could hold enemies at risk from greater distances and attack targets with the kinetic energy force equivalent to a multi-ton vehicle moving at 160 miles per hour, developers have said.
Kris Osborn is the new Defense Editor for the National Interest. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.