Today I found out that... the Sergeant York wasn't that bad...

[Aaron Fox]

But does the 40mm have enough explosive to make it worthwhile? And what of range?
Is this just your personal opinion or you have other sources?
Navweaps list .25 pounds explosive for the HEI round and these guns were meant as hit to kill so I'm little skeptical of your claim that they're a game changer. Especially when there seems a lack of follow up by the 35mm guns.

This isn't a contact explosive, this is a proximity fuse round so that quarter-pound of warhead isn't going to wait until it makes contact, it'll explode within its kill radius (which against aircraft is something on the order of a hundred meters if an old article I read ages ago is any indication). To give you an idea of how much of a game-changer proximity fuses are, they reduced ammo consumption immensely in practically every field they've been put in. Artillery? PF shells turned being in cover like trenches to be particularly deadly and turned any infantry in the open into a hamburger reliably. Proximity fuses in AA systems made them far superior to those using time-fused or contact ammo. Anti-Air Missiles use proximity fuses for their warheads (unless they're ABM systems, then they're contact-only) and they're deadly if they get into range (and the only reason their kill percentages look low is that they're chasing aircraft and thus the tyranny of the rocket equation comes into play).

The biggest limiter of the proximity fuse has been the fuse's size. Back in the day, 75mm was the smallest they could fit a proximity fuse into. By the 1970s, breakthroughs in electronics allowed the proximity fuse to be useful in a 40mm round which led Bofors to produce the HEPF shell for the 40mm.

And AHEAD sounds like it meant for anti missile work as it is like a shotgun round. It is not a proximity fuse round.

It is usable against aircraft, missiles, rockets, really anything that flies because of the tyranny of physics (i.e. you can't armor things that fly really well without making them targets).

 

[Yuzuriha]

proximity fuse round so that quarter-pound of warhead isn't going to wait until it makes contact, it'll explode within its kill radius

I know what a proximity fuse is.
I'm saying that the kill radius for a 40mm shell explosive content might be too fucking small to be a major improvement in lethality. The fact there isn't any timed fused or new proximity fused shells in this size is also suggestive.
You declaring it is still the case at 40mm just begs the question.

75mm artillery and larger missiles missiles have much greater room for explosives and thus greater kill radius. And have be historically reliant on the fragments since the birth of aaa.

 

[Aaron Fox]

I know what a proximity fuse is.
I'm saying that the kill radius for a 40mm shell explosive content might be too fucking small to be a major improvement in lethality. The fact there isn't any timed fused or new proximity fused shells in this size is also suggestive.
You declaring it is still the case at 40mm just begs the question.

75mm artillery and larger missiles missiles have much greater room for explosives and thus greater kill radius. And have be historically reliant on the fragments since the birth of aaa.

Actually it would be an immense improvement given the trend...

 

[Yuzuriha]

Actually it would be an immense improvement given the trend...

By that logic, a hypothetical proximity fused 9mm explosive bullet would be a "major game-changer".
When really at that point, the explosive content is too small to be useful.

Now the 40mm may or may not have reached that point. But you have not presented much information that it is still enough explosive content to be useful.

 

[Aaron Fox]

... what the fuck did I watch... this is all the BS I've seen in one compact package...

 

[Tiamat]

... what the fuck did I watch... this is all the BS I've seen in one compact package...

So, I did a little research, Armored Warfare (cough) is basically a Russian version of the MMO game World of Tanks, or is trying to be, and this is one of the videos they came out with in collaboration. So, take all of this with a healthy shot of vodka, tovarisch.

 

[Aaron Fox]

So, I did a little research, Armored Warfare (cough) is basically a Russian version of the MMO game World of Tanks, or is trying to be, and this is one of the videos they came out with in collaboration. So, take all of this with a healthy shot of vodka, tovarisch.

Hence why I went 'what the fuck did I watch'. It's... just perpetuating the lies that follow the poor thing since the press pulled some serious BS with their papers...

 

[Zachowon]

Armored warfare was originally American game.
World of Tanks and War Thunder are Russian

 

[Tiamat]

Armored warfare was originally American game.
World of Tanks and War Thunder are Russian

Yes and no.

Discord - A New Way to Chat with Friends & Communities

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forum-console.worldoftanks.com

May 5, 2017 — WG is russian, this is the PC company. WGCB or WGW is American and the console company. Which is where the confusion comes from.


And just to add to that, WG is technically a Belarusian company.

 

[Zachowon]

Yes and no.

Discord - A New Way to Chat with Friends & Communities

Discord is the easiest way to communicate over voice, video, and text. Chat, hang out, and stay close with your friends and communities.

forum-console.worldoftanks.com

May 5, 2017 — WG is russian, this is the PC company. WGCB or WGW is American and the console company. Which is where the confusion comes from.


And just to add to that, WG is technically a Belarusian company.

So russian

 

[ThatZenoGuy]

To explain a bit about AHEAD munitions. They are not proximity fuzed but instead think of them as exceptionally precise and reliable time-fuzed munitions.

The target's estimated position is tied into the fuze-setting and the munitions detonate in front of the target, releasing a payload of fragments/shrapnell which the target effectively flies into.

This can be used against virtually any targets, missiles, aircraft, ground vehicles/infantry and so on. It will not be effective against anything well armored though.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Battle Order recently released a video on the revival of the M42 Duster that was introduced into service far too late Second World War but was put into good use in the Vietnam War, obviously not for its intended role of course.



He also detailed the organization of the Anti-Aircraft Automatic Gun units that the US Army (and Airborne) used which included the aforementioned M42 Dusters as well as the M16A1 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage, the halftrack which mounted a quad fifty and even compared and contrasted the two vehicles.

 

[ThatZenoGuy]

This isn't a contact explosive, this is a proximity fuse round so that quarter-pound of warhead isn't going to wait until it makes contact, it'll explode within its kill radius (which against aircraft is something on the order of a hundred meters if an old article I read ages ago is any indication).

Necro post but I gotta discuss this.
The likelihood of a 40mm proximity fuze fragment going 100m and taking out an aircraft is exceedingly unlikely, I wouldn't even say a burst 20m away is likely to do too much damage. The smaller the round the closer it has to detonate to have any major effect, for 40mm rounds I'd say 10m and below sounds reasonable, based off of WW2 flak round lethalities.

What makes AHEAD ammo so nasty is it directs the fragments in an organized pattern to get a lot more hits for a given shell weight, almost like how a shaped charge warhead can convert a HE round that cannot bust a tank, into one that can bust a tank with ease.

A lot of modern munitions are based around the concept of converting the existing shell energies into a more precise form of energy transfer.