Ramjet Artillery and Missiles Will Have Five Times the Range

Turns out that a ramjet is viable as part of an artillery envelope.  The result is truly long range artillery..

All very nice, but I am not so sure that this has real significance.  Fighting is close in and personal.  Long range guns are  good for story telling but usually change nothing.  bombarding farmland is not helpful.

The fact is that your infantry has to get underneath artillery fire,.

Ramjet Artillery and Missiles Will Have Five Times the Range

Brian Wang | September 30, 2020 

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2020/09/ramjet-artillery-and-missiles-will-have-five-times-the-range.html

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Normal US artillery has a range of 20-30 kilometers (12-18 miles) but new ramjet artillery will be able to reach 150 kilometers. The weapons will be able to farther, faster and higher.

150 kilometers means that if you were fighting in Belgium, then you could fire from Brussels to Bastogne. Bastogne was a famous area of fighting in World War 2. Brussels is in the center of Belgium. Ramjet artillery batteries around Brussels would be able to target almost anything in the entire country.

A shell fired at mach 2.5 enables air intakes to take in oxygen that will ignite the fuel. Removing the need for missiles and shells to carry oxidizer increases fuel capacity by five times. This can mean a mix of longer ranges and higher speeds.

Ground-based missile ranges could go from 60-70 km to go to 300-350 km (210-280 miles). air-launched missile ranges could go beyond 500 km (300 miles).

The US was converting to hypervelocity projectiles, which were just extremely aerodynamic. Hypervelocity projectiles can triple the range of artillery. The ramjet artillery would still have nearly double the range of hypervelocity projectiles.

Having primary weapons with shorter effective ranges is a huge military disadvantage.

Russia has focused on longer range artillery and missile batteries.

Russia’s BM-21s have an effective range of 20-45kms. This range depends on the rockets used. Russia has always like variants of the Katyusha multiple rocket launcher.

Russia has many longer range artillery systems:

9A52-4 “Tornado” MLRS: up to 90km range

BM-30 “Smerch” MLRS: 70 to 90km range

2S7 “Pion” 203mm heavy artillery: 37,5 to 55km range

TOS-1 220mm MLRS and thermobaric weapon: 0.5 to 6km range

2S19 Msta 152.4mm howitzer: 45 to 62km range

2S35 “Koalitsiya-SV” 152.4 or 155mm artillery: 40 to 80km range.

The US has had longer-range multi-rocket systems but they are far more expensive than the Russian versions.

Israel Rafael Bolt On Guidance for Missile Artillery

In 2018, Rafael (Israeli weapon maker) was working on an add-on upgrade package, known as the Electro-Optical Precision Integration Kit, or EPIK. It could turn any Soviet-standard 122mm Grad artillery rocket into a precision-guided round capable of hitting stationary or moving targets.

Artillery Costs and HVP Costs

Anti-cruise missile weapons currently cost $1 to $2 million while hypervelocity shells are 25,000 to $100,000 range. The HVP that cost $75,000 to 100,000 are the fanciest version with an onboard seeker. Regular Artillery shells cost about $600-7000. The cost variance depends upon adding in more explosive or chemicals.

SOURCES – Nammo, Rafael, TheDrive, Wikipedia

Written By Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com