What projectile do you think is best? Bear in mind......the 152mm is in abundancy compared to the depleting stores of the NATO 155mm. So I would say that it a big factor. Not as sexy but the logistics of artillery is very important! Let me know your thoughts! Have a great day! 🙂
I think that the 155 is better in a "light war" out of the country border. For a Huge war, like in Ukraine, I would rather have a mix of the 2. loads of 152 to pin/ stop ennemy forces and some specila rounds of the 155 to take out threats. I know that it would be a logistical nightmare but still think that is the best with what we have in stores right now. I for a fact know that in France we could not fire for an intense war for more than 3 mounths without having shortages of ammo, especially artillery rounds
Having worked with 155s myself I'd say that it's probably generally better overall than the 152mm. But from what I've seen MLRS platforms like HIMARS and the M270 (particularly HIMARS) will be more pertinent than whatever caliber gun you care to name. This is because of the much superior range on a HIMARS system as well as the increased opportunity for accuracy inherent in the system, ease of movement from FP to FP, turnaround for counter-battery missions, and more variable payload capacity. The main role for FA guns should be as close (er) support for infantry, and rounds like this make sure that the 155mm will be more versatile when needed, which is good. But the basic function of putting big warheads on foreheads from a few kilometers distance will never change. Tl;dr: The traditional guns and rounds remain as a critical element of warfighting capacity. However, other systems like HIMARS will end up eclipsing them in general.
Yo dude, love your video. But, i wonder how Hammas destroy Merkava? How it could penetrated double layer armor from close combat? Please make video about it. I want to learn how that cheap weapon could devastated one of the best tank in the world.
I used to be forward observer in the Swedish army. We never got to use the Bonus rounds, but we used alot of Strix. The anti MBT mortar round. You should check that out as well.
It's essentially the same as it's the same munition being released from both. The only difference is the number of submunitions. Strix might be a bit easier to use as shorter range of mortars also means the target wont have time to move much. It's also pretty good as it's essentially fills the role of anti-tank "missile" for Swedish mechanized forces.
@@znail4675 Not true at all, Strix is a 120mm mortar round with a bunch of small rocket boosters around it that directs the whole projectile down onto the roof of targets. It does not have any submunitions...
Artillery is just mindblowing to me as you said. A small contained explosion that accurately blasts a ~20kg chunk of metal and electronics/chips that knows where it is the entire time. Even more amazing, a lot of this isn't exactly new, we had fuzed shells and such even during WWII, airburst was a brutal invention.
Airburst was used all the way back in the 18 hundreds. The canons were firing very flat trajectories, so the trick was to shoot over the head of the friendlies, and shower the enemy with scrapnell. They used a very simple, and smart, timerfuse, run by blackpowder.
@@noahwail2444 He said airburst but he was definitely referring to proximity fused shells used by the US on the 5 inch guns for anti aircraft purposes. it had a small sensor in the head of the shell that could tell if it got within several meters of an aircraft (I think it was about 10 meters) and it would set off the high explosive shell peppering the aircraft with steel fragments much more reliably than timed fuse shells which relied on the fuse being adjusted to an estimated distance of the aircraft.
@@dominuslogik484 Airburst can also be achieved by a time that starts when the projector is fired or ignites the fuse cut the link before insertion in the barrel. Modern ear boost ammunition used in 35 mm guns and similar calipers programmed at the muzzle after having had their velocity measured. These are very accurate.
Price per round is one thing. Price per kill is more interesting. If you need 30+ rounds to disable a target or 1 bonus round, it becomes far more attractive for certain targets. Especially in a environment with possibility of counter artillery fire. I hope Ukraine got some bonus rounds with the archers.
They got BONUS rounds from France but, as the shell is more or less a standard 155mm, you could allocate some to an Archer battery or a M777 and just use the apropriate firing table. Same for the SMART rounds from Germany.
I completely hear what your saying, what defines a tank kill and disable? Because Ukraine war has muddied the water. Ukraine seem to have left tanks that have thrown a track and registered that as a kill?
@@AnonD38 completely understand. If a leopard tank got hit with a Lancet on a track that would be a disable? But if it got hit with a 152mm and burns out it's a kill? If it throws a track the crew bolts, but it's captured is it still classed as a kill?
@@robertmarks2379 A stationary tank, especially an abandoned one, is just waiting for a drone to arrive with some anti-tank grenades. The crew is more valuable than the vehicle... If a tank loses a track in a minefield, the standard doctrine is to abandon the vehicle and recover it later if possible.
Those sensor-fused skeets are really something to see! The CBU-105 carries 40 of them and a single bomber pass took out an entire armored regiment in Iraq. Great to be the person dropping them...not so great having them dropped upon you.
They're basically obsolete by now. Given FPVs, any army with half a brain is going to install APS that covers the top of the vehicle on everything, so..
@@cullis8327"basically obsolete because 1 country actively uses an emerging technology" Doubt Russia will update their cope cages for APS within the next 15-20 yeara
@@cullis8327Knocking out everything that isn't heavilitt armored in a sector would still be devastating. All the APCs, IFVs, tankers, ammo trucks, etc. Even if it didn't kill the tank. It would mess up optics, and such. Look at that Bradley versus T90m. Video. They lit it up with a 25mm, and it was helpless so the crew bailed.
As a retired Artilleryman Im team 155 all the way. Not only do we have a menagerie of 155 ammo types we also have a plethora of different powder charges capable of extremely fine tuning the right round with the right powder to precisely hit what you want.
@@NotASeriousMoose 1 round per 6 second, equates to 10 rounds per minute. I know you might not be good at maths, but if the rate of fire is enough for 10 rounds per minutes, it's also enough for 6 rounds per minutes, which is what the OP was mentioning. I am still trying to find where he mentioned 6 simultaneous impacts... Did me mentioning the CEASER hurt some strange pride of yours ?
@@shades2.183Did Germany have anything like it before SMArt? The BONUS and STRIX projects started in the early 80s and have been in production for longer than that one at least.
@@SNixD smart was complete before. Germany had it complete anno 89 and announced it a few months before Franch and Sweden announced their stolen concept. It is abit the same with Grippen which Sweden so proudly claim to have developed, but forget to mentions the Danes actually spend 10billion on co-developing .
@@shades2.183 how can the bonus be a copy of the Smart when the bonus started development first, also the gripen had been in service with the swedish airforce for a decade when denmark entered the programme
@@einar8019 I guess you're clueless on how industrial espinage works. Grow up child and see if you can somehow improve on your infantile strawman attempts, yes for real.
Never saw one being used on radars, they use it mostly on tanks as the SMart and BONUS are the only artillery systems that can hit moving targets. Also, conventional artillery blast or high frag weapons has more chances to destroy a radar system, than the small hole this smart munition do to a vehicle with no expIosives inside.
@@AutismIsUnstoppableSMART was confirmed to have destroyed at least one Panstsir SAM system, but I haven’t found I formations on potential kills for the BONUS (fog of war probably)
I think most of the 155 will be unguided but I have seen them thinking about using the PGK Precision guidance kit. fuse that makes the standard 155 mm round into a guided munition just by changing the fuse which is programmed before fire can you do a video on those type of fuses please it is actually really awesome
I remember reading a magazine article about the BONUS' cluster sub-munitions' grandaddy, decades ago. They described it as a tuna can with a flag on it, containig a sensor, a copper disc and HE. Tank killers that were dropped from aircraft and then did their thing as the "flag" caused their business end to randomly face a target. They certainly sounded and looked a lot less effective than the ones shown here, but at the time I remember being pretty impressed with the whole idea.
