The History of Air Defense Artillery

[SoonerP226]

From Habitual Line Crosser.

Part 1:


Part 2:

 

[Perplexed]

My first thought is the 8.8 cm Flak 41 of WW2.

 

[Snattlerake]

Mine was the Vulcan ADA radar guided electrically primed, electrically fired 20 mm I got to fire at Fort Riley. While I was snoopin and poopin in the woods one night, we got to see and hear the Vulcan firing. It sounded like ripping canvas above us. Every 6th? round was a tracer and it looked like a laser beam. YOu would hear the canvas and see the laser then hear a low Mooooooan.

 

[SoonerP226]

It sounded like ripping canvas above us.

I once talked to a former Navy officer, and he told me about the time he needed to talk to one of his NCOs about some issue in the mess, so they stepped out onto the deck. The hatch was right under the Phalanx mount, and about the time they got the hatch closed after stepping onto the deck, the gun crew test fired the gun. He described it like you did, like someone ripped a giant sheet of canvas right above their heads...

 

[golddigger14s]

Thanks for the vids. As a current Stinger instructor, it's nice to see our roots.
For those of you in the Lawton area if you get a chance to go to the ADA Learning Annex (museum) do so. Most of the equipment there has actually not been de-milled so most of it is still operational. Only downside it is currently by appointment only. They also have the original US flag that the prisoners created with scraps of cloth.
The .50 cal we still use are literally from WW II and are electronically fired. The rate of fire is about 1100 rpm.
Fun fact: There have been drones in use since WW I.

 

[Okie4570]

My dad was a Hawk missile tech at Giebelstadt Army Airfield, Germany in 1968-1970. Was fortunate and never ended up going to Vietnam.

 

[Snattlerake]

Thanks for the vids. As a current Stinger instructor, it's nice to see our roots.
For those of you in the Lawton area if you get a chance to go to the ADA Learning Annex (museum) do so. Most of the equipment there has actually not been de-milled so most of it is still operational. Only downside it is currently by appointment only. They also have the original US flag that the prisoners created with scraps of cloth.
The .50 cal we still use are literally from WW II and are electronically fired. The rate of fire is about 1100 rpm.
Fun fact: There have been drones in use since WW I.

Fort Riley had a unique weapon I had never seen before. I guess during Nam it was used for assassinations and vehicle disabling. A tripod mounted M2 with a scope. The firing butterfly was set to single shot only. Quite accurate as I recall but can't remember the distances I shot.

 

[donner]

There is a good book called 12 Seconds Of Silence: How a Team of Inventors, Tinkerers, and Spies Took Down a Nazi Superweapon for anyone interested. It talks about a lot of the scientific advances that WWII forced, but focuses mostly on the advent (from overwhelming need) of the proximity fuse and all the challenges associated with it's creation.

It also talks about how it's creation for the navy quickly gave way to its use in the army, and perhaps it's most impressive application was against german rockets near the end of the war.

 

[SoonerP226]

Fort Riley had a unique weapon I had never seen before. I guess during Nam it was used for assassinations and vehicle disabling. A tripod mounted M2 with a scope. The firing butterfly was set to single shot only. Quite accurate as I recall but can't remember the distances I shot.

That sounds like the weapon Carlos Hathcock used to make his longest shot.