back
to Metal Gear menu
back
to Metal Gear menu
TECHNICAL READOUTS
Of Metal Gear Gander
The Metal Gear model in Metal Gear GANDER is the result of the U.S. Army's "Project Babel" after the U.S. Government procured the data from the original prototype in Outer Heaven. It is stolen by the Gindra Liberation Front and taken to their fortress of Galuade (the former Outer Heaven). Its armament consists of a nuclear warhead-launching rail gun (similar to Metal Gear REX), two vulcan cannons, six guided missile pods, two automated flying attack pods, a pair of spread fire cannons, and a close range flamethrower. Its most powerful weapon is its satellite-based Beam weapon.
Flamethrower weapon
This man-portable incendiary weapon is usually called a "man-pack" flamethrower. The backpack element consists of two or three cylinders. Some Russian flamethrowers have three fuel tanks. One cylinder holds flammable liquid and the other compressed propellant gas, usually nitrogen. A three cylinder system has two outer cylinders of liquid and a central cylinder of gas to improve the balance. The gas is used to force the liquid out of the cylinder into a pipe and then the gun part of the system. The gun attachment consists of a small reservoir, a spring valve and an ignition system; depressing a trigger opens the valve and allows the pressurized liquid to pass over the igniter and out of the weapon. The igniter can be one of a number of systems, a simple type is a wire coil which is heated electrically. A more complex, more reliable system has a small pilot flame fuelled by pressurized gas from the system.
It is a weapon with a potent impact on unprepared troops, delivering a particularly horrendous death; it can have great psychological impact. It is primarily deployed against battlefield fortifications. A flamethrower projects liquid rather than flame so the flaming liquid jet can be 'bounced' off walls or ceilings to project the fire into unseen spaces such as the interior of bunkers or pillboxes. Or, an unignited stream can be fired and afterwards ignited.
Flamethrowers also pose many risks for those using them. Their first disadvantage is that they are heavy and slow down a soldier's mobility. And although they are powerful, the actual time of constant flame firing is usually not more than a few seconds. Flamethrowers are also very visible on the battlefield, and become prominent targets for snipers or artillery such as mortars. Finally, and perhaps most obviously, flamethrowers have a very short range, meaning that soldiers wielding these weapons have to get very close to enemy positions to use them and thus are put at great risk. It is, however, unlikely that these weapons will explode when penetrated by enemy fire (much like shooting a can of petrol will not usually result in explosion), although penetration and subsequent fuel leak is an obvious explosion hazard as the fuel can be ignited by the pilot light or external sources.
V2 Weapon
The V2 was an unmanned, internally guided, ballistic missile. Many of its basic ideas were taken from the work of Dr. Robert H. Goddard, noticably concerning the fuel, engine and guidance.
At launch it would propel itself for a short time on its own power, and its navigation system would direct it towards its target during this period. After engine shutdown it would continue on what is basically a free-fall trajectory (hence the term ballistic). The V-2 had an operational range of about 300 km (200 statute miles) carrying a 1000 kg (2,200 lb) warhead. The V-2 had an accuracy circular error probable (CEP) of 11 miles (17 km). This means at a 200 mile (300 km) range, the V-2 would only have a 50% chance of being within 11 miles (17 km) of the target. With that kind of accuracy, it could be aimed to hit a city, but not a factory. Modern missiles, the Minuteman for example, have a CEP of 100 meters at a range of 10 000 km (330 ft at 6,200 mi). There was some experimentation with bigger fuel tanks for improved range before the war ended.
The V-2 was propelled by 3800 kg of alcohol (ethanol and water) fuel, and the oxidizer was 4900 kg of liquid oxygen. The fuel and oxidizer pumps were steam turbines, and the steam was produced by concentrated hydrogen peroxide with potassium permanganate catalyst. The water-alcohol fuel was kept in a tank of aluminium to save weight, which put a high pressure on German war economy, as this metal was rare and valuable. Ignition was by injecting two hypergolic substances into the combustion chamber, self-igniting upon mixing, basically creating the spark that would light the main thrust.
The combustion burner reached a temperature of 2500–2700 °C. The alcohol-water fuel was pumped along the double wall of the main combustion burner. This cooled the chamber and heated the fuel. The fuel was then pumped into the main burner chamber through 1,224 nozzles, which assured the correct mixture of alcohol and oxygen at all times. Small holes also permitted some alcohol to escape directly into the combustion chamber, forming a boundary layer that further protected the wall of the chamber, especially at the neck where the chamber was narrowest. This boundary layer ignited in contact with the atmosphere, accounting for the long, diffuse exhaust plume of the V-2. (Later, post-V2 engine designs not employing the boundary layer show a translucent plume with shock diamonds.)
The V-2 was guided by a gyroscopic inertial navigation system controlling four external rudders on the tail fins, and four internal rudders, made of graphite, at the exit of the motor. The LEV-3 guidance system consisted of two free gyroscopes (a horizon and a verticant) for lateral stabilization, and a gyroscopic accelerometer connected to an electrolytic integrator (engine cut-off occurred when a thin coating of silver was electrochemically eroded off of a poorly conducting base). Some later V-2s used "guide beams" (i.e. radio signals transmitted from the ground), to navigate the missile toward its target, but the first models used a simple analog computer that would adjust the azimuth for the rocket, and the flying distance was controlled by the moment of engine cut-off,"Brennschluss", ground controlled by a Doppler system or by different types of on-board integrating accelerometers. The rocket would stop accelerating and soon reach the top of the (approximately parabolic) flight curve.