Imagine if they could fit this in a 120 mm tank round. You wouldn't have to hit the tank, just fire over it. You could even hit other tanks behind cover 🤔
@@craig2809 - "imagine" ? nop, because after you educate yourself a bit, you may learn the gun in a tank has a much higher pressure, the shell is a lot faster = that translate in 2-3x MORE inertial stress for electronics. Those forces will pop ANY electronics inside the shell. The tank gun fires a shell at over 1800m/s while a howitzer only reach 695-740m/s !
@@yedi1064 - you "can" shoot eggs if you want, with a tank cannon - but idiots still will not understand what is muzzle velocity or barrel pressure, and will say "not true"...
Mat, Thank you for the video. Slight correction. Copper jet used in HEAT rounds. This submunition is EFP. Utilizes very effective platter charge to punch through armor.
I've been wondering about these types of ordnance since the Gulf War. Yours was an excellent presentation of the tech inside various 155mm artillery cluster rmunitions. You had a very challenging subject matter, and with the benefit of some helpful video, it made task of learning a lot of complex content much easier, and presented it in a very digestible, easy to understand format...not an easy task! Thanks!
Hello fellow Forward Observer! I just turned 60 today, so that was ages ago. Mid 80's to be precise. I carried a hefty laser with tripod in a large box/backpack in the beginning. Trained on optical rangefinder as a backup in case the battery died. Husqvarna M45B 9mm smg was my weapon. Steel helmet my armour. Skis and bandvagn 206 in the winter, terrängbil 11 (Volvo C303) in the summer. Now, you are a professional soldier. I was never that. Just a conscript like everyone else back then. I was however a soldier in the Artillery Shooting School (Artilleriskjutskolan ArtSS). Meaning we had a regular job to shoot. From prepared positions conduct training for officers of the army, coastal defence, national guard etc. This meant live fire proximity fuze (no ballast or blue training rounds). Every day 08.00-16.00. With a nice lunch break. As I said, It was a job. By this time we had been assigned the absolute latest in materiel. Our laser was now a pair of binoculars. Our radio was digital and frequency-hopping. We were test-firing the (then) new Bofors basebleed 155-shells from our FH77 howitzers from appx 40km. With accuracy. Plus some awsome targeting by the legendary AJ37 Viggen. In short, I believe I saw some of the best of what we had back then. Now here is my question. Why have we not seen ANY artillery airbursts in these years of the worst artillery ever? Don't they have the kit? If so Why?
I dont think you can call this round a cluster bomb.. where as cluster munition spreads large number of dumb bombs on area, this contains two self guiding smart HEAT rounds.
peoples issue with cluster rounds are the dud rate combined with how many submunitions there are lead to large amounts of what are basicaly landmines. bonus on the other hand is more advanced leading to a lower dud rate of 10% and has around two munitions meaning it further drops the chances of duds.
Yes, but these are not really cluster munitions in the sense of there being multple bomblets that fall to the ground and explode later on handling. Sure, there are two (or, potentially more) components to this munition, but it explodes ~50 metres off the ground so when the bits fall to earth there is virtually no risk to any civilians who pass by later. Huge difference.
I really like the North Korean 152mm HE Rounds. They tend to destroy tubes at a higher than average rate due to misfitting and occasionally destroy the entire weapon due to explosive misfires. An addition bonus of the DPRK shells is that they often have no explosives or the explosives are faulty. Yes my favorite artillery round to see used in the war of ruzzian aggression are misfiring
If you think this is shell is expensive. think about the cost of two Modern MBT and their crews. When it comes to UXO. how much of that would you have. If you used HE shells to have the same effect on the target. I think HE are allways going to have it´s place. their is some task. I have a hard time thinking of something that could replace it.
Projectiles are fairly easy to modify. Whether a country uses 155 or 152 simply depends on the existing artillery calibre. For countries with vast amount of former Soviet equipment, it would make no sense to go for 155mm as just modifying existing 152mm rounds would do. At the end of the day, volume of fire and reliability of the existing industrial capacity and supply chain is what matters. Plus, BONUS is a very expensive round. The top of all tanks currently in service are very vulnerable. When a standard artillery round would do to knockout the tank, such expensive munition would prove overkill. It would be interesting to see how it would fare against an aps system modified for coverage from the top.
SADARM was a similar program in the 90's. It had a radar unit and an infrared camera either of which could be used to select a target. The penetrator was a tantalum disk that was explosively formed into a hypersonic dart for armor penetration.
Those sub-munitions should be customised for attachment to a drone. Much more controllable delivery and less stressful for the hardware. Love to see it in action!
I honestly wondered why we haven't seen a drone carrying an EFP charge on it and being used to engage things at a slight distance. pretty sure you could even use them to chase down helicopters.
2:45 Slight correction: at 6:35 you see the charge fired effectively at a fair distance which means its an Explosively Formed Penetrator rather than HEAT. So it's gonna be a slug rather than a jet going through the roof.
Yep its an EFP not HEAT, EFP has much greater range but lower maximum penetration since you are essentially making a large extremely fast projectile rather than a thin "jet".
Hi Matt. Since you're studying 155mm artllery engineering, perhaps you would be intersted in researching CLG guns. I have been exploring the idea of a naval gun upgrade for larger NATO vessels which would incorporate a 155mm bore autoloading cannon of a conventional configuration, like the carousel fed 5" guns widely used today, but bigger; and for the propellant using hydrogen and oxygen gas generated by hydrolysis of sea water. The gun hypothetical converison had already been designed by BAE several years ago, but using a CLG propellant might produce too much force for that configuration. If you look at the speed a CLG gun shoots at, it's on the order of 7km/sec. And the range would reach 100km or more without using a rocket powered shell. At that speed, a solid projectile would do incredible damage without HE. This system would allow for the unification of artillery logistics across services and with the increased range and velocity of the naval CLG propellant the navy would gain a major increase in firepower both in land attack and direct fire. So please let me hear what you know about CLG and whether the bore of the gun would be burnt out quickly and whatever else you might discover that's public knowledge.
"Copper jets" are better descriptions of HEAT warheads whereas EFP warheads such as BONUS are usually tantalum, generating less of a jet and more like a solid slug.
Which brings less overall perforation capacities (which does not matter for top attack even on armored targets), but with a longer range a up to a few dozen meters (compared to only a few meters for HEAT). Also, the profile of the projectile can be smaller due to the less constraining shape that is required to obtain a decent HEAT ammunition
Maximus, great video as always. It’s not well known, but copperhead round is no longer used by the US military, production having been discontinued a couple of decades ago. The Bonus round seems like an engineer’s dream for solving a simple problem. Any HE 155 round hitting the top of a tank will kill it. Of course having the precision to hit a tank in such a fashion is the actual challenge. For my part I’m a cheapskate and I like explosions, so I would just fire a half dozen HE rounds at a tank and statistically one will be close enough to knock it out. It would look cool and cost less. A scenario where the Bonus round could matter is if friendly infantry are in close proximity to enemy armor. It would kill a tank (or two I guess) with much less risk to friendly dismounts.
the number of rounds needed for a kill is more on the order of 100 to 1000 per tank, not half a dozen. while with the Bonus rounds, it's less than 10:1
1:40 So unique that the SMArt155 is practically identical. The only differences are that BONUS submunitions descent on winglets and uses two types of infrared guidance while the SMArt155 submunitions descent on little 'chutes while using one infrared and one millimeter radar as guidance. Both have been used by Ukraine for some time now.
Slightly tangental - Estonia in its 155mm shell procurement drive is looking to buy 500 anti-tank shells, this should provide a gauge for the relative expensiveness and manufacturing availability of BONUS vs SMART (faster delivery nets extra points). Using a SMART/BONUS round to destroy a non-tank is very much on point - the high value targets on modern battlefield might not so much be tanks but instead EW vehicles, drone control/supression and air defense, it also ought to be useful in artillery duels / counterbattery fires.
