Weight of fire

[michaelmaltby]

"... These are the reasons I think "Weight of fire" is meaningless when calculating aircraft firepower."

When rocket-equipped Beaufighters attacked coastal shipping, the effect of firing all 8 at once was equivalent to a light cruiser broadside, IIRC. Is that weight of fire "naval" enough for you, . DB?

 

[tyrodtom]

Weioht of fire for a fighter could hardly be meaningless, until they started putting guns with explosive shells fired from them, weight of fire would be the only way to keep up with firepower.

 

[Shortround6]

A bit of an exaggeration for propaganda purposes, unless you have a mighty crappy light cruiser. An old British "D" class from WW I could fire 6 100lb projectiles at once. 8 rockets,counting propellant tubes and tailfins just might beat it out.

The old Cruiser might also be able to fire a broadside every 15 seconds or so for a considerable period of time. A Dido could fire 8-10 80lb shells per broadside. The Belfast could fire twelve 112lb projectiles at a time.

 

[kettbo]

weight of fire be damned.....but this is a heavy hitter if you want to get the scales out
the Sturmboch Fw190s got left off, probably THE most effective bomber killer over all other planes with lots of big explosive SHELLS
2x20 Mg151 and 2x 30mm Mk108s, sometime the cowl MGs were present, sometimes they were left off
I'll not calculate rate of fire, not argue dubious long range accuracy of the Mk 108's looping trajectory, not say what ranking the wt of rounds in 2 sec was...
They got the job done! (If you can get them through the escorts once they made the long hauls)

During my time in the Army, fired lots of .50 cal at targets, awesome!
Really destroyed soft vehicular target hulks
Fired a lot more 25mm from various M-3 CFVs (Scout Bradleys). The TP-T (inert HE simulated rounds w tracer) with impact alone made much shorter work of hulks.
Then got to fire life HE-T....YOWSA! Big chunks flying off!
Then got to fire a lot of the Mk19, much like a Mk108 but 40mm vs 30mm....very nice indeed with live HE rounds
Cannot imagine what 25mm and 40mm would do to a flying aircraft from back then

 

[davebender]

As I recall we compared them a few months ago and Mk108 30mm mine shells contain more HE filler then Mk19 shells. A good example as to why weapons must be examined individually rather then simply comparing shell diameter.

 

[kettbo]

The mk19 rounds have limited AP capability with an interesting warhead design, part of the lighter explosive charge
Not debating which is better, just saying that blowing chunks off something (cannon shooting HE shells) is better than poking .50" holes into something. Is my position more clear now?

 

[CobberKane]

"... These are the reasons I think "Weight of fire" is meaningless when calculating aircraft firepower."

When rocket-equipped Beaufighters attacked coastal shipping, the effect of firing all 8 at once was equivalent to a light cruiser broadside, IIRC. Is that weight of fire "naval" enough for you, . DB?

I've always scratched my head when this "equal to a 6 inch cruiser broadside" (or variations) gets trotted out. When someone shows me that a salvo of rockets from a Beaufighter can hit a target five kilometres away at sufficient velocity to punch through the turrent gun turrent of another six inch cruiser, I'll swallow it. Alternatively, I can throw am 80 kg rock about half a meter - I think that gives me 'equivilent' firepower to the Howa .308 I have locked in my gun cabinet.

 

[Shortround6]

The "weight of fire" is best used when comparing similar weapons. 70 kg rock vs 80 kg rock or 24lb cannon ball to 32 pound cannon ball or 180 grain .308 bullet to 250 grain .358 bullet or 1250lb battles hip shell to 1400lb battleship shell.

Weight of fire also introduces the time element and here is gets as misleading as the 80kg rock vs the .308 rifle bullet. A 14lb projectile from a 75mm cannon has the "weight" of 570 172 grain machine gun bullets.

Trouble is you have to hit in order for your "weight" of fire to have any effect.

 

[tomo pauk]

"... These are the reasons I think "Weight of fire" is meaningless when calculating aircraft firepower."

When rocket-equipped Beaufighters attacked coastal shipping, the effect of firing all 8 at once was equivalent to a light cruiser broadside, IIRC. Is that weight of fire "naval" enough for you, . DB?

IIRC it was 'destroyer's broadside', not a 'light cruiser broadside'; same comparison was said for rocket-firing Hurricanes?

 

[michaelmaltby]

Of course "weight of fire" is a meaningless concept with aeroplanes ... silly me:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfThQygJ_2o