Artillery shells in flight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UCEDJo9EtY&feature=related

Wow, that's a lot of shells raining down on some unlucky bunch. BTW why did rounds light up in that manner? Tracers or just really hot rounds?

That was an IR night-vision video. The shells heat up when they are fired, just like a bullet from a rifle. It appears that the shells were heated to a temperature at which they emit an IR light in the wavelength range that is visible to the IR night-vision device that they are using to film.

I think its an effect of the heat and night vision.
Sorry you beat me to it, I was watching videos.

That is AWESOME.

Someone downrange was not having a pleasant night.

That was an IR night-vision video. The shells heat up when they are fired, just like a bullet from a rifle. It appears that the shells were heated to a temperature at which they emit an IR light in the wavelength range that is visible to the IR night-vision device that they are using to film.

Or they could have been RAP rounds. I haven't seen any fired at night though. I usually dealt with them at the other end, at least the ones that didn't go off.

Base bleed projectiles perhaps?

would love to see what the other end looked like

That was an IR night-vision video. The shells heat up when they are fired, just like a bullet from a rifle. It appears that the shells were heated to a temperature at which they emit an IR light in the wavelength range that is visible to the IR night-vision device that they are using to film.

They seem to be heated up quite a bit to be producing that much IR light that can be seen over that great of a distance. I am inclined to believe that they are RAP as well. In fact, here is another version of the video that identifies them as such.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYR-H4Hgoz8

I don't understand the blobs that seem to hang for so long over the target. Are they flares from some different source? Or persistent images in the night vision scope? Or what?

Can you say shock and awe?
:eek:

All you're seeing in this vid is -

The muzzle flash of the launchers
The thing that's emitting whatever it is that the camera is detecting - probably fire
The explosions as the rounds find their targets.

The shots are probably over a distance of a few miles or more, so while it would seem that the video is in slowmo, and "Hey, I thought those things were going in excessive of 2000fps?" would be a good question, the answer very well could be, "Yes, they are going very fast, over a LONG range.. This aint the city, you can stare in a straight line that you couldn't walk across in a day."

The text comments at the bottom of the the second video clip indicate the rounds are DPICM Base Burn, not RAP.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/m864.htm

Nonetheless, impressive...

72 grenades per each shell....

that's got to be devastating at the receiving end!

Totally awesome. How do I buy a Howitzer?

The text comments at the bottom of the the second video clip indicate the rounds are DPICM Base Burn, not RAP.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...tions/m864.htm

Nonetheless, impressive...

Ah! Very good, and they say it during the video as well.

RAP or DPICM, those shells aren't glowing IR from the heat of just being fired.

The Crusader artillery system (currently shelved by Rumsfeld) is capable of firing seven projectiles at varying trajectory to time them for stimultaneous impact.

Someone had a very bad night.:D

Base burn technology was developed to reduce the amount of base drag on a projectile, thereby increasing the achieved range. The drag is reduced by a (base) burner unit located on the base of the projectile. This extended range system consists of small amounts of combustible material in an enclosure that is attached to the base of the projectile. After firing, the combustible material is exhausted through holes in the base of the projectile thereby increasing pressure in the base region and increasing the range of the round. Once ignited, the base burner unit bleeds hot gas which causes the flow of air at the base to be less turbulent. The decrease in turbulence causes less base drag. (Base drag accounts for about 50 percent of total drag.) The amount of thrust produced by the base burner unit is negligible and does not serve the same function as the rocket motor on RAP.

I wonder if such technology can be applied to the larger rifle bullets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UCEDJo9EtY&feature=related

Wow, that's a lot of shells raining down on some unlucky bunch. BTW why did rounds light up in that manner? Tracers or just really hot rounds?
Is it possible the target area is 71 miles away?

It took about 2.5 minutes on the video for the first rounds to impact downrange. Thats 150 seconds x 2,500fps velocity = 375,000 feet. Divide that by 5280 feet and you get 71 miles. Holy Sht!!!

Please correct me if I am wrong.

When we were outside of Carballa in 2003 our arty guys used the DPICM rounds every night on the Iraqi vehicles coming out of the city to fight. Those rounds glow visible to the naked eye. Also really cool when they pop and all the little explosions go off. Sounds kinda like bubble wrap. They the vehicle would sometimes blow up afterwards.

Very effective too. Only a few vehicles ever got close enough that our Brads and Abrams had to engage. And even then it was at like 2000 meters.

Twofifty Problem with your math is that the rounds slow down in flight. I think even the RAP rounds only go like max 40 miles.

Is it possible the target area is 71 miles away?

It took about 2.5 minutes on the video for the first rounds to impact downrange. Thats 150 seconds x 2,500fps velocity = 375,000 feet. Divide that by 5280 feet and you get 71 miles. Holy Sht!!!

Please correct me if I am wrong.

You are wrong.

For starters, the rounds slow down in flight. Second, that isn't 2500 fps straight forward. If they are taking that long to impact the target, a substantial amount of that energy is being used to push them upwards. Thus, the lateral velocity is substantially slower.

Thus, you have a lateral velocity that is substantially slower than 2500 fps, coupled with a decreasing velocity. No idea what the range really is though.

would love to see what the other end looked like

... from a DISTANCE!

The notes with the one video claims 14 miles.

Base bleed shells are not new. I am not sure of the validity of the Wiki article, but there is definitely some intrigue surrounding the developer of that technology. I was told by a source, that he originally offered it to the US military, and they told him to "piss off". He then ended up working for all sorts of countries. In the end he was assassinated, and the Israelis are cited as having been the trigger men, but the US was instrumental in having him killed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_bleed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Bull

It took about 2.5 minutes on the video for the first rounds to impact downrange.

I doubt it took anywhere near that long. I suspect you've been fooled by what you see on the video, but I don't know which of several possible ways is in play here.

I looked it up and couldn't find muzzle velocity numbers.
Effective range for the 155mm varies with the specific round design.
Wiki gives a number of range figures, out to about 36km.

shells are not new. I am not sure of the validity of the Wiki article, but there is definitely some intrigue surrounding the developer of that technology. I was told by a source, that he originally offered it to the US military, and they told him to "piss off". He then ended up working for all sorts of countries. In the end he was assassinated, and the Israelis are cited as having been the trigger men, but the US was instrumental in having him killed.

I believe the guy was named Bull and Mossad shot him in the hallway of his apt. building. He built some BIG guns that shot close to orbital altitudes, then the USA dropped further development. Saddam hired him to build the Tel Aviv
cannon that was built into a mountain side. The Brits stopped the shipment of the last few sections of the barrel to Iraq and the Israelis after numerous warnings to stop and his refusal, stopped it for him PERMANENTLY! At least thats the way I remember the situation. I'm so old I have a bad case of CRS.

Bul's life certainly was full of intrigue.

It is said he worked on the DoD-funded HARP (sp?) project in Vermont and the Carribean. Isn't he the inventor of the base burner technology mentioned above? It is a fact that Bul worked for Saddam Hussein...which resulted in Iraq having a couple super-guns that iirc never fired a round in anger - Israel would have been in range.

If Bul were still alive, it would be fascinating to see how far artillery capabilities would have been pushed.

To the OP, that was great footage.

And MR Durka Durka finds out the official definition of a bad day.