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83-666: In Germany, the Gepard was phased out in late 2010 and replaced by the Wiesel 2 Ozelot Leichtes Flugabwehrsystem (LeFlaSys) with four FIM-92 Stinger or LFK NG missile launchers. A variant with the MANTIS gun system and LFK NG missiles, based on the GTK Boxer , was also considered. The Gepard has been widely used in combat in the Russo-Ukrainian War , mostly to shoot down drones. The Gepard

166-455: A ZF automatic transmission. The Wiesel 2 is generally bigger, faster and stronger than the Wiesel 1, with advanced features for the protection of the crew such as enhanced armour, an air conditioning system, and NBC protection . Fire-control system A fire-control system ( FCS ) is a number of components working together, usually a gun data computer , a director and radar , which

249-452: A 300 A 28 volt direct current generator for the electrical system. The fuel capacity is 985 liters, which ensures a combined operating time of approximately 48 hours. The chassis and the track were taken directly from the Leopard 1. It has torsion bar spring-mounted roadwheels with seven roadwheel pairs per side. They are connected to the torsion bars on swing arms, whose deflection

332-524: A Ukrainian defense attache in the United States the Gepard has been used to "great effect" against the "relatively crude" loitering munition believed to be Iranian-made Shahed-136 . The Conflict Intelligence Team considers it likely that a Gepard destroyed a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile as it was targeting a Kyiv power plant on 18 October 2022. One unit is credited with destroying more than ten Shahed-136 drones and two cruise missiles. A system such as

415-409: A constant rate of altitude change. The Kerrison Predictor is an example of a system that was built to solve laying in "real time", simply by pointing the director at the target and then aiming the gun at a pointer it directed. It was also deliberately designed to be small and light, in order to allow it to be easily moved along with the guns it served. The radar-based M-9/SCR-584 Anti-Aircraft System

498-465: A critical part of an integrated fire-control system. The incorporation of radar into the fire-control system early in World War II provided ships the ability to conduct effective gunfire operations at long range in poor weather and at night. For U.S. Navy gun fire control systems, see ship gun fire-control systems . The use of director-controlled firing, together with the fire control computer, removed

581-427: A cylinder angle of 90 degrees has 610 kW at 2200 RPM (830 PS) and consumes—depending on the surface and driving style—around 150 liters per 100 kilometers. To ensure a steady supply of oil, even in difficult terrain and under extreme skew, the engine is provided with a dry sump forced lubrication. Even the gearbox (type: 4 HP-250) from ZF Friedrichshafen and the exhaust system with fresh air admixture to reduce

664-420: A firing rate of 550 rounds/min. The combined rate of fire is 1,100 rounds/min, which – in unlimited mode – gives a continuous fire time of 35 seconds before running out of ammunition (with 640 AA rounds for both guns). It is standard to fire bursts against air targets, 24 rounds per gun for a total of 48 in limited mode and 48 rounds per gun for a total of 96 in normal mode. The Ukrainian air defence have found that

747-549: A group led by Dreyer designed a similar system. Although both systems were ordered for new and existing ships of the Royal Navy, the Dreyer system eventually found most favour with the Navy in its definitive Mark IV* form. The addition of director control facilitated a full, practicable fire control system for World War I ships, and most RN capital ships were so fitted by mid 1916. The director

830-479: A modified roadwheel distance (8 cm increased distance between the third and fourth roadwheel) and the transfer of additional batteries in battery boxes at the rear. The batteries and the electrical system operate at 24 volts DC. Vehicles delivered to the German Bundeswehr and Belgium were equipped with a Siemens MPDR 12 S-band search radar installed on a swing arm (lowered behind the turret for transit) on

913-473: A new computerized bombing predictor, called the Low Altitude Bombing System (LABS), began to be integrated into the systems of aircraft equipped to carry nuclear armaments. This new bomb computer was revolutionary in that the release command for the bomb was given by the computer, not the pilot; the pilot designated the target using the radar or other targeting system , then "consented" to release

