NON Politcal, Flight Related Gulf War II Question

[Scorpiоn]

Again, one thing before I start:
[glb]THIS IS NOT A POLITICAL POST!!![/glb]

Erhem.

[Craig.]

pretty much. i believe its the steady stream of bullets. and 1 tracer bullet for every 13 bullets fired(not sure on tha going on news report) still a pretty effective method to take out low flying aircraft and even cruise missiles which dont have very effective methods to avoid that sort of fire

[Tequila Sunrise]

AA and AAA are still in use pretty much evrey where, NATO ships carry the Phalanx CIWS (basically a Vulcan I think), then theres ZSUs as well. Guns and ammo are relativly cheap compared to SAMs and can be highly effective against low flying or slow aircraft. Also flack can't be countered unless you see it comming up.

[Scorpiоn]

Interesting... Is there a good source where I could find out more information, but without it assuming I practically have a copy of the thing's blueprints on hand?

[ozzy72]

Scorpion, try the two links below, these describe the 2 main AA guns used by Iraqi forces.
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land ... u-23-4.htm
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land ... u-57-2.htm

Ozzy

[Professor Brensec]

Would have thought that these days, at least some of the AAA would be Radar controlled or similar.
I know there was technology of this kind towards the end of WWII.

As for the manually operated AAA, you can get lucky.
A number of US jet aircraft were brought down in Vietnam by small arms fire.  ;D

[Smoke2much]

Brensec is right.  The germans were using both radar target aquisition and fire control by 1944.  Then we started jamming it, RAF bomber command losses were reduced as a direct result.  

Will

[Scorpiоn]

One more thing, what are those huge blobs of light we always see streaking into the sky?

[Professor Brensec]

Other than very large flak tracers (if there is such a thing). Could they be some kind of flare, to light up any aircraft in the sky?

I may be showing my complete ignorance of modern warfare techniques here, but what are ya gonna do?  ;D

[Blade]

Those ZSU's ARE radar guided. You can see the dish on this pic. The ZSU-23 is VERY bad news if you are flying low.

[img]http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/row/zsu-23-4-DDST8407792_JPG.jpg
[/img]

If you live in the US and around a possible terrorist target you might have seen one of these.
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/avenger.htm



Its the Avenger mobile short range defense system. Carrying 8 Stingers with multiple reloads.

Also this is this one, the M163 Vulcan system.
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m163.htm




Now to awnser your question Skorpion those huge blobs going up into the sky are most likely SAM's.

[BFMF]

[quote]A number of US jet aircraft were brought down in Vietnam by small arms fire.

[Professor Brensec]

I've seen this depicted in films quite a few times

I recall a particular movie in which the jet aircraft was bought down by small arms. Not sure of the movie, it may have been "Bat 21"?

You'd have to be pretty unlucky though..........