The US Army is developing a smart anti-tank mine that detects the sounds of enemy vehicles and then destroys them with an armor-piercing slug — from above:
“It can ‘hear’ tracked vehicles and feel them coming,” an Army researcher said in a press release. “When it does, it uses a mechanism that starts tracking the vehicle. When the threat-tracked vehicle is a certain distance away, the XM204 will shoot a submunition into the air to fire the warhead down at the target within its zone of authority.”
A Textron executive told Jane’s that each XM204 weighs about 80 pounds. The acoustic sensor detects oncoming vehicles and a Doppler radar pinpoints a vehicle’s exact location.
We had similar autonomous mines 30 years ago. They were never fielded beyond testing that I know of, despite working rather well.
Presumably the Chinese & Russian armies will henceforth fly cheap drones ahead of their advancing forces broadcasting suitable frequency sound waves to trigger those large expensive mines prematurely.
The trouble with these wonder weapons is that they never make it into the field. Too many bells and whistles. What makes a good prototype is not what makes a workable weapon in the hands of an 11B with a minimal ASVAB score. And we won’t even get into supply line issues. The military has been using that crappy 5.56 round since the 60s and no one likes it except the pogues. Institutionalized mediocrity
There are reasons why American soldiers shoot a glorified .22. Arguably there’s no magic bullet.
Expensive, heavy whiz-bang. Theres profit in them gizmos. There will be, of course, an expensive machine to carry them from the depot to the front.
I know all the ballistics etc., Load weights and so on. Also carried an M16 through the M4 as well as every other Infantry weapon. A rifle is a tool to fit certain needs. And actual combat soldiers and Marines prefer something more then a .22 magnum in the field. If one has actually been under fire anyway. No one gives a grunt an option unless he makes it to Spec Ops. And I guaran freaking you won’t find that caliber as a primary armament
“The military has been using that crappy 5.56 round since the 60s and no one likes it except the pogues.”
Protip: don’t say this around actual soldiers unless you want to be laughed out of the room.
25 years in combat arm. How many tours did you do?