XBradTC

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XBradTC

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Vulcan/Chaparral

This film is from circa 1965. Even in 1990, the Vulcan/Chaparral/FAAR team formed the backbone of the armored/mechanized infantry division’s Air Defense Artillery battalion, though by that time, there were also several FIM-92 Stinger missile teams available. Some of the platoon and company life fire gunnery ranges at Graf in Germany were especially fun when,…

This film is from circa 1965. Even in 1990, the Vulcan/Chaparral/FAAR team formed the backbone of the armored/mechanized infantry division’s Air Defense Artillery battalion, though by that time, there were also several FIM-92 Stinger missile teams available.

Some of the platoon and company life fire gunnery ranges at Graf in Germany were especially fun when, as a dismount grunt, I could stand right next to an M163 Vulcan, and watch it dispatch bursts at targets.

By 1990, both systems were clearly obsolete, and would be hard pressed to successfully engage most any Soviet aircraft, and even struggle with helicopters such as the formidable Mi-24.  The Vulcan had been slated to be replaced by the M247 SGT York 40mm gun* but the failure of that program meant the Vulcan and the Chapparal eventually were both replaced by the Stinger missile, and a lot of hope that Stinger would be enough.

*Which, the Vulcan itself replaced the earlier M42 40mm gun carriage, popularly known as the “Duster.”

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  1. Craig Swain

    “Even in 1990, the Vulcan/Chaparral/FAAR team formed the backbone of the armored/mechanized infantry division’s Air Defense Artillery battalion…”

    The FAAR was out of the MTOE for the divisional ADA battalions by 1991. Replaced by the wildly optimistic notion of having the radar operators switch to binoculars and establish OPs looking for enemy fast movers. I think the draft manual for that concept is still in my papers. The doctrine writers essentially did a find for “radar” and replaced it with “observers.”

    As if the Battle of Britain never happened….

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  2. timactual

    And now we also have to develop something to take care of drones. I don’t think drone-on-drone will work too well.

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  3. rocketguy

    I know a guy involved in Chaparral CMS to Egypt. I commented that, maybe, sells those folks SAMs wasn’t a great idea. He said something about being there for a demo firing years ago and the benefits of giving those folks false optimism. Apparently, he wasn’t impressed.

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  4. rocketguy

    Stupid spell check…FMS as in Foreign Military Sales…

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  5. Casey Tompkins

    Actually most of the sightings were made by the Mark I eyeball… 🙂

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  6. Buck Buchanan

    Historical side note meets MTOE

    In 1987 I was doing an OC of the 218 Separate Armor Brigade out of the South Carolina ARNG. Their mission was Rear Battle for Vth Corps in Germany…in other words, fight the Soviet SPECOPS units dropping into the rear of the main combat units. They were a 3 mech battalion/1 armor battalion/1 FA battalion brigade to defend the rear area. They were augmented with an ADA battery out of the Massachusetts ARNG equipped with 4 platoons of…M42 Dusters by MTOE with a Redeye platoon as well.

    The battery officers were convinced the M42s would make mincemeat of MI-8s and MI-24s. Can;t say I’d disagree.

    And it was awesome to watch them shoot gunnery!!!

    PS: They were equipped with M48A5s while waiting to get their M60A3s handed down to them when our divisional armor battaliosn upgraded to M1s.

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