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- From: renfro@geewhiz.ssc.gov (James Renfro)
- Newsgroups: sci.military
- Subject: Re: Anti-aircraft
- Keywords: Golden BB
- Message-ID: <C1D84E.99n@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM>
- Date: 24 Jan 93 15:53:02 GMT
- References: <C17w2o.FEJ@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM>
- Sender: military@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM (Sci.Military Login)
- Organization: Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory
- Lines: 53
- Approved: military@law7.daytonoh.ncr.com
-
-
- From James Renfro <renfro@geewhiz.ssc.gov>
-
- In article <C17w2o.FEJ@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM> "Scott D. Young"
- <youngs@ccu.umanitoba.ca> writes:
- >
- > From "Scott D. Young" <youngs@ccu.umanitoba.ca>
- >
- > In <C143uK.3Fw@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM> MR KR COMAN
- <bakc@giraffe.ru.ac.za> writes:
- >>From MR KR COMAN <bakc@giraffe.ru.ac.za>
- >>Everyone on the ground dropped what they were doing, grabbed
- >>the nearest firearm and opened fire. The story teller relates how
- >>heroicit was to see his troop-sargeant standing on the turret of
- >>the Sherman tankblazing away with a S&W Model 10......
- >>The valley was a long one with two squadrons of tanks present, the
- >>Me flopped into the ground and burnt out.
-
- >I seem to remember back during the Falklands war, an Argentine
- destroyer providing gunfire support for the amphibious landing was
- engaged at close range by the Royal Marines defending the bay. The
- ship was hit by over 1,000 rounds of small-calibre arms fire, which
- put its main gun out of action, took out some radar, and made it beat
- a hasty retrat. If you can make a ship go away, it should be
- (theoretically) possible to shoot down
- >planes with small-arms fire.
- >
- > Scott
- ================
- Several years ago I worked for a principle airframe maker
- who produced for the USAF a *tactical fighter-bomber* as
- it was then called. Seeing the airframe largely without skin
- and panels, I was amazed at the mass of wires, tubes, wave-
- guides, and hydraulic lines concentrated all along the
- length of the plane being assembled. Then I understood
- the term, *golden BB*, as I had heard it used in describing
- the vulnerability of such an expensive piece of military hardware.
- Only one such *golden BB* is required to seriously disable
- that or a similar aircraft, and certainly will compromise its
- mission. I heard several *war stories* while I worked there,
- told by uniformed USAF pilots who, during that era of the
- Vietnam War, experienced lucky trips back to base after one
- or two *golden BBs* had made them abort their low-level
- missions; I also heard the stories of those who did not make
- it back to base on the same missions.
-
- A bullet from a 30-06 or an M-16 probably would not touch
- a crew member, but it would, if it penetrated almost anywhere
- on the skin or panels of an aircraft, tear up something enough
- to pop a breaker, or blow the crystals in a radar transmitter, or
- worse, open a hydraulic line.
-
- Jim
-