I went to a Military Memorial Service some years ago. I’d been to the funeral in the deceased soldiers home town, but his Army connection held a Memorial Service in another town which I also attended. The deceased was Infantry, at the Memorial I chatted with one of his old class mates who was then a Captain in Artillery. Thinking to de-stress the situation, I started chatting about the South African G6 system, he had never heard of the G6. Then, trying to stimulate conversation, I opened the topic of guided 155mm rounds, he stated he had only ever seen one in its package, not opened, he had never seen one fired and the entire store of them in Australia had been condemned, because, they had passed their “Use By” date! The Army had “saved” money by not firing them until they could no longer be used!
Being in a NATO country of course the 155mm is the preferred caliber, but the Russian 152mm is definitely its equivalent. The BONUS round has a similar submunition for the Russian SMERCH MLRS. The Russians also have the KRASHNOPOL M guided projectile that is similar to the US COPERHEAD and was advertised for both 152 and 155mm howitzers. There are also long range 152mm projectiles with an advertised range of 70 Km. Also the newer MSTA howitzers appear to have a much higher rate of fire than their NATO counterparts, so what it will come down to will be the capability of the ISR systems supporting the artillery, rather than the projectiles themselves. As far as the use of artillery systems goes, The Russians emphasize on the massive use of artillery, while the Western forces rely more on Attack Helicopters and CAS Aircraft. Also DRONES will get the lions share of precision attacks in any future wars, as is shown in the war in Ukraine, resulting in the need to employ VSHORADS systems down to battalion level, leaving SHORADS and MRADS for higher echelons.
155s have been around for quite a while too. My great-grandpa towed one around in WW1 (a short-barrel Schneider), and there are even some from the 1800's if I'm not mistaken.
@@Dextroyer77 yep, A lot of US equipment has its roots in old French equipment from WW1 and earlier. our 75mm guns were based on a French 1897 field gun and the 76mm was based on an Anti-Air cannon that IIRC was also French. I think the 105 was the only one not based on the French specifically. *edit* The US 105mm was developed using captured German 105mm guns after WW1 and adopted in the 20s initially.
If i'm not wrong one of the first massive usage of the BONUS was by France against a convoy of the islamic state in Iraq, where they even were able to destroy the technicals and other pick up transporting IS troups.
Very similar to the BLU-108 SKEET Sensor Fuzed Weapon. Though the BLU -108 releases 4 skeet per air-delivered container. This of course requires aircraft delivery.
Is that the same penetrator used in the CBU-97? looks like a SUU-66/B tactical munition dispenser has been replaced with a 155mm but BLU-108 looks very similar. Keep up the good work.
Yes, engineers can do the math, and that's great. Guys like _ME_ just say "It came out of a barrel at 3500fps, it has _electronic_ _components_ inside, and it _blew_ _a_ _'plasma_ _dart'_ through a half a foot of steel from 175 meters away?!?!? _Witchcraft!_ _Witchcraft!!_ _Witchcraft!!!"_
4:36 is the Bonus round really able to align itself to strike hatches? I thought it's just spinning around and fires if it happens to align with a target. The image kind of illustrates it.
There are videos of both SMArt and BONUS rounds hitting vehicles in Ukraine. I've heard that GPS guided weapons, not just artillery, have had a lot of problems striking their intended targets due to jamming but when they do work they deliver as promised. One the other side of the conflict the Russian laser guided Krasnopol round seems to be doing well and there are videos of it hitting everything from vehicles to fortified trenches. Having to have something close enough to paint the target is of course somewhat limiting compared to smarter rounds that you can just chuck and forget about but within drone range it appears to be pretty reliable.
That sounds inplausable. The GPS is actually not used to home the target. The GPS os uses to calibrate a inertial homing system so when it's very close to the taget the GPS turns of. There is a new gen excaliber out for field testning that use GPS only before fiering and use inertial all the way (those are probobly not in Ukraine yet)
@@matsv201GPS jamming can have longer range than artillery so it doesn't matter what part of the trajectory utilizes it. Northern Poland and southern Sweden for example were recently hit with GPS jamming that I'm guessing originated from Kaliningrad (at least that is what it looks like on a map).
Russian krasnopol had way more succes in Ukraine than excalibur....as excalibir can not hit mooving targets..... but to be fair, new excalibur will habe a laser pointer aswell...so it will be good against moving targets.....the new shell is in test faze for years now....
07:45 - 08:05 You have me confused, did you want to say plus the witness screens? I re-listened to that bit over and over. lol maybe slow down so you get your words in. =D Both of those witness screens together looked like another eighty millimetres of metal plate to me.
As a former forward observer, it's NATO 155mm, and yes the BONUS round, or the essentially equivalent system SMArt 155 which I trained with, is the most practical modern artillery munition for it's intended use case during Article 5, the price point is ludicrously competitive, for the SMArt 155 it's absolutely in the price range that a personel carriers or supply line trucks is a value for money. Even with the potential necessary clearing of missfired munitions afterwards. The SMArt 155 actually has a redundant self destruct mechanism to get it out of the clustermunitions ban and into the category of submunitions. The only thing that is going to come close isn't an artillery system but an infantry weapon, and a very recent development, which would be the NLAW.
In my time, HE, WP, and Illum, was all we had. Plus, the settings of contact and delay. Now, all of these goodies you guys have today that yesterday, we were only looking at concepts and plans. Holy shit! Yet, the bare bones basic, gotta keep it around.
This can never replace HE artillery shells, the use case is entirely different, but when it comes to giving artillery more tools in their toolbox, this has to be one of the more powerful ones.
The unexploded ordinance problem for these depends on how they work. If designed today then I'd imagine they'd have a self destruct function after some time, armed when launched. Other kinds of cluster munitions are supposed to explode 100% of the time, but the "bonus" has a seeker mechanism, so bonus unexploded ordinance might not be as dangerous. What's it supposed to do if it doesn't detect a suitable target? They had to have considered the possibility that the tank it was supposed to kill had moved. Since it is a shaped charge, even if it explodes it only goes in one direction. So, you'd have to get really unlucky to be a civilian who find an unexploded one, make it go off, and then also be in the path of the pointy end.
@@Merecir that is at least something... I was thinking about the battlefields of ukraine that are littered with destroyed vehicles of all sorts. Would be a shame if such a useful asset was wasted for some old trash.
@@grapsch9573 Remember that this tech is from the 80's... That it can see the difference between a truck and a tank is already an amazing feature. You would probably need some AI onboard to analyze the battlefield picture to figure out which vehicles are destroyed.
Even if you're in the road to success you'll get run over if you just stand there. The 155 didn't just stand there. They fixed it so it's completely useful in any modern warfare needs
While the high tech rounds are fun artillery is a "bulk" weapon and is ment to be used in batteries of multiple guns. Supplying those guns with high tech rounds is beyond expensive and likely impractical depending on production rate. If you have to hit a specific target and air support isn't available I can see the use but otherwise I would rather have pallet after pallet of regular HE shells so I could erase a given grid square within range. We have to guard ourselves from becoming ever more addicted to "precision" weapons that are nice on paper but less useful than a area of effect weapon.
Having huge stockpiles of more traditional munitions is more important but the idea behind these BONUS and SMART rounds is to just quickly blunt a mechanized assault. Just as an example Finland is buying both BONUS 155mm and Storm Breaker SDB II for the F-35's just to stop a large scale mechanized assault in its tracks.
Not to mention the multitude of other Weapons that are already in service that are capable of taking out a tank. Definitely a stop gap to be used in a pinch or in a very specific scenarios.
These smart weapons are well worth their cost in terms of the damage they can do to an armored assault wave, but it's infantry that takes and holds the ground, and for that lots and lots of plain of HE is best.
