Churchill Upgrade

[Weaver]

I personally despise smooth-bores as I regard it as a 'quick, cheap, & nasty' solution to gunnery, as well as a technological step backwards - what's next, re-issue of the Brown Bess musket? 

The post-war trend to smoothbores started, IIRC, with the French, who realised that HEAT rounds work better if they aren't spinning. Rifled guns have to have the HEAT warhead mounted on ball-bearings to slow it's spinning down and that reduces the diameter of the charge, and HEAT effectiveness is directly proportional to diameter. This is why the British Army likes HESH so much: it actually gets better for being spun (and is a generally useful HE round as a bonus).

Arguments in favour of smoothbores are:

1. HEAT effectiveness.

2. Barrel can be made and replaced in two pieces so the high-wear portion can be replaced more economically.

3. Same accuracy as rifled guns up to 2000m, which is beyond the typical European engagement distance. This is why British tanks with rifled guns accurate out to 3000m+ have sold so well in the Middle East with it's long, clear sight-lines. High-tech computerised aiming systems have significantly improved these numbers in the last couple of decades.

4. Easier to make guided rounds.


Having said all that, I prefer rifled guns (at least for high-velocity) too...

[nighthunter]

It's so SciFi looking

Thanks, but yes - you're right.  It might as well be a hover tank armed with a rail gun, at this point - or (as those who read sci-fi armor stories will know) a "power gun".

Gauss Rifle, in other parlances, lol!

[Scotaidh]

And, I'm calling this one done!  A final pirouette for the camera, and off to her life as a display queen! 


Churchill Upgrade_048
Original Churchill Mk VII and the new Churchill Mk MMCC, head on ...


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... and the starboard flank ...


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... starboard stern aspect ...


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... port rear view ...


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... and finally, forward port quarter.

[Dizzyfugu]

That's looking cool! 

Reminds me of the result of a hot night in the garage with a Churchill parked next to a M1?

[Weaver]

Nice one - it certainly looks good now it's finished, and it'd make a nice JMN-teaser on a model-show stand as they tried to figure out what on Earth it was...

When they tried to upgrade the Churchill to a bigger turret ring, they had to widen the hull and the tracks and ended up with the Black Prince, which was rather overtaken by other developments. I wonder what the outcome might have been had the wider hull solution been adopted earlier in the Churchill's history, such as when they went from the Mk.III to the Mk.IV, for example.

[NARSES2]

Come out well