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996-637: A new factory in Germany to sidestep the Swiss re-export ban. A deal to start production was signed in February 2023 and the first shipment of new ammunition was delivered to Ukraine in September 2023. Germany delivered the last 3 pledged Gepards to Ukraine by 22 December 2023 along with an additional 30,000 rounds of ammunition. Wiesel AWC#Wiesel 2 The Wiesel Armoured Weapons Carrier (AWC; German : Waffenträger )

1079-517: A variety of armament, ranging from 12-inch coast defense mortars, through 3-inch and 6-inch mid-range artillery, to the larger guns, which included 10-inch and 12-inch barbette and disappearing carriage guns, 14-inch railroad artillery, and 16-inch cannon installed just prior to and up through World War II. Fire control in the Coast Artillery became more and more sophisticated in terms of correcting firing data for such factors as weather conditions,

1162-415: Is 35×228mm calibre ( STANAG 4516). The KDA autocannon has a dual belt feed for two different ammunition types; the usual loading per gun is 320 AA rounds fed from inside the turret and 20 AP rounds fed from a small outlying storage. The 40 armour-piercing rounds are normally fired singly with the guns alternating; they are also intended for self defence against light armoured ground targets. Each gun has

1245-406: Is a 64 kW (86 hp) Audi 2.1-litre diesel engine giving a top speed of 70 km/h (45 mph). The Wiesel can ford 0.5 metres (1.6 ft) deep water and cross a 1.2 metres (3.9 ft) wide trench. It was manufactured by Rheinmetall AG . The chassis is made of steel armour and can resist common 5.56 mm and 7.62 mm small arms ammunition and shell splinters. Air dropping

1328-539: Is a German light air-transportable armoured fighting vehicle , more specifically a lightly armoured weapons carrier, produced by Rheinmetall . The Wiesel has been used in several of the Bundeswehr 's missions abroad ( UNOSOM II , IFOR , SFOR , KFOR , TFH , ISAF ). The Wiesel was developed for the West German army to meet a requirement for an air-transportable light armored vehicle for use by its airborne troops , as

1411-466: Is about 4.78 metres (15.7 ft) long, 2.17 metres (7.1 ft) high (depending on type), and 1.87 metres (6.1 ft) wide. Its weight is approximately 4.78 metric tons (5.27 short tons) in its heaviest configuration. The Wiesel 2 is a stretched version of the Wiesel 1, with a fifth roadwheel. The engine was changed to a 1.9L Volkswagen in-line four-cylinder turbo diesel with direct injection and intercooler, giving 109 hp (81 kW) coupled to

1494-401: Is being tracked. Typically, weapons fired over long ranges need environmental information—the farther a munition travels, the more the wind, temperature, air density, etc. will affect its trajectory, so having accurate information is essential for a good solution. Sometimes, for very long-range rockets, environmental data has to be obtained at high altitudes or in between the launching point and

1577-518: Is designed to assist a ranged weapon system to target, track, and hit a target. It performs the same task as a human gunner firing a weapon, but attempts to do so faster and more accurately. The original fire-control systems were developed for ships. The early history of naval fire control was dominated by the engagement of targets within visual range (also referred to as direct fire ). In fact, most naval engagements before 1800 were conducted at ranges of 20 to 50 yards (20 to 50 m). Even during

1660-495: Is limited by volute springs . Drive is through the drive sprockets located at the rear. The rubber-mounted shocks were modified to achieve better stability during firing. The track is manufactured by the company Diehl, rubber track pads fitted, and is "live" track with rubber bushings between the track links and pins (type: D 640 A). Grouser/icecleats can replace the rubber pads on some track links to increase traction on slippery surfaces. The hull only had slight modifications, i.e.

