SMOKE & IR SCREEN AMMO BELTS FOR THE MK-19
Carlton Meyer
New weaponry has made tanks vulnerable on the modern battlefield. Ideally, American air power will pulverize enemy forces, leaving only stubborn foot infantry for ground forces to mop up. However, the world may rapidly change and our tanks could encounter modern weapons, or find themselves under attack by aircraft. Unfortunately, the M1A1 tanks' only countermeasure is to pop off some smoke. However, most modern anti-tank systems use targeting systems which are not affected by smoke, and even the smoke provides only a few seconds of cover.
The solution is to mount the MK-19 automatic grenade launcher in the commander's hatch to lay down masking fire at a rate of 350 rounds a minute. Various 40mm rounds must be developed for a "screen belt". Smoke rounds are already in service, but chaff is needed to confuse radar, and star-burst flares to confuse IR seeking warheads and blind IR sights. These shells would have randomly set fuses so that they explode between 50 and 1000 meters from the tank.
If 14 MK-19s from a 14-tank company opened fire with a mix of smoke, chaff, and star-burst flares, some 80 rounds a second would air-burst between the threat and the tanks. The air would come alive with a beautiful display of fireworks to thwart the attack. This would confuse all types of sensors, such as: laser spot seeking, fiber optic, acoustic, heat seeking, focal plane array, as well as radar and visually aimed missiles. Meanwhile, tanks could close with the enemy, or move to cover while air defense assets, such as Avengers and Ground-launched Hellfire systems, evaluate the situation, then open fire once the clutter clears.
These rounds would also confuse long-range "top attack" munitions launched from high-flying aircraft, tactical missiles, or artillery. Tank commanders could fire their MK-19s skyward to form an overhead screen while the tanks advance forward. A final use for screen belts may be found in urban combat. Infantrymen often need smoke screens and covering fire to advance; screen belts could clutter the air for several minutes. In addition, tanks cannot chase stubborn infantrymen out of buildings, but firing a few hundred smoke and star-burst shells into windows should make them leave. Finally, tanks may confront huge angry mobs of civilians, firing 40mm screen belt ammo to explode overhead should frighten and disperse the crowd.
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e-mail May 1998