The job of artillery is to destroy or substantially degrade targets assigned to it. If the job is to saturate an area several hundred meters in diameter, unguided artillery would certainly do that job. But if the job is to hit a specific small target, such as an enemy artillery gun, anti-aircraft radars, ammunition cache or a command post, then firing 20-30 unguided rounds to accomplish the fire mission is likely more expensive than firing 1-2 smart rounds. Besides the cost of just the smart versus dumb rounds, there is the potential that the target will escape as ranging rounds and correction rounds are fired before the entire battery can fire for effect. Plus it takes an entire battery to accomplish the mission. If the enemy has counter-battery radar, they know where you are after you fire that first ranging round. The longer you have to sit there firing multiple rounds until the target is finally destroyed, the greater the chance there is that the enemy can destroy your artillery battery. But with smart rounds, which can be as little as $10k additional per round for precision guidance kits that screw in to an unguided shell in place of the fuse, a single self propelled howitzer can take up a precisely known firing position (thank you GPS), fire several smart shells which have a higher chance of hitting within a few meters at maximum range and so high likelyhood the target will be destroyed than 10 times as many unguided rounds. And then the single howitzer can be back on the move just 1-2 minutes after stopping. Such “shoot and scoot” capability greatly increases survivability against a peer or near peer adversary. And perhaps the greatest advantage is that many more fire missions can be completed per day for a given number of guns when firing smart rounds. So 10 howitzers firing smart rounds can inflict as much damage on the enemy as 50 to a 100 howitzers firing unguided shells. Then add the reduction in wear and tear on the guns per fire mission as well as a smaller logistics tail moving a far fewer number of shells . Putting it all together, firing expensive smart rounds could end up costing less than trying to accomplish the same missions with dumb rounds.
I served in vietnam war and worked around 155mm 175mm , 105mm 8" was the best with 7 diffrent flavors of the rounds. Cluster were used in the 9omm and C.Sin 155mm. 4th div.
I think that it’s a smart version of the German ww2 sd-10. Multiple sd2..sd8… and a similar version captured from France. The family was first cluster type, but the anti tank version was similar to the bonus…obviously without the target ID.
Great presentation & a great video to illustrate the subject matter. I recall seeing these in action in the Gulf War, but I am now wondering...I thought I saw more than 2 cannisters in a round, maybe 3? Or could it have been 2 howitzers firing on same targets. It was several T-72 tanks in close formation as I recall.
Those rotating warheads was also in a programme that I try to remember was named Ugglan (Owl) in early 1990's. I had a leaflet of this system that was a long mortar munition, but I don't think I still have it. And I havn't seen that name pop up anywhere on the net while google it, so maybe I don't remember the name correctly. A few of the images used in this video is the same used in that old 4 pages foldable leaflet. I got hold of it when I was in officer school at the time in Sweden. Anyways, good and interesting video. Thank you.
If you can fire a 155mm howitzer into a 30000sqm target area you can use these with no extra training. All the clever stuff is done by the shell, no extra training needed.
I think the main point of this isn't just precision, but limiting collateral damage. Sometimes you just want to take out a tank or armored vehicle and not an entire village or surrounding neighborhood. (Otherwise simple and stupid with the big boom would do the job.)
I don't see these replacing regular HE as those still have a role against softer targets. This ammo is specifically for armored targets. But yes, I think it makes sense to not use HE against tanks when you got these instead. And as a side note, Excalibur is also a Bofors round.
The problem for Schwerer Gustav was the rate of fire. Therefore I prefer the RCH155 with up to 9 rounds per minute against 14 rounds per day. RCH155 can even fire on the move.
The cost of the single shell is only one part of the equation, barrel wear and logistics to actually get a significant amount of ordnance to the front are some of the other factors that can make these shells way more efficient. But this still relies on having a quick and reliable firing chain and also having enough systems that can use this ammunition, quantity has a quality of its own after all.
Please! Can you make a video about the 105mm NATO howitzer shells versus the Russian 122mm howitzers? Show your performance on the combat field in the sad fratricidal war between Ukraine and Russia.
I have quwstion about these clever rounds. If they are deployed against armoured convoys, do they have a means of ensuring they will engage each target once instead of totally obliterating the first vehicle and merrily ignoring the other ones? Or is it up to the artillery crews to disperse these rounds and hope for the best?
This is an absolutely mad system. The engineer who conceived it must be a chaotic genius. I still don't understand something about it: if the munition rotates at 30° to scan as widely as possible, how can it strike INSIDE that 30° cone?
What projectile do you think is best? Bear in mind......the 152mm is in abundancy compared to the depleting stores of the NATO 155mm. So I would say that it a big factor. Not as sexy but the logistics of artillery is very important! Let me know your thoughts! Have a great day! 🙂
110mm, easier to carry more rounds and way more mobile platforms for shoot and scoot.
I think that the 155 is better in a "light war" out of the country border. For a Huge war, like in Ukraine, I would rather have a mix of the 2. loads of 152 to pin/ stop ennemy forces and some specila rounds of the 155 to take out threats.
I know that it would be a logistical nightmare but still think that is the best with what we have in stores right now. I for a fact know that in France we could not fire for an intense war for more than 3 mounths without having shortages of ammo, especially artillery rounds
The bm30 smerch also has a cluster round with very similar capabilities ( target searching sub munitions firing coper jets)
Having worked with 155s myself I'd say that it's probably generally better overall than the 152mm. But from what I've seen MLRS platforms like HIMARS and the M270 (particularly HIMARS) will be more pertinent than whatever caliber gun you care to name.
This is because of the much superior range on a HIMARS system as well as the increased opportunity for accuracy inherent in the system, ease of movement from FP to FP, turnaround for counter-battery missions, and more variable payload capacity.
The main role for FA guns should be as close (er) support for infantry, and rounds like this make sure that the 155mm will be more versatile when needed, which is good. But the basic function of putting big warheads on foreheads from a few kilometers distance will never change.
Tl;dr: The traditional guns and rounds remain as a critical element of warfighting capacity. However, other systems like HIMARS will end up eclipsing them in general.
Yo dude, love your video.
But, i wonder how Hammas destroy Merkava? How it could penetrated double layer armor from close combat?
Please make video about it. I want to learn how that cheap weapon could devastated one of the best tank in the world.
I used to be forward observer in the Swedish army. We never got to use the Bonus rounds, but we used alot of Strix. The anti MBT mortar round. You should check that out as well.
Strix is really cool 👍🏻
It's essentially the same as it's the same munition being released from both. The only difference is the number of submunitions.
Strix might be a bit easier to use as shorter range of mortars also means the target wont have time to move much.
It's also pretty good as it's essentially fills the role of anti-tank "missile" for Swedish mechanized forces.
@@znail4675 Not true at all, Strix is a 120mm mortar round with a bunch of small rocket boosters around it that directs the whole projectile down onto the roof of targets. It does not have any submunitions...
@@Merecir Seems you are correct. I dunno where I got my faulty info from. Is there some other round the reuses the bonus munition?
Nazi? Does your conscience not bother you?
Artillery is just mindblowing to me as you said. A small contained explosion that accurately blasts a ~20kg chunk of metal and electronics/chips that knows where it is the entire time. Even more amazing, a lot of this isn't exactly new, we had fuzed shells and such even during WWII, airburst was a brutal invention.
Airburst was used all the way back in the 18 hundreds. The canons were firing very flat trajectories, so the trick was to shoot over the head of the friendlies, and shower the enemy with scrapnell. They used a very simple, and smart, timerfuse, run by blackpowder.
@@noahwail2444 He said airburst but he was definitely referring to proximity fused shells used by the US on the 5 inch guns for anti aircraft purposes. it had a small sensor in the head of the shell that could tell if it got within several meters of an aircraft (I think it was about 10 meters) and it would set off the high explosive shell peppering the aircraft with steel fragments much more reliably than timed fuse shells which relied on the fuse being adjusted to an estimated distance of the aircraft.
