Musings from the Bat Cave<br><br>Many of us have served in various branches of the Armed Services. During those times, we made friends with some very interesting individuals. I would like to share one such individual with you.<br>Ken Malley was the type of individual that anyone could work with. He had a keen sense of humor, but was also one of the finest Gunners I’ve ever known. He was the project officer on the Mk. 86 Gun Fire Control System, and therefore was involved with everyone and everything associated with that system.<br>Many people do not understand how a ship can fire its weapons and hit a target, especially when everything is moving in different directions at the same time. Here is Ken’s description of how all of this can be done with the Mk. 86:<br><br>“A Layman’s Description of the Mk. 86 Gun Fire Control System”<br><br>The Mk. 86 is a highly sophisticated, complex piece of equipment, and its description is normally complicated by the use of highly technical terms. The following paragraphs attempt to describe the basic track-while-scan philosophy, which is the heart of the Mk. 86 system.<br>The Gun Fire Control System, Mk. 86 is capable of tracking several targets at one time with only one radar. This is a simple operation because the radar is rapidly spinning around and looking in all directions. When targets are in the area the radar detects them and the Fire Control Systems general-purpose computer computes where the targets are supposed to be by figuring out where they can’t be. If a target is where it isn’t supposed to be, the computer subtracts where the target is now from where it wasn’t, or subtracts where it wasn’t from where it is now. This difference is used to modify a constant that varies in direct proportion to the difference from where the target is and from where the target wasn’t.<br>By determining where the target is and where it wasn’t, the computer computes where it might be at some later time. Based on where the target is and where it wasn’t, the computer starts to work on the ballistic routine to properly aim the guns.<br>At this point, the problem becomes a little involved because you would first think that the guns should be pointed to a point where the target isn’t, to take into account the time of flight of the projectile. In reality, the gun is pointed to a point where the target not only isn’t, but to a point where the target wasn’t and never will be. This is done due to other ballistic computation considerations.<br>If by chance the projectile lands at a point where the target isn’t and where the target wasn’t, the difference between the point where the target isn’t or wasn’t, and where it is, is known as a deviation from where it was. The opposite of deviation is known as spot. If the spot is added to the computer program, the next projectile should definitely land where the target isn’t at the time of firing and should hit where the target wasn’t. If this is so, then the target is sunk. If there is still a deviation between where the target isn’t and where it is, the computer then decides that the target is in a maneuver and just goes through the entire routine again.<br>This completes the layman’s description of the track-while-scan philosophy and ballistic equations utilized in mode 1 of operation. As modes 2, 3, and 4 are much simpler than mode 1, the explanation of those modes should be intuitively obvious and no explanation is required. <br>

 

<br>Whattdhesay?

 

A little lead is all you need (pun intended).

 

???

 

Now imagine doing all the computations for where the target was, wasn't, is, isn't, and might or might not be, in addition to where it can't be, by hand. And people say computers aren't useful.

 

They used to do it by hand......that's why the Bismarch was so dangerous.....the first Computer Controlled BIG guns.

 

How can you shoot women and children?<br>Easy, you just don't lead'em so much.<br><br>Apocolypse Now

 

[quote author=Weatherbyman link=board=10;threadid=15857;start=0#149069 date=1055535107]<br>They used to do it by hand......that's why the Bismarch was so dangerous.....the first Computer Controlled BIG guns.<br>[/quote]<br><br>I know... I had enough about ballistics in Naval Science classes to understand the difficulty of the problem, even though they stopped short of actually teaching us how to do it. I wonder if they still teach it in surface warfare school or something, just in case the computers fail?

 

When I had the four deuce platoon, I always had each squad leader doing a manual work up with the plotting board, just in case my two computers in FDC went Tango Uniform. When playing with things that go BOOM, I tend to get heavy on the CYA. <br>Shortround is just a nic, I didn't get it from experience.

 

During one of the land nav runs at jungle school in Panama, we had to do a quick fire mission. Could see the two mortar crews run out of the jungle and up to the road to lay the guns from our position. They were beeing graded so we couldn't yell at them. Just laughed when a guy on one team turned and saw the other gun pointing the other way. Tapped his partner on the shoulder, they both watched the other team a second, checked their compass, and scrambled to turn their gun around. They didn't quite make time.