1743-610: The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine . On 26 April 2022, the German government authorized Krauss-Maffei Wegmann to transfer around 50 refurbished Gepards to Ukraine, including in advance those vehicles that were sold to Brazil and Qatar as a security measure during mass sports events. The first three Gepards arrived in Ukraine on 25 July 2022 and by the end of September thirty Gepards and 6,000 rounds had been delivered by Germany. On 2 December 2022, Germany recovered seven additional Gepard units from

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1826-478: The American Civil War , the famous engagement between USS  Monitor and CSS  Virginia was often conducted at less than 100 yards (90 m) range. Rapid technical improvements in the late 19th century greatly increased the range at which gunfire was possible. Rifled guns of much larger size firing explosive shells of lighter relative weight (compared to all-metal balls) so greatly increased

1909-515: The German governments evacuation of German citizens from Sudan during the Sudanese Civil War . Depending on the exact configuration, the Wiesel 1's length is about 3.55 metres (11.6 ft), height 1.82 metres (6.0 ft), and width 1.82 metres (6.0 ft). At only 2.75 metric tons (3.03 short tons), it weighs less than the armored variant of the U.S. Humvee military light truck. The engine

1992-775: The United Nations forces intervention in the Somali Civil War ( UNISOM II ). The Wiesel 2 is an enlarged and extended version of the Wiesel 1 with five road wheels instead of four, and a more powerful engine. The Bundeswehr ordered 178 of the new vehicle in various types, including air defense, radar, and anti-aircraft missile launcher, 120 mm mortar carrier, command and fire control, and ambulance variants. The Wiesel 2 entered service in 2001. The Wiesel 1 MELLS and MK variants were used by German troops of Luftlandebrigade 1 in April 2023 to secure an airfield near Khartoum in support of

2075-613: The grenade launcher developed for use on the Fabrique Nationale F2000 bullpup assault rifle. Fire-control computers have gone through all the stages of technology that computers have, with some designs based upon analogue technology and later vacuum tubes which were later replaced with transistors . Fire-control systems are often interfaced with sensors (such as sonar , radar , infra-red search and track , laser range-finders , anemometers , wind vanes , thermometers , barometers , etc.) in order to cut down or eliminate

2158-423: The heads-up display (HUD). The pipper shows the pilot where the target must be relative to the aircraft in order to hit it. Once the pilot maneuvers the aircraft so that the target and pipper are superimposed, he or she fires the weapon, or on some aircraft the weapon will fire automatically at this point, in order to overcome the delay of the pilot. In the case of a missile launch, the fire-control computer may give

2241-483: The infrared signature were taken from the Leopard 1 main battle tank. The Gepard is equipped with a Daimler-Benz (type: OM 314) 4-cylinder diesel auxiliary engine for the energy supply system. This engine is on the front left of the vehicle, located where the Leopard 1 has an ammunition magazine . The engine, which has a 3.8 liter capacity, is designed as a multi-fuel engine and produces 66 kW (90 PS). It consumes between 10 and 20 liters per hour, depending on

2324-564: The 1980s, Redeye and later Stinger MANPADS teams have been accompanying the Gepard units to take advantage of their long-range scanning capacity. To combine this capacity in a single unit, a missile system upgrade that mounts the Stingers in twin packs to the autocannons was developed. The system was tested by the German Bundeswehr but not bought due to budget restrictions. Instead, the Ozelot Light Air Defence System (LeFlaSys)

2407-400: The Dreyer table) for HMS Hood ' s main guns housed 27 crew. Directors were largely unprotected from enemy fire. It was difficult to put much weight of armour so high up on the ship, and even if the armour did stop a shot, the impact alone would likely knock the instruments out of alignment. Sufficient armour to protect from smaller shells and fragments from hits to other parts of the ship

2490-445: The Gepard has a back-up optical sighting system for passive target acquisition and engagement, consisting of two stabilized, panoramic periscopes for both gunner and commander, with a variable magnification (1.5× and a field of view of 50° and 6× magnification with a narrow, 12.5° FOV). These periscopes can be mechanically engaged by the tracking radar and automatically aimed at the target for preliminary identification. A laser rangefinder

