Turreted Fighters

[Hobbes]

You could use radar to track the shells you fire. An IR sensor might also work: I expect a bullet to be pretty hot when it leaves the barrel, atmospheric drag will also heat the bullet.

[Hawkeye]

My thought is to have a deep recession in the tail end of the projectile with an activated chemical that emits an emission visible by a sensor. Much like the cyalume sticks that are only visible through special night vision gear. We use to prep out air dropped gear with them so the guys on the ground could locate them in the dark. What ever is used only has to last but a few seconds. Once the rounds hit the target what residual is left will help illuminate the target.

[deathjester]

That would be the cheapest option (immediatley attractive to people such as the MOD, DoD), and the most reliable!  Besides, as far as i know, you have to  break a cyalume to light it, so the shock of firing would take care of that!

[GTX]

My thought is to have a deep recession in the tail end of the projectile with an activated chemical that emits an emission visible by a sensor. Much like the cyalume sticks that are only visible through special night vision gear. We use to prep out air dropped gear with them so the guys on the ground could locate them in the dark. What ever is used only has to last but a few seconds. Once the rounds hit the target what residual is left will help illuminate the target.

Why bother - as Hobbes said, the shells/bull;ets/ whatever will be plenty hot enough after firing to simply use a IR sensor.

Regards,

Greg

[Maverick]

Of course the other aspect is the operator of the weapon system (WSO, Gunner or whatever you want to call him/her).  They screw the pooch & civilians or other friendlies die.

Mav

[GTX]

After seeing John's Defiant variants, I thought I might try a few as well.  Here's the first:



Regards,

Greg

[GTX]

Mods,

May I suggest this thread be moved to the "Aircraft/Armor/Ships by Topic" area.

Regards,

Greg

[Geoff]

You could use radar to track the shells you fire. An IR sensor might also work: I expect a bullet to be pretty hot when it leaves the barrel, atmospheric drag will also heat the bullet.

An active radar also pinpoints the emiter and is as good as a bullseye, unless you are only planning on using the G-ship on tribes armed with pointed sticks and slices of mango.

[GTX]

Taking the Defiant whiff theme further, I present the Super Defiant:



Note that Boulton Paul introduced a fuselage stretch with this - in service however this was found to be weak and thus it was strengthened (just as was the latter Hawker Typhoon).

Regards,

Greg

[GTX]

Some of these were later modified to have a dedicated bomb aimer in the nose and were used in the interdictor role:



Regards,

Greg

[Arc3371]

Taking the Defiant whiff theme further, I present the Super Defiant:



Note that Boulton Paul introduced a fuselage stretch with this - in service however this was found to be weak and thus it was strengthened (just as was the latter Hawker Typhoon).

Regards,

Greg

That one is truly inspired!
Mind if I use it for a profile?

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Another part of this concept is with the ammo itself. A means to see the rounds from the gun platform but not from the ground. Today we use tracer rounds to track the bullet impact points. This also illuminates the guns location in the sky. A breath taking display but potentially deadly to the shooters. If a way can be developed to allow the aft end of the bullet to illuminate an IR sensor on the firing platform the bullets can be tracked all the way to impact, but not letting the bad guys see where they are being shot from.

Perhaps a one-piece combination IR LED, battery and sensor potted into the base of the projectile?
The sensor would detect when the round was fired and turn on the LED.

The IR tracing issue has been addressed and according to this article from NAMMO.  The IR-/Dim Tracer is totally invisible to the naked eye which should resolve the problem of "tracers working in both directions." 

Additional information on the IR/Dim Tracer:

freepatentsonn-line

Title:Infrared tracer compositions 

Document Type and Number: United States Patent 5639984

Abstract: Convert infrared tracer compositions are provided. The compositions are formed using peroxide such as strontium peroxide and barium peroxide. Added to these materials is a burn rate catalyst such as boron, iron oxide, cupric oxide, manganese dioxide, carbon, silicon, graphite fibrils, amorphous silica, copper oxide, potassium dodecaborate, the dipotassium salt of bitetrazole amine, and the potassium salt of dilituric acid. The composition also includes alkali metal compounds in order to enhance the infrared emissions. The compositions are bound together using a binder such that the composition results in a granular material having a mean particle size in the range of from about 500μ to about 800μ.

WIPO - World Intellectual Property Organization has the following on-line article which contains an abstract description
(WO/2006/105636) NON-TOXIC5 METALLIC-BORON-CONTAINING IR TRACER COMPOSITIONS AND IR TRACER PROJECTILES CONTAINING THE SAME FOR GENERATING A DIM VISIBILITY IR TRACE

[GTX]

Taking the Defiant whiff theme further, I present the Super Defiant:



Note that Boulton Paul introduced a fuselage stretch with this - in service however this was found to be weak and thus it was strengthened (just as was the latter Hawker Typhoon).

Regards,

Greg

That one is truly inspired!
Mind if I use it for a profile?

Go for it - if you like, I can email you the original which is higher resolution.

Regards,

Greg

[Maverick]

The Bomber Defiant looks very nice indeed. 

Regards,

Mav

[GTX]

John,

Your own Shturmovik Defiant, made me think of just how Shturmovik (early models) like the Defiant looks without the turret (and some wing guns of course):





Regards,

Greg