Engine cut-out - Part 1
Engine cut-out - Part 2
The painting of the operational V-2s was mostly a camouflage ragged pattern with several variations, but at the end of the war a plain olive green rocket also appeared. During tests, the rocket was painted in a characteristic black-and-white chessboard pattern, which aided in determining if the rocket was spinning around its longitudinal axis.
In all, over 6,000 V-2's were built, of which approximately 3,500 were launched against allied targets. At the end of the war literally hundreds fell into the hands of the allies as war booty.
Gyroscope from a V-2 rocket
Rail Gun
Although conceptually simple, the operation of a railgun involves several problems that have to this day made a practical design (one that can be employed in the field in order to replace conventional weapons) impossible.
A wire carrying an electrical current, when in a magnetic field, experiences a force perpendicular to the direction of the current and the direction of the magnetic field. This is the principle behind the operation of an electric motor, where fixed magnets create a magnetic field, and a coil of wire is carried upon a shaft that is free to rotate. When electricity is applied to the coil of wire, a current flows causing it to experience a force due to the magnetic field. The wires of the coil are arranged such that all the forces on the wires act to make the shaft rotate, and so the motor runs.
A railgun is even simpler than a motor. It consists of two parallel metal rails (hence the name) connected to an electrical power supply. When a conductive projectile is inserted between the rails (from the end connected to the power supply), it completes the circuit. Electrical current runs from the positive terminal of the power supply up the positive rail, across the projectile, and down the negative rail back to the power supply again.
This flow of current makes the railgun act like an electromagnet, creating a powerful magnetic field in the region of the rails up to the position of the projectile. In accordance with the right-hand rule, the created magnetic field circulates around each conductor. Since the current flows in opposite direction along each rail, the net magnetic field between the rails (B) is directed vertically. In combination with the current (I) flowing across the projectile, this produces a Lorentz force which accelerates the projectile along the rails. There are also forces acting on the rails attempting to push them apart, but since the rails are firmly mounted they cannot move. The projectile is able to slide up the rails away from the end with the power supply.
If a very large power supply providing a million amperes or so of current is used, then the force on the projectile will be tremendous, and by the time it leaves the ends of the rails it can be travelling at many kilometres per second. 20 kilometers per second has been achieved with small projectiles explosively injected into the railgun.
Although these speeds are theoretically possible, the heat generated from the propulsion of the object is enough to rapidly erode the rails. Such a railgun would require frequent replacement of the rails, or using a heat resistant material that would be conductive enough to produce the same effect.
The complexity in railgun design comes from:
While some have speculated that there are fundamental limits to the exit velocity due to the inductance of the system, and in particular the rails, the United States government has made significant progress in railgun design, and has recently floated designs of a railgun that would be used on a naval vessel. The designs for the naval vessels, however, are limited by their required power usages for the magnets in the railguns. These limits are larger than currently attainable and do reduce the usefulness of the concept for space travel and military uses. In Sense it is possible to Fire a Nuclear Rocket within a 344 Mile Radius (Like the other Smart Gear) But the rocket would not/ Could not fire massive rockets like The Shagohod.
Vulcan Cannon
Although unused for many years, Vulcan made a return when very-high rate-of-fire weapons were needed in military aircraft and ship-based CIWS, with electric motors handling rotation. One of the main reasons for the resurgence is the tolerance for high-volume fire. For example, if 6000 rounds were fired non-stop from a six-barreled Gatling gun, it would mean 1000 rounds per barrel which would still be tolerable. The same amount through a machine gun would cause considerable damage from overheating, assuming it didn't simply fail halfway.
One example is the M61 Vulcan 20 mm cannon, the most commonly-used member of a family of weapons designed by General Electric and currently manufactured by General Dynamics. It is a six-barrelled Gatling capable of more than 6,000 rounds per minute, a rate unachievable with a conventional machine gun. Similar systems are available ranging from 5.56 mm to 30 mm (There was even a 37mm Gatling on the prototype T249 'Vigilante' AA platform), the rate-of-fire being somewhat inversely-proportional to the size and mass of the ammunition (which also determines the size and mass of the barrels). During the Vietnam War, the 7.62 mm calibre M134 Minigun was created as a helicopter weapon. Able to fire 6,000 rounds a minute from a 4,000 round linked belt, the Minigun proved to be one of the deadliest weapons ever built and is still used in helicopters today.
They are also used with lethal effectiveness on USAF AC-130 and AC-119 Gunships, their original high-capacity airframes able to house the items needed for sustained operation. With sophisticated navigation and target-identification available, they pose a serious threat to any enemy. The crew's ability to concentrate the Gatling's fire very tightly produces the appearance of the 'Red Tornado' [2] from the tracers in the firing mix, as the gun platform circles a target at night.
In addition to the abovementioned benefits, many modern systems have the advantage of being externally-driven (as opposed to relying on the energy from fired cartridges). This increases their reliability, as cartridge firing failure will not interrupt the operation cycle. Additionally, certain other stoppages, such as faulty extraction and many feeding-related problems, are eliminated or reduced considerably due to the external power source. It should however be noted that although uncommon and mechanically-complex, modern systems that derive power from the ammunition do exist. In fact, the world's fastest Gatling is one, the 10,000 RPM GSh-6-23.
.svg){kind=link}