2573-574: The Gepard is more effective and hence more cost-effective than more advanced and expensive air defence systems such NASAMS or IRIS-T missiles, while being less politically sensitive as they only have a limited effective range. The London-based think tank, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) wrote: "In general, gun systems are preferred over missiles where possible due to the much lower cost per engagement and higher availability of ammunition compared with SAMs and MANPADS". Gepard

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2656-549: The air, and other adjustments. Around 1905, mechanical fire control aids began to become available, such as the Dreyer Table , Dumaresq (which was also part of the Dreyer Table), and Argo Clock , but these devices took a number of years to become widely deployed. These devices were early forms of rangekeepers . Arthur Pollen and Frederic Charles Dreyer independently developed the first such systems. Pollen began working on

2739-418: The amount of information that must be manually entered in order to calculate an effective solution. Sonar, radar, IRST and range-finders can give the system the direction to and/or distance of the target. Alternatively, an optical sight can be provided that an operator can simply point at the target, which is easier than having someone input the range using other methods and gives the target less warning that it

2822-539: The analog rangekeepers, at least for the US Navy, was in the 1991 Persian Gulf War when the rangekeepers on the Iowa -class battleships directed their last rounds in combat. An early use of fire-control systems was in bomber aircraft , with the use of computing bombsights that accepted altitude and airspeed information to predict and display the impact point of a bomb released at that time. The best known United States device

2905-657: The astonishing feat of shooting down V-1 cruise missiles with less than 100 shells per plane (thousands were typical in earlier AA systems). This system was instrumental in the defense of London and Antwerp against the V-1. Although listed in Land based fire control section anti-aircraft fire control systems can also be found on naval and aircraft systems. In the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps , Coast Artillery fire control systems began to be developed at

2988-668: The barrels and distortion due to heating. These sorts of effects are noticeable for any sort of gun, and fire-control computers have started appearing on smaller and smaller platforms. Tanks were one early use that automated gun laying had, using a laser rangefinder and a barrel-distortion meter. Fire-control computers are useful not just for aiming large cannons , but also for aiming machine guns , small cannons, guided missiles , rifles , grenades , and rockets —any kind of weapon that can have its launch or firing parameters varied. They are typically installed on ships , submarines , aircraft , tanks and even on some small arms —for example,

3071-555: The bearings and elevations for the guns to fire upon. In the turrets, the gunlayers adjusted the elevation of their guns to match an indicator for the elevation transmitted from the Fire Control table—a turret layer did the same for bearing. When the guns were on target they were centrally fired. Even with as much mechanization of the process, it still required a large human element; the Transmitting Station (the room that housed

3154-660: The condition of powder used, or the Earth's rotation. Provisions were also made for adjusting firing data for the observed fall of shells. As shown in Figure 2, all of these data were fed back to the plotting rooms on a finely tuned schedule controlled by a system of time interval bells that rang throughout each harbor defense system. It was only later in World War II that electro-mechanical gun data computers , connected to coast defense radars, began to replace optical observation and manual plotting methods in controlling coast artillery. Even then,

3237-616: The control of the gun laying from the individual turrets to a central position; although individual gun mounts and multi-gun turrets would retain a local control option for use when battle damage limited director information transfer (these would be simpler versions called "turret tables" in the Royal Navy). Guns could then be fired in planned salvos, with each gun giving a slightly different trajectory. Dispersion of shot caused by differences in individual guns, individual projectiles, powder ignition sequences, and transient distortion of ship structure

3320-403: The direction and elevation of the guns. Pollen aimed to produce a combined mechanical computer and automatic plot of ranges and rates for use in centralised fire control. To obtain accurate data of the target's position and relative motion, Pollen developed a plotting unit (or plotter) to capture this data. To this he added a gyroscope to allow for the yaw of the firing ship. Like the plotter,

3403-505: The end of the 19th century and progressed on through World War II. Early systems made use of multiple observation or base end stations (see Figure 1 ) to find and track targets attacking American harbors. Data from these stations were then passed to plotting rooms , where analog mechanical devices, such as the plotting board , were used to estimate targets' positions and derive firing data for batteries of coastal guns assigned to interdict them. U.S. Coast Artillery forts bristled with

