Re: Guided Mortar Rounds

From: George William Herbert (gherbert_at_retro.com)
Date: 02/22/05 

Date: 22 Feb 2005 10:11:37 GMT

Allen Thomson <thomsona@flash.net> wrote:
>dumpster4@hotmail.com wrote:
>> BAE Systems is developing a 60mm guided mortar round. See:
>>
>> http://www.spacewar.com/news/gps-05za.html
>
>This is, IMO, potentially a quite significant development, so
>I'm going to post the pertinent parts of the story here in
>case the link 404s.

I'm sort of peeved, I've been proposing this exact weapon
concept to the DOD for several years, but they didn't even
send me a notice of solicitation when they gave the contract
to BAE Systems.

I wonder if they're using the same laser guidance and imaging
system I was proposing. They think they need twice the money
to develop it that I did, too.

I and my attorney may have some work to do.

The technology to do this has been on the shelf for almost
a decade, with round costs not much more than a thousand
dollars a shot for the last five or so years. I have been
trying to figure out how to get the round cost below a
hundred dollars a shot for the last three years, and I
think it may be at hand by now. The weapon I proposed
in detail three years ago wasn't that cheap, but the
state of the art in small systems has improved a lot
since then.

-george william herbert
gherbert@retro.com