@@dominuslogik484 Airburst can also be achieved by a time that starts when the projector is fired or ignites the fuse cut the link before insertion in the barrel. Modern ear boost ammunition used in 35 mm guns and similar calipers programmed at the muzzle after having had their velocity measured. These are very accurate.
It doesn't know where it is.
@@cullis8327 there are guided shells that do know where they are because they use GPS guidance.
Price per round is one thing. Price per kill is more interesting. If you need 30+ rounds to disable a target or 1 bonus round, it becomes far more attractive for certain targets. Especially in a environment with possibility of counter artillery fire. I hope Ukraine got some bonus rounds with the archers.
They got BONUS rounds from France but, as the shell is more or less a standard 155mm, you could allocate some to an Archer battery or a M777 and just use the apropriate firing table. Same for the SMART rounds from Germany.
I completely hear what your saying, what defines a tank kill and disable? Because Ukraine war has muddied the water. Ukraine seem to have left tanks that have thrown a track and registered that as a kill?
@@robertmarks2379If the tank blows up or is "just" a mobility kill isn’t that big of a difference.
@@AnonD38 completely understand. If a leopard tank got hit with a Lancet on a track that would be a disable? But if it got hit with a 152mm and burns out it's a kill? If it throws a track the crew bolts, but it's captured is it still classed as a kill?
@@robertmarks2379 A stationary tank, especially an abandoned one, is just waiting for a drone to arrive with some anti-tank grenades. The crew is more valuable than the vehicle... If a tank loses a track in a minefield, the standard doctrine is to abandon the vehicle and recover it later if possible.
I have to pause at 3 and a half minutes or so, just to mention the slow motion capture of this round traveling so far through the air is amazing!
Nice video Matsimus!
Was funny to see two of my thumbnails were good enough for your video :) (5:52-5:58)
Those sensor-fused skeets are really something to see! The CBU-105 carries 40 of them and a single bomber pass took out an entire armored regiment in Iraq. Great to be the person dropping them...not so great having them dropped upon you.
Soooo true!
They're basically obsolete by now.
Given FPVs, any army with half a brain is going to install APS that covers the top of the vehicle on everything, so..
@@cullis8327"basically obsolete because 1 country actively uses an emerging technology" Doubt Russia will update their cope cages for APS within the next 15-20 yeara
@@cullis8327Knocking out everything that isn't heavilitt armored in a sector would still be devastating. All the APCs, IFVs, tankers, ammo trucks, etc.
Even if it didn't kill the tank. It would mess up optics, and such. Look at that Bradley versus T90m. Video. They lit it up with a 25mm, and it was helpless so the crew bailed.
was it the blow up tank dummys?
Thanks!
Welcome!
I seen those on swedesh tv when they was under development in the late 80s. That was some real future stuff at that time
och nu har bofors blivit såld til bae systems,,sverige tillvärkar nu vapen till zionisterna i deras folkmord
As a retired Artilleryman Im team 155 all the way. Not only do we have a menagerie of 155 ammo types we also have a plethora of different powder charges capable of extremely fine tuning the right round with the right powder to precisely hit what you want.
The most sick fact is that it was developed in the mid 1980's.
It does seem like vudoo magic, amazing technology! Great video Matt🤘
Imagine a Archer fireing 6 BONUS in 60 s at an aproaching convoy of tanks. That would be epic!
The Caesar sent by France has such capacities and probably already used the BONUS since the first few months of its introduction in Ukraine
@@vizenderHow do Ceasar manage to send 6 for simultaneous impact when the rate of fire is 6 per minute?
It can do three, at best.
@@NotASeriousMoose 1 round per 6 second, equates to 10 rounds per minute. I know you might not be good at maths, but if the rate of fire is enough for 10 rounds per minutes, it's also enough for 6 rounds per minutes, which is what the OP was mentioning. I am still trying to find where he mentioned 6 simultaneous impacts...
Did me mentioning the CEASER hurt some strange pride of yours ?
@@vizenderthe caesar can fire 5 or 6 round at different trajectory for them to hit approximativly at the same time, the firing computer can do that
Us Swedes do come up with some interesting solutions. We also have 120mm mortar, Strix , which will track and course correct and strike armor vehicles
However, germans were the ones inventing this concept.
@@shades2.183Did Germany have anything like it before SMArt? The BONUS and STRIX projects started in the early 80s and have been in production for longer than that one at least.
@@SNixD smart was complete before. Germany had it complete anno 89 and announced it a few months before Franch and Sweden announced their stolen concept.
It is abit the same with Grippen which Sweden so proudly claim to have developed, but forget to mentions the Danes actually spend 10billion on co-developing .
@@shades2.183 how can the bonus be a copy of the Smart when the bonus started development first, also the gripen had been in service with the swedish airforce for a decade when denmark entered the programme
@@einar8019 I guess you're clueless on how industrial espinage works. Grow up child and see if you can somehow improve on your infantile strawman attempts, yes for real.
5:56 I heard they are being used for destroying radars/elint, so not exactly tanks. There are few of them and will be used for high value targets.
I've seen videos of what looks like Bonus being used on tanks in Ukraine. I don't doubt they have been used on other targets too.
Never saw one being used on radars, they use it mostly on tanks as the SMart and BONUS are the only artillery systems that can hit moving targets. Also, conventional artillery blast or high frag weapons has more chances to destroy a radar system, than the small hole this smart munition do to a vehicle with no expIosives inside.
@@AutismIsUnstoppableSMART was confirmed to have destroyed at least one Panstsir SAM system, but I haven’t found I formations on potential kills for the BONUS (fog of war probably)
i am glad that you pointed out, in your comment, that the 152mm are available in the millions right now
I think most of the 155 will be unguided but I have seen them thinking about using the PGK Precision guidance kit. fuse that makes the standard 155 mm round into a guided munition just by changing the fuse which is programmed before fire can you do a video on those type of fuses please it is actually really awesome
I remember reading a magazine article about the BONUS' cluster sub-munitions' grandaddy, decades ago. They described it as a tuna can with a flag on it, containig a sensor, a copper disc and HE. Tank killers that were dropped from aircraft and then did their thing as the "flag" caused their business end to randomly face a target.
They certainly sounded and looked a lot less effective than the ones shown here, but at the time I remember being pretty impressed with the whole idea.
Imagine if they could fit this in a 120 mm tank round. You wouldn't have to hit the tank, just fire over it. You could even hit other tanks behind cover 🤔
@@craig2809I'm pretty sure they did that years ago. Google XM943
@@craig2809 - "imagine" ? nop, because after you educate yourself a bit, you may learn the gun in a tank has a much higher pressure, the shell is a lot faster = that translate in 2-3x MORE inertial stress for electronics. Those forces will pop ANY electronics inside the shell.
The tank gun fires a shell at over 1800m/s while a howitzer only reach 695-740m/s !
@@mirandela777 thats not true. You can shoot time fuzed Air Burst ammunition with tanks like the Dm11
@@yedi1064 - you "can" shoot eggs if you want, with a tank cannon - but idiots still will not understand what is muzzle velocity or barrel pressure, and will say "not true"...
Mat,
Thank you for the video. Slight correction. Copper jet used in HEAT rounds. This submunition is EFP. Utilizes very effective platter charge to punch through armor.
I've been wondering about these types of ordnance since the Gulf War. Yours was an excellent presentation of the tech inside various 155mm artillery cluster rmunitions. You had a very challenging subject matter, and with the benefit of some helpful video, it made task of learning a lot of complex content much easier, and presented it in a very digestible, easy to understand format...not an easy task! Thanks!
I just love my 155 mm vulcano ammunition, absurd 80 km range web pushed well
Hello fellow Forward Observer!
I just turned 60 today, so that was ages ago.