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3486-479: The fall of shot. Visual range measurement (of both target and shell splashes) was difficult prior to the availability of radar. The British favoured coincidence rangefinders while the Germans favoured the stereoscopic type . The former were less able to range on an indistinct target but easier on the operator over a long period of use, the latter the reverse. Submarines were also equipped with fire control computers for

3569-409: The fire control computer became integrated with ordnance systems, the computer can take the flight characteristics of the weapon to be launched into account. By the start of World War II , aircraft altitude performance had increased so much that anti-aircraft guns had similar predictive problems, and were increasingly equipped with fire-control computers. The main difference between these systems and

3652-425: The firing solution based upon the observation of preceding shots. The resulting directions, known as a firing solution , would then be fed back out to the turrets for laying. If the rounds missed, an observer could work out how far they missed by and in which direction, and this information could be fed back into the computer along with any changes in the rest of the information and another shot attempted. At first,

3735-457: The future fighting vehicle for the Bundeswehr in 1975, but the Bundeswehr stopped the project in 1978 due to lack of funds. Nevertheless, Porsche continued development, because of interest from other countries. The Bundeswehr eventually ordered 343 of the vehicles in 1985. The Wiesel was introduced as a new weapon system for the Bundeswehr with deliveries beginning in the late 1980s. The vehicle

3818-615: The guns "take an hour-and-a-half to reload", thus limiting their effectiveness. The guns can be elevated to almost a 90-degree vertical angle. There are two main variants of Gepard; the German Gepard and the Dutch CA1, nicknamed the 'Cheetah'. The Dutch variant has a different radar installation. [REDACTED]   Germany Gepard 1 Gepard 1A1 Gepard 1A2 [REDACTED]   Netherlands CA1 'Cheetah' The Gepard has been deployed by Ukraine in its defense against

3901-508: The guns were aimed using the technique of artillery spotting . It involved firing a gun at the target, observing the projectile's point of impact (fall of shot), and correcting the aim based on where the shell was observed to land, which became more and more difficult as the range of the gun increased. Between the American Civil War and 1905, numerous small improvements, such as telescopic sights and optical rangefinders , were made in fire control. There were also procedural improvements, like

3984-460: The individual gun crews. Director control aims all guns on the ship at a single target. Coordinated gunfire from a formation of ships at a single target was a focus of battleship fleet operations. Corrections are made for surface wind velocity, firing ship roll and pitch, powder magazine temperature, drift of rifled projectiles, individual gun bore diameter adjusted for shot-to-shot enlargement, and rate of change of range with additional modifications to

4067-484: The individual gun turrets to the director tower (where the sighting instruments were located) and the analogue computer in the heart of the ship. In the director tower, operators trained their telescopes on the target; one telescope measured elevation and the other bearing. Rangefinder telescopes on a separate mounting measured the distance to the target. These measurements were converted by the Fire Control Table into

4150-466: The infantry of the West German Bundeswehr , especially airborne infantry, were considered unprepared to successfully fight enemy main battle tanks (MBT) in the 1970s. The requirements were that the vehicle should fit in common NATO transport planes and could eventually be air-dropped. It should be able to fight infantry as well as enemy tanks or aircraft. Porsche produced some prototypes of

4233-464: The manual methods were retained as a back-up through the end of the war. Land based fire control systems can be used to aid in both Direct fire and Indirect fire weapon engagement. These systems can be found on weapons ranging from small handguns to large artillery weapons. Modern fire-control computers, like all high-performance computers, are digital. The added performance allows basically any input to be added, from air density and wind, to wear on

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4316-538: The ones on ships was size and speed. The early versions of the High Angle Control System , or HACS, of Britain 's Royal Navy were examples of a system that predicted based upon the assumption that target speed, direction, and altitude would remain constant during the prediction cycle, which consisted of the time to fuze the shell and the time of flight of the shell to the target. The USN Mk 37 system made similar assumptions except that it could predict assuming

