How does this still happen? With our tech, how are we getting shot down by crap ass RPG launchers from umpteen years ago?

Seriously? Some of the tech I have seen the military use makes me feel like there's no reason this can't be very easily prevented.

On board computer + Infared scanning + active radar + computer controlled cannon = rocket fail?

I don't see why we can't rig a computer up to a 360 wide view infared scanning device, and when it detects quick increases in heat (such as that from a rocket) it then pings radar rapidly to determine speed/trajectory of said rocket/grenade, then calculate the necessary shot to take it out, all before it hits.

I'm well aware that RPGs travel at tremendous speeds, unlike what they appear in video games (which is most people's reference to an RPG). But a computer should be able to have it targeted within fractions of a second from detecting the temperature increase on the infared.

Thoughts? Am I just way too imaginative?

An anti-RPG system needs to be these things:

Cheap
Reliable
Simple

Pick one.

Reliable? I mean, the choppers already cost (hundreds of?) millions of dollars... whats a few more on the tax payer's back? If it prevents losing a chopper and lives, then it pays for itself in one save.

Maybe we need better pilots, that's cheaper, more reliable and simplier.

I don't think a good pilot could dodge an RPG, but that probably depends on if he even saw it, or could see it.

Abstinence is the answer.

All it takes is simple manipulation of the wonton neutrinofields and then just concentrate the *trails off into the other room*

No, not hundreds of millions. An AH-64 is about 16 million. I can't fault your desire for such systems, they're just not feasible. "Dumb" weapon systems don't really give much of a signature to react to. They also aren't defeatable in the same manner.

Blind squirrel, meet nut....

I don't really see why not? Especially with laser tech getting better and better, before long those will be used as anti-missle devices.

They already are. But the size energy requirements are enormous. Only recently did Boeing manage to get one onto a plane.

Yeah I saw that, but as always, another decade and it'll be small enough to put on most aircraft.

This kind of false belief in the progress of technology is worrisome...

Are you also the type of person that believes in a decade we'll have home versions of the large hadron collider?

You're making a gross overstatement there. Reducing a power source in size is not such a far fetched idea, especially when government budgets are behind it.

Government budgets which are already stretched so thin by trying to replace decades old weapons to begin with?

Yes, those. Our military budget isn't as 'thin' as people think, or they would have you believe. We've got one of the (if not THE) highest military budgets in the world. That's not even accounting for war funding. So I think we can make it happen.

But this isn't meant to be a development debate thread, more of a wtf military fail thread.

Wow, really? No other nation comes even remotely close. The United States spends about as much as the rest of the world on its military. But the rest of the world isn't engaged in two wars, either. The military budget is indeed stretched thin. Just ask any grunt.

Asking a grunt isn't the place to get budget info, it's not like the government is out to make the grunt's job cushy. This thread is ruined.

Actually it was a thread about MEPS, but I suppose that's long gone.

But you're the guy who thinks a helicopter might cost hundreds of millions of dollars... So I'm not sure where you get your budget information. You know it's not just a bottomless well... It will run out eventually, and we don't be able to borrow any more.

The other thread is the MEPS thread. This one is about the military being sucky because helicopters can't autonomously shoot incoming rockets out of the sky. Stupid military.

Why not?

They can't even afford to get as many counter battery systems as they want. What makes you so sure they could afford to develop and fit every bird with a smaller system that accomplishes are more difficult task?

Your claim that the military budget isn't as 'thin' as we would think is based on fantasy. I don't know how you can decide that we have tons of cash reserves, just because we spend more than many countries on defense. How are you determining this? Comparing a few statistics out of context and making wild assumptions, it looks like. You also need to consider that we have, let's say, the largest and most sophisticated Naval and Air Forces in the world. That's not cheap.

Consider also that there are much bigger threats to many more service members than helicopters getting shot down. The idea that they would drop everything and rush to plug one of their smaller holes is asinine.

Actually, it's pretty funny that he posed the question to "you Military guys" and then disregards the common military man's opinion.

Oh yeah... I guess this isn't the MEPS thread... I got confused somehow...

So yeah... Honestly the basic answer is "there is no reasonable, cheap way to protect helicopters from RPGs"

Haha, and are we really saying "you know... if we put some LASERS on the helicopters, they could shoot down those RPGS... yeah.... LASERS man... btw lets dig up that STAR WARS program..."

I was just considering that, actually.

Not even that. I'd wager that he's pulling it entirely out of his ass.

It's really nothing to do with money.

There's only like one anti-rpg system that might qualify as "light weight" enough to fit on an aircraft and I doubt it can discern between an RPG and anything it might be moving past at 200+mph nor can it be fitted to everywhere it needs to be.

tl;dr - Tough titties.

The Russians have had one for almost 15 years.

Counter Reactive Armor is probably what you have heard of. On the T-62 or T-72 Soviet main Battle tank they carried these "blocks" surrounding most areas around the turret, when hit by the enemy the reactive armor would explode away the armor piercing projectile.

I read somewhere that a US research department is trying to develope a radar reactive deflecting device that when an enemy projectile comes within a certain range, these counter measure explosions take place to repel the incoming projectile. I just need to google this up unless Im dreaming up something that hasn't happened yet.

Que Tony Stark..

Aimbots

As one Marine recently told me in regards to his Sea Stallion chopper: A well thrown spoon could take down one of these.

It sure seems like that when you ride in them sometimes.

I didn't notice in the story, or perhaps it didn't specify which type of chopper was downed. So guesstimating a price tag seemed like the right thing to do.



What?

I think the choppers are worth more than a humvee and a handful of troops to the goverment. Sorry for the crappy link, but that tech is real.



That's because this wasn't supposed to be a budget thread, more of a tech thread.




Really? If you think Laser technology is still science fiction then you should read more.

Fun fact: Antony's post contains no references to science fiction whatsoever.

I was assuming he was both being sarcastic, and referencing THE MOVIE, not a 40 year old military project that barely has anything to do with what I'm talking about.

Or am I still wrong? Meh.

Yes, because "Star Wars program" always refers to the movies.

I'm thinking KOP doesn't know much about lasers.

We can always use lasers to shoot things down, Baconfish. That's what they're for!

Haven't you ever seen Real Genius?

now I want some popcorn

me too... and some yogurt