Mid 80's to be precise. I carried a hefty laser with tripod in a large box/backpack in the beginning. Trained on optical rangefinder as a backup in case the battery died.
Husqvarna M45B 9mm smg was my weapon. Steel helmet my armour.
Skis and bandvagn 206 in the winter, terrängbil 11 (Volvo C303) in the summer.
Now, you are a professional soldier. I was never that. Just a conscript like everyone else back then. I was however a soldier in the Artillery Shooting School (Artilleriskjutskolan ArtSS). Meaning we had a regular job to shoot. From prepared positions conduct training for officers of the army, coastal defence, national guard etc.
This meant live fire proximity fuze (no ballast or blue training rounds). Every day 08.00-16.00.
With a nice lunch break. As I said, It was a job.
By this time we had been assigned the absolute latest in materiel.
Our laser was now a pair of binoculars.
Our radio was digital and frequency-hopping.
We were test-firing the (then) new Bofors basebleed 155-shells from our FH77 howitzers from appx 40km. With accuracy. Plus some awsome targeting by the legendary AJ37 Viggen.
In short, I believe I saw some of the best of what we had back then.
Now here is my question.
Why have we not seen ANY artillery airbursts in these years of the worst artillery ever?
Don't they have the kit? If so Why?
I love how this round turned "cluster bombs are war crimes!" to "cluster bombs are totally fine" in zero seconds flat.
I dont think you can call this round a cluster bomb.. where as cluster munition spreads large number of dumb bombs on area, this contains two self guiding smart HEAT rounds.
peoples issue with cluster rounds are the dud rate combined with how many submunitions there are lead to large amounts of what are basicaly landmines.
bonus on the other hand is more advanced leading to a lower dud rate of 10% and has around two munitions meaning it further drops the chances of duds.
@@Tedger Yet, DepState media called out Russian airforce, when motiv-3 was used in Syria. They cited it exactly as "cluster bombs".
Yes, but these are not really cluster munitions in the sense of there being multple bomblets that fall to the ground and explode later on handling. Sure, there are two (or, potentially more) components to this munition, but it explodes ~50 metres off the ground so when the bits fall to earth there is virtually no risk to any civilians who pass by later. Huge difference.
I really like the North Korean 152mm HE Rounds. They tend to destroy tubes at a higher than average rate due to misfitting and occasionally destroy the entire weapon due to explosive misfires. An addition bonus of the DPRK shells is that they often have no explosives or the explosives are faulty. Yes my favorite artillery round to see used in the war of ruzzian aggression are misfiring
Creative answer.
If you think this is shell is expensive. think about the cost of two Modern MBT and their crews. When it comes to UXO. how much of that would you have. If you used HE shells to have the same effect on the target. I think HE are allways going to have it´s place. their is some task. I have a hard time thinking of something that could replace it.
Projectiles are fairly easy to modify. Whether a country uses 155 or 152 simply depends on the existing artillery calibre. For countries with vast amount of former Soviet equipment, it would make no sense to go for 155mm as just modifying existing 152mm rounds would do. At the end of the day, volume of fire and reliability of the existing industrial capacity and supply chain is what matters. Plus, BONUS is a very expensive round. The top of all tanks currently in service are very vulnerable. When a standard artillery round would do to knockout the tank, such expensive munition would prove overkill. It would be interesting to see how it would fare against an aps system modified for coverage from the top.
SADARM was a similar program in the 90's. It had a radar unit and an infrared camera either of which could be used to select a target. The penetrator was a tantalum disk that was explosively formed into a hypersonic dart for armor penetration.
BONUS also uses tantalum. Matimus are worng in this film about the material in the EFP. But still a good film!
How does the cost of the Bonus or Smart155 compare to the Strix?
Great information Mat . Thanks for your time and effort 👌
My pleasure!
Sounds like an 155mm version of the BLU 102 sensor fused munition
Yeah! Just needs to survive a far greater Gload.
Those sub-munitions should be customised for attachment to a drone. Much more controllable delivery and less stressful for the hardware.
Love to see it in action!
I honestly wondered why we haven't seen a drone carrying an EFP charge on it and being used to engage things at a slight distance. pretty sure you could even use them to chase down helicopters.
French army is developing 2 drones with this sub munition, the larinae and the colibri
@@chrisdewulf1717 Uniquement pour le LARINAE à ma connaissance.
Si c'est le cas pour le COLIBRI, alors vous me l'apprenez.
If they have milliwave sensors, i wonder if we will see cluster munitions that can (strongly) bias their pattern parallel down a trench line.
You would nee something bin and metallic for the Millimeter waren Radar to detektei, plus its Just not economical for killing infantry
@@mkultra3679Don’t rule out cluster substitutions homing in on individual humans. It’s only a matter of cpu power
I don't see why not. Shocking things are possible with a little sensor fusion and data analysis.
@@williamzk9083 we are probably a long way out from that still, and its not necessarily a matter of CPU power but rather cost.
Worthwhile for someone to work on
Would be awesome if the bonus round pucks can be adapted to be carried to a target on a drone
2:45 Slight correction: at 6:35 you see the charge fired effectively at a fair distance which means its an Explosively Formed Penetrator rather than HEAT.
So it's gonna be a slug rather than a jet going through the roof.
Yep its an EFP not HEAT, EFP has much greater range but lower maximum penetration since you are essentially making a large extremely fast projectile rather than a thin "jet".
Hi Matt. Since you're studying 155mm artllery engineering, perhaps you would be intersted in researching CLG guns. I have been exploring the idea of a naval gun upgrade for larger NATO vessels which would incorporate a 155mm bore autoloading cannon of a conventional configuration, like the carousel fed 5" guns widely used today, but bigger; and for the propellant using hydrogen and oxygen gas generated by hydrolysis of sea water. The gun hypothetical converison had already been designed by BAE several years ago, but using a CLG propellant might produce too much force for that configuration. If you look at the speed a CLG gun shoots at, it's on the order of 7km/sec. And the range would reach 100km or more without using a rocket powered shell. At that speed, a solid projectile would do incredible damage without HE. This system would allow for the unification of artillery logistics across services and with the increased range and velocity of the naval CLG propellant the navy would gain a major increase in firepower both in land attack and direct fire. So please let me hear what you know about CLG and whether the bore of the gun would be burnt out quickly and whatever else you might discover that's public knowledge.
"Copper jets" are better descriptions of HEAT warheads whereas EFP warheads such as BONUS are usually tantalum, generating less of a jet and more like a solid slug.
Which brings less overall perforation capacities (which does not matter for top attack even on armored targets), but with a longer range a up to a few dozen meters (compared to only a few meters for HEAT).
Also, the profile of the projectile can be smaller due to the less constraining shape that is required to obtain a decent HEAT ammunition
Maximus, great video as always.
It’s not well known, but copperhead round is no longer used by the US military, production having been discontinued a couple of decades ago.
The Bonus round seems like an engineer’s dream for solving a simple problem. Any HE 155 round hitting the top of a tank will kill it. Of course having the precision to hit a tank in such a fashion is the actual challenge. For my part I’m a cheapskate and I like explosions, so I would just fire a half dozen HE rounds at a tank and statistically one will be close enough to knock it out. It would look cool and cost less.
A scenario where the Bonus round could matter is if friendly infantry are in close proximity to enemy armor. It would kill a tank (or two I guess) with much less risk to friendly dismounts.
the number of rounds needed for a kill is more on the order of 100 to 1000 per tank, not half a dozen.
while with the Bonus rounds, it's less than 10:1
The BONUS round is better in a conter-batterie environnement
Does Canada have this in our inventory
1:40 So unique that the SMArt155 is practically identical. The only differences are that BONUS submunitions descent on winglets and uses two types of infrared guidance while the SMArt155 submunitions descent on little 'chutes while using one infrared and one millimeter radar as guidance. Both have been used by Ukraine for some time now.