4399-434: The operational status of the tank. The auxiliary engine is coupled with five generators to operate at different speeds: Two Metadyn machines in tandem with a flywheel (which is used to store energy during the acceleration and deceleration of the turret) for the power of the elevation and traverse drives, two 380 Hz three-phase generators with a capacity of 20 kVA for the ventilation, fire-control and radar systems, and

4482-471: The plane maintain a constant attitude (usually level), though dive-bombing sights were also common. The LABS system was originally designed to facilitate a tactic called toss bombing , to allow the aircraft to remain out of range of a weapon's blast radius . The principle of calculating the release point, however, was eventually integrated into the fire control computers of later bombers and strike aircraft, allowing level, dive and toss bombing. In addition, as

4565-538: The primitive gyroscope of the time required substantial development to provide continuous and reliable guidance. Although the trials in 1905 and 1906 were unsuccessful, they showed promise. Pollen was encouraged in his efforts by the rapidly rising figure of Admiral Jackie Fisher , Admiral Arthur Knyvet Wilson and the Director of Naval Ordnance and Torpedoes (DNO), John Jellicoe . Pollen continued his work, with occasional tests carried out on Royal Navy warships. Meanwhile,

4648-402: The problem after noting the poor accuracy of naval artillery at a gunnery practice near Malta in 1900. Lord Kelvin , widely regarded as Britain's leading scientist first proposed using an analogue computer to solve the equations which arise from the relative motion of the ships engaged in the battle and the time delay in the flight of the shell to calculate the required trajectory and therefore

4731-414: The range of the guns that the main problem became aiming them while the ship was moving on the waves. This problem was solved with the introduction of the gyroscope , which corrected this motion and provided sub-degree accuracies. Guns were now free to grow to any size, and quickly surpassed 10 inches (250 mm) calibre by the 1890s. These guns were capable of such great range that the primary limitation

4814-675: The rangekeeper. The effectiveness of this combination was demonstrated in November 1942 at the Third Battle of Savo Island when the USS ; Washington engaged the Japanese battleship Kirishima at a range of 8,400 yards (7.7 km) at night. Kirishima was set aflame, suffered a number of explosions, and was scuttled by her crew. She had been hit by at least nine 16-inch (410 mm) rounds out of 75 fired (12% hit rate). The wreck of Kirishima

4897-417: The rear of the turret, which provides a 15 km hemispherical detection range and has an integrated MSR 400 Mk XII interrogator for automated target discrimination. The K u band tracking radar also developed by Siemens-Albis has a 15 km range and is mounted at the front of the turret, between the guns; its dome-covered antenna is mounted on a powered base which can traverse in a 180° arc. Additionally,

4980-414: The same reasons, but their problem was even more pronounced; in a typical "shot", the torpedo would take one to two minutes to reach its target. Calculating the proper "lead" given the relative motion of the two vessels was very difficult, and torpedo data computers were added to dramatically improve the speed of these calculations. In a typical World War II British ship the fire control system connected

5063-441: The scrapyard which they planned to refurbish and ship by spring but only 4 of them arrived to Ukraine as of 11 July 2023. In May 2023, 15 Gepards sold to Qatar in 2020 were purchased back by Germany for more than double the purchase price. All 52 Gepards pledged by Germany were delivered to Ukraine by 22 December 2023. An additional 15 Gepards with 259,680 rounds of ammunition were pledged by Germany on 17 January 2024. According to

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5146-401: The target or flying the aircraft. Even if the system is unable to aim the weapon itself, for example the fixed cannon on an aircraft, it is able to give the operator cues on how to aim. Typically, the cannon points straight ahead and the pilot must maneuver the aircraft so that it oriented correctly before firing. In most aircraft the aiming cue takes the form of a " pipper " which is projected on

5229-429: The target ship could move a considerable distance, several ship lengths, between the time the shells were fired and landed. One could no longer eyeball the aim with any hope of accuracy. Moreover, in naval engagements it is also necessary to control the firing of several guns at once. Naval gun fire control potentially involves three levels of complexity. Local control originated with primitive gun installations aimed by

