1997-06-02
1998-09-22
Jordan, Charles T.
Ordnance
Loading
89 47, 89 3301, F41A 900
Patent
active
058117210
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method and a device used, in automatically loaded artillery guns provided with carriage-mounted shell and/or propellant magazine for transferring principally shells, but also, in an appropriately modified form, propellant charges, from a freely selectable compartment in the magazine to a rammer which is incorporated in the elevation system of the gun or which is connected to the elevation system in terms of movement.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Modern artillery tactics require extremely high loading speeds, even for heavier guns, and at the same time entail the need for rapid changes in the gun elevation and in the size of the propellant charges between the different shots in a salvo. This is, of course, done in an attempt to get as many shells as possible to hit the target area as close upon each other as possible, and this is achieved by firing the various shells in one salvo towards the target area along trajectories of different heights. In addition, the increased maximum firing ranges of the guns mean that there is an ever greater number of different propellant charges to alternate between. The most flexible type of propellant charge presently available includes a variable number of charge modules with combustible and essentially stiff outer casings. These charge modules are found in at least two basic types. One type is designed so that the various modules can be connected to larger or smaller charges, but not even these connected charge modules have the same stability as a unit charge of an older type. Charges made up of these type charge modules are therefore more difficult to ram automatically than the completely stiff unit charges with metal, plastic or combustible casings. In the alternative cases where the charge modules in accordance with the above are not connected to each other, the difficulties increase to a corresponding extent.
A major problem for today's gun constructors has been to develop a novel loading system which is sufficiently fast to satisfy modern artillery techniques and which at the same time is sufficiently flexible so that it is possible to use the abovementioned module charges and benefit from all the advantages thereof. Another problem has then been to develop an effective system for automatic loading of the gun with a freely selectable shell taken from a magazine which is preferably carriage-mounted, i.e. from a magazine which is at all times accessible on the gun but which, because it does not follow the elevation of the gun, means that when the shells are being fed for ramming, it is necessary to bridge a plurality of angle positions and movements in different planes. Trials with gun-mounted shell magazines which follow the gun elevation have shown that although the automatic loading system is then considerably simpler, the magazine capacity has to be limited, for weight reasons, to far too great an extent, and it becomes difficult to fit the magazine with new shells and propellant charges.
What is expected to be a main component in the general loading system of the future has already been available for some years now, namely the so-called flick rammer with which it is possible to effect a rapid ramming of larger shells at high elevations. As the name suggests, the flick rammer is designed to throw shells and/or propellant charges at high speed into the ramming device in the gun. However, the flick rammer is mainly used today for shells and completely stiff unit charges, for example, the type with combustible casings or discardable casings made of plastic or metal. On the other hand, it has been difficult to get the flick rammer to function satisfactorily with module charges of the abovementioned types. Also, flick rammers, if they are to function without error, depend on an extremely precise alignment in relation to the gun barrel. However, artillery systems in the future will probably not be equipped with only flick rammers, but also with other rammers.
The present invention relates to a method and a devic
REFERENCES:
patent: 3884119 (1975-05-01), Zouck
patent: 3988962 (1976-11-01), Elwin
patent: 4481862 (1984-11-01), Wiethoff et al.
patent: 4991489 (1991-02-01), Lindberg
patent: 5440966 (1995-08-01), Tellander et al.
Andersson Par
Hallqvist Sten
Bofors AB
Jordan Charles T.
Wesson Theresa M.
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