I don't know enough about artillery to say. That's why I'm here.
I thought the Copperhead round was no longer used?
That’s why you saw these things in Ukraine, better to pass on old ammo for new ones because they do have expiration dates.
@@dannyzero692 yep, it costs money do deactivate them
@matsimus
Its impressive that this was ddeveloped Early 1980s-1994.
As a follow up you should do a video about the swedish 120mm Bofors STRIX
Slightly tangental - Estonia in its 155mm shell procurement drive is looking to buy 500 anti-tank shells, this should provide a gauge for the relative expensiveness and manufacturing availability of BONUS vs SMART (faster delivery nets extra points).
Using a SMART/BONUS round to destroy a non-tank is very much on point - the high value targets on modern battlefield might not so much be tanks but instead EW vehicles, drone control/supression and air defense, it also ought to be useful in artillery duels / counterbattery fires.
Very effective for stopping the armour trust of the Read army through the Fulda Gap.
I went to a Military Memorial Service some years ago. I’d been to the funeral in the deceased soldiers home town, but his Army connection held a Memorial Service in another town which I also attended. The deceased was Infantry, at the Memorial I chatted with one of his old class mates who was then a Captain in Artillery. Thinking to de-stress the situation, I started chatting about the South African G6 system, he had never heard of the G6. Then, trying to stimulate conversation, I opened the topic of guided 155mm rounds, he stated he had only ever seen one in its package, not opened, he had never seen one fired and the entire store of them in Australia had been condemned, because, they had passed their “Use By” date! The Army had “saved” money by not firing them until they could no longer be used!
You should look at STRIX mortar round from Sweden.
Being in a NATO country of course the 155mm is the preferred caliber, but the Russian 152mm is definitely its equivalent.
The BONUS round has a similar submunition for the Russian SMERCH MLRS.
The Russians also have the KRASHNOPOL M guided projectile that is similar to the US COPERHEAD and was advertised for both 152 and 155mm howitzers.
There are also long range 152mm projectiles with an advertised range of 70 Km.
Also the newer MSTA howitzers appear to have a much higher rate of fire than their NATO counterparts, so what it will come down to will be the capability of the ISR systems supporting the artillery, rather than the projectiles themselves.
As far as the use of artillery systems goes, The Russians emphasize on the massive use of artillery, while the Western forces rely more on Attack Helicopters and CAS Aircraft.
Also DRONES will get the lions share of precision attacks in any future wars, as is shown in the war in Ukraine, resulting in the need to employ VSHORADS systems down to battalion level, leaving SHORADS and MRADS for higher echelons.
The 152 has greater nostalgic value as an antique.
155s have been around for quite a while too. My great-grandpa towed one around in WW1 (a short-barrel Schneider), and there are even some from the 1800's if I'm not mistaken.
@@Dextroyer77 yep, A lot of US equipment has its roots in old French equipment from WW1 and earlier. our 75mm guns were based on a French 1897 field gun and the 76mm was based on an Anti-Air cannon that IIRC was also French. I think the 105 was the only one not based on the French specifically.
*edit* The US 105mm was developed using captured German 105mm guns after WW1 and adopted in the 20s initially.
If i'm not wrong one of the first massive usage of the BONUS was by France against a convoy of the islamic state in Iraq, where they even were able to destroy the technicals and other pick up transporting IS troups.
Are these STRV-103´s at 6:38?
Very similar to the BLU-108 SKEET Sensor Fuzed Weapon. Though the BLU -108 releases 4 skeet per air-delivered container. This of course requires aircraft delivery.
That was my first thought.
Is that the same penetrator used in the CBU-97? looks like a SUU-66/B tactical munition dispenser has been replaced with a 155mm but BLU-108 looks very similar. Keep up the good work.
Yes, engineers can do the math, and that's great.
Guys like _ME_ just say "It came out of a barrel at 3500fps, it has _electronic_ _components_ inside, and it _blew_ _a_ _'plasma_ _dart'_ through a half a foot of steel from 175 meters away?!?!? _Witchcraft!_ _Witchcraft!!_ _Witchcraft!!!"_
Solid!
Top KEK!
Peace be with you.
4:36 is the Bonus round really able to align itself to strike hatches? I thought it's just spinning around and fires if it happens to align with a target. The image kind of illustrates it.
I love the technical stuff! Thanks
There are videos of both SMArt and BONUS rounds hitting vehicles in Ukraine. I've heard that GPS guided weapons, not just artillery, have had a lot of problems striking their intended targets due to jamming but when they do work they deliver as promised. One the other side of the conflict the Russian laser guided Krasnopol round seems to be doing well and there are videos of it hitting everything from vehicles to fortified trenches. Having to have something close enough to paint the target is of course somewhat limiting compared to smarter rounds that you can just chuck and forget about but within drone range it appears to be pretty reliable.
That sounds inplausable. The GPS is actually not used to home the target. The GPS os uses to calibrate a inertial homing system so when it's very close to the taget the GPS turns of.
There is a new gen excaliber out for field testning that use GPS only before fiering and use inertial all the way (those are probobly not in Ukraine yet)
@@matsv201 - such rounds are useless against moving targets, especially at long range, when you have almost a minute fly time.
@@matsv201GPS jamming can have longer range than artillery so it doesn't matter what part of the trajectory utilizes it. Northern Poland and southern Sweden for example were recently hit with GPS jamming that I'm guessing originated from Kaliningrad (at least that is what it looks like on a map).
@@mirandela777 well yes.. hence bonus
Russian krasnopol had way more succes in Ukraine than excalibur....as excalibir can not hit mooving targets.....
but to be fair, new excalibur will habe a laser pointer aswell...so it will be good against moving targets.....the new shell is in test faze for years now....
I remember seeing this described back in the 1980s in a magazine talking about how this would change artillery.
I like the copperhead rounds the most.
07:45 - 08:05 You have me confused, did you want to say plus the witness screens? I re-listened to that bit over and over. lol maybe slow down so you get your words in. =D
Both of those witness screens together looked like another eighty millimetres of metal plate to me.
As a former forward observer, it's NATO 155mm, and yes the BONUS round, or the essentially equivalent system SMArt 155 which I trained with, is the most practical modern artillery munition for it's intended use case during Article 5, the price point is ludicrously competitive, for the SMArt 155 it's absolutely in the price range that a personel carriers or supply line trucks is a value for money. Even with the potential necessary clearing of missfired munitions afterwards. The SMArt 155 actually has a redundant self destruct mechanism to get it out of the clustermunitions ban and into the category of submunitions. The only thing that is going to come close isn't an artillery system but an infantry weapon, and a very recent development, which would be the NLAW.
In my time, HE, WP, and Illum, was all we had. Plus, the settings of contact and delay. Now, all of these goodies you guys have today that yesterday, we were only looking at concepts and plans. Holy shit! Yet, the bare bones basic, gotta keep it around.
And yet it still takes a man, shovel and rifle to maintain line
you guys didnt have priximity fuze airburst? thats 60s tech you must be old as fuck
@@ollisalonen6259Always!
saw this specific round being used in the Anime "Eighty-Six"(86) being used against heavy armored enemy AI Units
Remember the longest range gun, paris gun 211mm to hit 130 km
This can never replace HE artillery shells, the use case is entirely different, but when it comes to giving artillery more tools in their toolbox, this has to be one of the more powerful ones.
Sa basically a modernized SADARM that is still in production?
Very informative. Thanks.
