We need to place this highly innovative Chinese artillery shell to drone precision guidance kit in its military-technical perspective.
China has taken the late 1960's US idea of a laser bomb now kit and the late 1980's Australian Kerkanya glide wing and tail kit and
put...
1/
...them on 152/155mm artillery shells as a drone munitions.
Boeing took the Australian Kerkanya DSTO GTV technology demonstrator and later made the JDAM-ER.
China took the Paveway & JDAM-ER kit ideas and mashed them together for a much cheaper
2/
...precision guided munition than anything that can survive a 40,000 Gee force ballistic tube launch.
A M1156 precision guidance fuze costs $13,500 as compared with Excalibur’s $113,000 per round because of the mil-spec electronics.
3/
The COTS electronics on this Chinese shell guidance kit only have to survive the Fed-Ex drop & vibration tests at 1/10th the cost of a M1156 fuze.
Now from my point of view, the only 152/155mm shells that make sense for this Chinese guidance kits are time expired shells...
4/
...that are dangerous to shoot through a tube, AKA DPRK shells.
New 152/155mm shells should be used through a tube.
New 120mm mortar shells have three times the explosive content of a 152/155mm shell and are a better choice for these Chinese drone PGM kits.
5/
There is a western equivalent of the Chinese artillery shell guidance kit.
The BAE Australia Razer system is a wing/body kit, tail unit and guidance and navigation system designed to attach to 40-50-kg standard, non-guided munitions.
6/
The difference between the BAE Australia 2023 proposal and the 2025 Chinese kit is the latter is in serial production for Russia and the BAE in Oz kit is not.
This has grave implications for the impending Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
7/7
@threadreaderapp unroll please
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.