5312-410: The target. Often, satellites or balloons are used to gather this information. Once the firing solution is calculated, many modern fire-control systems are also able to aim and fire the weapon(s). Once again, this is in the interest of speed and accuracy, and in the case of a vehicle like an aircraft or tank, in order to allow the pilot/gunner/etc. to perform other actions simultaneously, such as tracking

5395-482: The use of plotting boards to manually predict the position of a ship during an engagement. Then increasingly sophisticated mechanical calculators were employed for proper gun laying , typically with various spotters and distance measures being sent to a central plotting station deep within the ship. There the fire direction teams fed in the location, speed and direction of the ship and its target, as well as various adjustments for Coriolis effect , weather effects on

5478-405: The vehicle from a plane with parachutes was tested, but was not successful; four test-vehicles were destroyed. Nevertheless, the Wiesel can easily be flown in by transport helicopters, a single CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter can fly in two at once, and common transport planes can carry four or more Wiesel vehicles. The larger Wiesel 2 has almost twice as much internal volume as its predecessor, and

5561-444: The weapon, and the computer then did so at a calculated "release point" some seconds later. This is very different from previous systems, which, though they had also become computerized, still calculated an "impact point" showing where the bomb would fall if the bomb were released at that moment. The key advantage is that the weapon can be released accurately even when the plane is maneuvering. Most bombsights until this time required that

5644-672: Was considered superior to the Russian Pantsir system's autocannon. Ukraine allegedly suffered its first Gepard loss in April 2023 to a Lancet loitering munition , although the full video shows the Gepard relatively intact after the impact. Obtaining ammunition was initially difficult as Switzerland – owing to its neutrality – forbade Germany and Denmark to transfer their stocks of Swiss-made rounds, and refused to supply its own surplus, forcing Germany to rely on other sources for ammunition. A July 2022 delivery of ammunition manufactured in Norway

5727-616: Was decided to use the 35 mm type. In 1971, twelve second phase B prototypes were ordered. In 1971 the Dutch army ordered a CA preseries of five vehicles based on a parallel development that had used a West German 0-series Leopard 1 vehicle made available by the West German government in March 1970 as the C-prototype. The Germans made a small preseries of both the B1 and B2R. In February 1973, the political decision

5810-480: Was delayed as tests showed that they could not be fired by the Gepard. This issue was resolved by August and about 50,000 Norwegian-made rounds had been received by the end of September, according to Ukraine's Armed Forces. Photos from the German tabloid Bild of the Gepard with a Ukrainian crew include high-explosive incendiary (HEI) rounds (where the projectile is yellow with a red band) made by e.g. Norwegian Nammo . In December 2022, Rheinmetall committed to

5893-471: Was developed during the 1960s as a replacement for the M42 Duster . Two projects were investigated. These were the ‘Matador’ (designed by Rheinmetall , AEG , Siemens , and Krauss-Maffei ) and the ‘5PFZ-A’ (designed by Oerlikon , Contraves , Siemens-Albis, Hollandse Signaalapparaten and Kraus-Maffei/Porsche ). In 1969, construction began of four A prototypes testing both 30 and 35 mm guns. In June 1970, it

5976-435: Was discovered in 1992 and showed that the entire bow section of the ship was missing. The Japanese during World War II did not develop radar or automated fire control to the level of the US Navy and were at a significant disadvantage. By the 1950s gun turrets were increasingly unmanned, with gun laying controlled remotely from the ship's control centre using inputs from radar and other sources. The last combat action for

6059-529: Was fielded for the three Airborne Brigades. The vehicle is based on the hull of the Leopard 1 tank with a large fully rotating turret carrying the armament—a pair of 35 mm Oerlikon KDA autocannons. The Gepard is based on a slightly modified chassis of the Leopard 1 main battle tank, including the complete drive unit with a 37.4-liter 10-cylinder multi-fuel engine (type: MB 838 CaM 500) with two mechanical superchargers built by MTU Aero Engines . The V-engine with

