Quote:
Originally Posted by Timsel
I don`t understand why you discuss 30-mm projectiles - 36mm would be twice heavier.
If we look at soviet 37-mm cartrige for 37-mm cannon 61-K http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/37_mm_a...939_%2861-K%29
We can see that weight of the cartridge is about 1500 g and shell - 650-730 g.
MLA cartriges are caseless, but we must add the weight of the powder, so we could safely operate 900-1000 g weight for one cartrige.
That gives us about 20 tons (dont forget about weight of magasines). |
While I agree with your Methodology (excellent use of the Fermi Method, btw), I must disagree with your assumptions. You're comparing apples to oranges. That 37mm shell is for an antiaircraft gun. It is a surface to air weapon. It is fired from the ground to the air. As such, it will be substantially heavier than aircraft gun shells, because it must carry more propellant as it is firing up, and it is meant to engage targets at significantly greater ranges than aircraft autocannons.
The 36mm chaingun, on the other hand, is a further development of an aircraft weapon. As aircraft shoot at other aircraft, and at ground targets, they carry lighter shells than antiaircraft guns.
My figure is not an accurate figure. I freely admit that. But despite being a ballpark figure, I'd guess that it's a tad closer to an actual figure, particularly as I've used the two main US 30mm shells (30x113 NATO and 30x173 A-10) to give me comparisons to allow my ballparking.