http://mil.news.sina.com.cn/2008-04-08/1058494100.html
美國陸軍測試未來戰鬥系統用XM360坦克炮

http://www.sina.com.cn 2008年04月08日 10:58 新華網

　　新華網消息，據美國《陸軍時報》網站4月5日報導 美國陸軍最近測試了新式未來戰鬥系統用坦克炮。

　　在3月14日，美國陸軍在馬里蘭州亞伯丁試驗場測試了新式坦克炮XM360。這是美國陸軍對首批6門坦克炮評估的一部分。

　　在紐約沃特弗裏特的美國陸軍貝內特實驗室(the Army's Benét Laboratories)工作的設計組長大衛•斯密斯稱，120毫米的炮是目前世界上最先進最輕的炮。

　　但是，4100磅重的XM360炮卻要比美軍"艾布拉姆斯"主戰坦克上的120毫米炮輕三分之一。由於這種炮採用了一種特種鋼，因此被設計來攻擊遠達8公里的移動目標以及遠達12公里的靜止目標，這要遠遠超過目前"艾布拉姆斯"炮的4公里攻擊距離。

　　XM360打算安裝在未來戰鬥系統八車(包括車載戰鬥系統(MCS)、指揮控制車(C2V)、偵查監視車(RSV)、步兵輸送車(ICV)、FCS搶修車(FMRV)、醫療後送車(MV)、非瞄準線火炮(NLOS-C)和非瞄準線迫擊炮(NLOS-M)之一的車載戰鬥系統上。

　　將如此威力的炮放在一輛相對輕的戰車上要求創新思維。

　　為了解決這個問題，工程師們從一開始就將炮和戰車一起設計。這個炮的鼻部被開了一個小口子，這個約1.5英尺的區域有小孔來擴散火炮爆炸時的能量。這樣便不會有後坐力作用到戰車上。例如，"艾布拉姆斯"火炮開火時受到的後坐力為140000磅，而在未來車載戰鬥系統上，這個後坐力只能有85000磅。這樣炮火便不會震松戰車上的關鍵感測器和聯網裝置。

　　這種炮的原型將會在2011前誕生。(付志偉)

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/04/army_xm360_040508w/
Army tests new mounted gun

By Kris Osborn - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Apr 7, 2008 21:27:06 EDT
  
A large ball of fire burst from a 120mm barrel as the Army’s XM360 tank gun sent rounds at 1,300 meters per second through a mesh target 1 kilometer away at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. The March 14 test was part of the Army’s evaluation of the first six of the guns.

“The 120mm gun you are seeing here is the most advanced and the lightest in the world,” said Dave Smith, a design team leader with the Army’s Benét Laboratories in Watervliet, N.Y.

The 4,100-pound XM360 is about one-third lighter than the 120mm cannon on the Abrams tank, thanks to a special steel wrapped in composites, yet is designed to hit targets up to 8 kilometers away on the move and up to 12 kilometers while stationary, far more than the Abrams’ 4-kilometer range. Each gun will be expected to fire about 12,000 rounds during its lifespan.

“We wanted to have all those capabilities in a lighter package, a smaller package and a more durable package,” said Bob McAllister, the Mounted Combat System primary weapon assembly lead for General Dynamics Land Systems.

The XM360 is intended to go on the MCS, one of eight 27-ton vehicles under development for the Future Combat System. Putting such a powerful gun on a relatively light vehicle required innovation.

“Historically, there has been the ‘big gun, little vehicle’ problem, where the little vehicle comes apart eventually,” said Emory Thompson, the Aberdeen test center director for the XM360.

To solve that problem, engineers worked to design the gun and vehicle together from the start. The gun has a “muzzle break,” a 1.5-foot area filled with small holes to diffuse energy from the gun blast.

“With this gun, we are actually sending that blast to the sides as well as forward, so you don’t get the kickback into the vehicle,” Thompson said.

The muzzle break was redesigned several times through testing, using small blast overpressure gauges that measure the stress of firing the gun on the vehicle. For the Abrams, the trunnion reaction force — the force exerted on the vehicle when the gun fires — is 140,000 pounds. With MCS, the force is 85,000 pounds, FCS spokesman Paul Mehney said.

That’s important for making sure that firing isn’t going to shake loose the vehicle’s crucial sensors and networking gear, said Army Lt. Col. Bob Hannah, who manages the MCS program.

“The last thing we want is to shoot around and blast that stuff off. We want to make sure the sensors can overcome the pressure,” Hannah said.

The MCS will have an ammunition data link to provide the gun and its rounds with target information and a fire-control system that can share target information with nearby units, Hannah said.

“An Abrams has two separate sights, which use an ability we call ‘hunter-killer,’ where one sight finds the targets and marks it, quickly moving the gun to the target,” he said.

But the MCS will be able to use any fire-control-quality sensor on the battlefield network to line up its own gun, Hannah said: “We will gather the data, fuse the data and get everybody a common operational picture. Now, I have the ability to cue to anyone else’s targets.”

Prototypes will be ready by 2011, he said.

“Once they receive safety certification, the guns will be delivered to [General Dynamics Land Systems] for integration onto vehicles into a sequential manner. After the guns are done, we will take them out into a tactical situation for operational testing with soldiers,” Hannah said.

In the meantime, the Army intends to test by this fall the XM360 with the Mid-Range Munition (MRM), a high-tech 120mm guided round that can home in on a laser or use a 3-inch camera to look for patterns as it falls toward its target. With MRM rounds, the gun will be able to take incoming target data from, say, a UAV with a laser rangefinder.

Initial production of the Raytheon-General Dynamics MRM is slated for 2012, winding up a 63-month system-design-and-development phase, said Army officials at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J.