berenson@cookie.enet.dec.com (Deer, Dogs, and Runners: What are the favorite foods of Mountain Lions? 07-Feb-1991 0915) (02/08/91)
From: "Deer, Dogs, and Runners: What are the favorite foods of Mountain Lions? 07-Feb-1991 0915" <berenson@cookie.enet.dec.com> The original concept of the FOG-M was as an over the horizon anti-tank missle. With something like TOW, you must have line of sight to the target and the wire is only used to send steering signals to the missle. With laser guided missles, someone (on the ground or in the air) still has to be line of sight to the target. With a FOG-M, you launch in the direction of the battlefield. A camera in the missle transmits over the fiber and allows someone to guide the missle while staying out of harms way. The military never showed interest in this application of the missle. When DIVAD (Sgt. York) was cancelled, the Army went looking for a new point air defense system and actually ended up with three different systems for different applications. One of these was a proposal to use FOG-M as a non-line of sight anti-helicopter weapon. When a helicopter was detected using a hill for cover, and therefore only visible and vulnerable to Stinger (etc.) for brief periods, FOG-M would be used to take it out. The original beauty of FOG-M was simplicity, low-cost, and protection of the gunner. In trying to turn it into a SAM system, all that was lost. The concept is still applicable to, and probably infallable as, an anti-tank weapon. ............................................................................. Hal Berenson berenson@cookie.enet.dec.com -- Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are my own, not my employer's! --
gwh%tornado.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (George William Herbert) (02/13/91)
From: gwh%tornado.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (George William Herbert) In article <1991Feb8.013948.17818@cbnews.att.com> berenson@cookie.enet.dec.com (Deer, Dogs, and Runners: What are the favorite foods of Mountain Lions? 07-Feb-1991 0915) writes: >The original concept of the FOG-M was as an over the horizon anti-tank >missle. With something like TOW, you must have line of sight to the >target and the wire is only used to send steering signals to the missle. >With laser guided missles, someone (on the ground or in the air) still >has to be line of sight to the target. With a FOG-M, you launch in the >direction of the battlefield. A camera in the missle transmits over the >fiber and allows someone to guide the missle while staying out of harms >way. The military never showed interest in this application of the >missle. Not true. They didn't have a defined need for a beyond-visual-range AT missile. They still don't, though it's a neat idea, but they did come up with (albeit by accident) something else to do with it... >The original beauty of FOG-M was simplicity, low-cost, and protection of >the gunner. In trying to turn it into a SAM system, all that was lost. >The concept is still applicable to, and probably infallable as, an >anti-tank weapon. I find it hard to classify FOG-M as a weapon without simplicity and low cost. There were almost no changes made in the anti-helo capable model from the earlier test ones, and those were done to improve produceability. The first models were a TOW with a TV camera grafted on the nose. The newer ones are more optomized. == George William Herbert == * UNIX ate my last .sig, Waiting for Plan 9! * == JOAT for Hire: Anything, == ######### I do Naval Architecture, ########## ===+++ Anywhere, my price +++=== # Spacecraft Design, UNIX Systems Consulting # == gwh@soda.berkeley.edu == # RPG writing/development, and lots of other # == gwh@ocf.berkeley.edu == ## random stuff, of course. I'm a JOAT 8-) ##