6142-555: Was high up over the ship where operators had a superior view over any gunlayer in the turrets . It was also able to co-ordinate the fire of the turrets so that their combined fire worked together. This improved aiming and larger optical rangefinders improved the estimate of the enemy's position at the time of firing. The system was eventually replaced by the improved " Admiralty Fire Control Table " for ships built after 1927. During their long service life, rangekeepers were updated often as technology advanced, and by World War II they were

6225-610: Was made to produce the type. In September 1973 the contract was signed with Krauss-Maffei for 432 B2 turrets and 420 hulls with a total value of DM 1,200,000,000. Each vehicle would be about three times the price of a normal Leopard 1. The first was delivered in December 1976. Belgium ordered 55 vehicles, which were identical to the German version. The Netherlands ordered 95 vehicles (designated Cheetah PRTL or Pantser Rups Tegen Luchtdoelen ), split into three batches (CA1, CA2 and CA3), which were equipped with Philips radar systems. Since

6308-463: Was named Wiesel (" weasel ") because of its small size and agility, which make it very difficult to detect on the battlefield. Production of the Wiesel 1 ended in 1993. Of 343 Wiesel 1 vehicles, 210 were armed with Raytheon TOW wire-guided anti-tank guided missile system and 133 have the one-man KUKA turret E6-II-A1 armed with the dual-feed Rheinmetall Mk 20 RH-202 20 mm autocannon . Germany deployed both types to Somalia in 1993 as part of

6391-455: Was provided on vehicles upgraded to the B2L standard, and installed atop the antenna housing for the tracking radar. The Gepard utilizes two Oerlikon GDF , 90 calibres (3.15 m (10 ft 4 in)) long, with a muzzle velocity of 1,440 m/s (4,700 ft/s) ( FAPDS (Frangible Armour Piercing Discarding Sabot) rounds), giving an effective range of 5.5 km (3.4 miles). The ammunition

6474-405: Was seeing the target, leading to the use of high masts on ships. Another technical improvement was the introduction of the steam turbine which greatly increased the performance of the ships. Earlier reciprocating engine powered capital ships were capable of perhaps 16 knots, but the first large turbine ships were capable of over 20 knots. Combined with the long range of the guns, this meant that

6557-450: Was the Norden bombsight . Simple systems, known as lead computing sights also made their appearance inside aircraft late in the war as gyro gunsights . These devices used a gyroscope to measure turn rates, and moved the gunsight's aim-point to take this into account, with the aim point presented through a reflector sight . The only manual "input" to the sight was the target distance, which

6640-410: Was the limit. The performance of the analog computer was impressive. The battleship USS  North Carolina during a 1945 test was able to maintain an accurate firing solution on a target during a series of high-speed turns. It is a major advantage for a warship to be able to maneuver while engaging a target. Night naval engagements at long range became feasible when radar data could be input to

6723-513: Was typically handled by dialing in the size of the target's wing span at some known range. Small radar units were added in the post-war period to automate even this input, but it was some time before they were fast enough to make the pilots completely happy with them. The first implementation of a centralized fire control system in a production aircraft was on the B-29 . By the start of the Vietnam War,

6806-562: Was undesirably large at typical naval engagement ranges. Directors high on the superstructure had a better view of the enemy than a turret mounted sight, and the crew operating them were distant from the sound and shock of the guns. Gun directors were topmost, and the ends of their optical rangefinders protruded from their sides, giving them a distinctive appearance. Unmeasured and uncontrollable ballistic factors, like high-altitude temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, wind direction and velocity, required final adjustment through observation of

6889-512: Was used to direct air defense artillery since 1943. The MIT Radiation Lab's SCR-584 was the first radar system with automatic following, Bell Laboratory 's M-9 was an electronic analog fire-control computer that replaced complicated and difficult-to-manufacture mechanical computers (such as the Sperry M-7 or British Kerrison predictor). In combination with the VT proximity fuze , this system accomplished

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