We got STRIX 120mm mortar ammo doing the same thing as well
The unexploded ordinance problem for these depends on how they work. If designed today then I'd imagine they'd have a self destruct function after some time, armed when launched. Other kinds of cluster munitions are supposed to explode 100% of the time, but the "bonus" has a seeker mechanism, so bonus unexploded ordinance might not be as dangerous. What's it supposed to do if it doesn't detect a suitable target? They had to have considered the possibility that the tank it was supposed to kill had moved. Since it is a shaped charge, even if it explodes it only goes in one direction. So, you'd have to get really unlucky to be a civilian who find an unexploded one, make it go off, and then also be in the path of the pointy end.
Are those munitions able to differenciate between an active tank and an already destroyed one?
The IR detector is can tell if the target is burning.
@@Merecir that is at least something... I was thinking about the battlefields of ukraine that are littered with destroyed vehicles of all sorts. Would be a shame if such a useful asset was wasted for some old trash.
@@grapsch9573 Remember that this tech is from the 80's... That it can see the difference between a truck and a tank is already an amazing feature.
You would probably need some AI onboard to analyze the battlefield picture to figure out which vehicles are destroyed.
@@Merecir fair enough, thanks :)
Everyone loves a bonus. Such a good name.
Hey! The US Army just chose the 2 finalists for the IFV 4000 competition. It's Griffin vs. Lynx! Is there any chance for a video?
Is there a himars version?
2:46 it doesn't shoot a cooper jet stream, it shoots a bullet.
Two random places I looked and you put erroneous information in both. :(
Even if you're in the road to success you'll get run over if you just stand there.
The 155 didn't just stand there. They fixed it so it's completely useful in any modern warfare needs
While the high tech rounds are fun artillery is a "bulk" weapon and is ment to be used in batteries of multiple guns. Supplying those guns with high tech rounds is beyond expensive and likely impractical depending on production rate.
If you have to hit a specific target and air support isn't available I can see the use but otherwise I would rather have pallet after pallet of regular HE shells so I could erase a given grid square within range.
We have to guard ourselves from becoming ever more addicted to "precision" weapons that are nice on paper but less useful than a area of effect weapon.
Having huge stockpiles of more traditional munitions is more important but the idea behind these BONUS and SMART rounds is to just quickly blunt a mechanized assault. Just as an example Finland is buying both BONUS 155mm and Storm Breaker SDB II for the F-35's just to stop a large scale mechanized assault in its tracks.
Not to mention the multitude of other Weapons that are already in service that are capable of taking out a tank. Definitely a stop gap to be used in a pinch or in a very specific scenarios.
These smart weapons are well worth their cost in terms of the damage they can do to an armored assault wave, but it's infantry that takes and holds the ground, and for that lots and lots of plain of HE is best.
Area effect AND Area Denial
The job of artillery is to destroy or substantially degrade targets assigned to it. If the job is to saturate an area several hundred meters in diameter, unguided artillery would certainly do that job.
But if the job is to hit a specific small target, such as an enemy artillery gun, anti-aircraft radars, ammunition cache or a command post, then firing 20-30 unguided rounds to accomplish the fire mission is likely more expensive than firing 1-2 smart rounds. Besides the cost of just the smart versus dumb rounds, there is the potential that the target will escape as ranging rounds and correction rounds are fired before the entire battery can fire for effect. Plus it takes an entire battery to accomplish the mission. If the enemy has counter-battery radar, they know where you are after you fire that first ranging round. The longer you have to sit there firing multiple rounds until the target is finally destroyed, the greater the chance there is that the enemy can destroy your artillery battery.
But with smart rounds, which can be as little as $10k additional per round for precision guidance kits that screw in to an unguided shell in place of the fuse, a single self propelled howitzer can take up a precisely known firing position (thank you GPS), fire several smart shells which have a higher chance of hitting within a few meters at maximum range and so high likelyhood the target will be destroyed than 10 times as many unguided rounds. And then the single howitzer can be back on the move just 1-2 minutes after stopping. Such “shoot and scoot” capability greatly increases survivability against a peer or near peer adversary.
And perhaps the greatest advantage is that many more fire missions can be completed per day for a given number of guns when firing smart rounds. So 10 howitzers firing smart rounds can inflict as much damage on the enemy as 50 to a 100 howitzers firing unguided shells.
Then add the reduction in wear and tear on the guns per fire mission as well as a smaller logistics tail moving a far fewer number of shells .
Putting it all together, firing expensive smart rounds could end up costing less than trying to accomplish the same missions with dumb rounds.
I served in vietnam war and worked around 155mm 175mm , 105mm 8" was the best with 7 diffrent flavors of the rounds. Cluster were used in the 9omm and C.Sin 155mm. 4th div.
Maybe 🤔, also like ya voice acting in Black Star Initiative Micro Wars series😂
I think that it’s a smart version of the German ww2 sd-10. Multiple sd2..sd8… and a similar version captured from France.
The family was first cluster type, but the anti tank version was similar to the bonus…obviously without the target ID.
Great presentation & a great video to illustrate the subject matter. I recall seeing these in action in the Gulf War, but I am now wondering...I thought I saw more than 2 cannisters in a round, maybe 3? Or could it have been 2 howitzers firing on same targets. It was several T-72 tanks in close formation as I recall.
Is there an air dropped equivalent system? Neat technology, thanks for the video!
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombkapsel_90
Those rotating warheads was also in a programme that I try to remember was named Ugglan (Owl) in early 1990's.
I had a leaflet of this system that was a long mortar munition, but I don't think I still have it.
And I havn't seen that name pop up anywhere on the net while google it, so maybe I don't remember the name correctly.
A few of the images used in this video is the same used in that old 4 pages foldable leaflet.
I got hold of it when I was in officer school at the time in Sweden.
Anyways, good and interesting video. Thank you.
I have a question.
Do artillerymen need a lot of training to use these, or is it something they get the hang of easily ?
If you can fire a 155mm howitzer into a 30000sqm target area you can use these with no extra training. All the clever stuff is done by the shell, no extra training needed.
I think the main point of this isn't just precision, but limiting collateral damage. Sometimes you just want to take out a tank or armored vehicle and not an entire village or surrounding neighborhood. (Otherwise simple and stupid with the big boom would do the job.)
Can it track and engage a moving target?
it should be adapted in a 120mm package and worked out with the NEMO system because it could be a potentially lethal anti-armor system with that
Bonus comes with love for all Orcs.
Glory to Ukraine. 💙💛
Does 152mm have squares? I don’t think so. Does 155mm? Yes! Squares are where it’s at. Great content, UBIQUE.
I don't see these replacing regular HE as those still have a role against softer targets. This ammo is specifically for armored targets. But yes, I think it makes sense to not use HE against tanks when you got these instead. And as a side note, Excalibur is also a Bofors round.
Dos this violate the cluster munitions ban ?
Ahh yes the looney toons shell, love it
The best projectile is the 800mm German Schwerer Gustav artillery ❤
The problem for Schwerer Gustav was the rate of fire. Therefore I prefer the RCH155 with up to 9 rounds per minute against 14 rounds per day. RCH155 can even fire on the move.
what is the price for Bonus shell ?
The cost of the single shell is only one part of the equation, barrel wear and logistics to actually get a significant amount of ordnance to the front are some of the other factors that can make these shells way more efficient.
But this still relies on having a quick and reliable firing chain and also having enough systems that can use this ammunition, quantity has a quality of its own after all.
this is the modern version of Zoltraak
Please! Can you make a video about the 105mm NATO howitzer shells versus the Russian 122mm howitzers? Show your performance on the combat field in the sad fratricidal war between Ukraine and Russia.
So, ah...you Canutions normally fire off artillery rounds with the eye bolt still screwed in the top?
For me an ex us arty guy I would pick the NATO 155
I have quwstion about these clever rounds. If they are deployed against armoured convoys, do they have a means of ensuring they will engage each target once instead of totally obliterating the first vehicle and merrily ignoring the other ones? Or is it up to the artillery crews to disperse these rounds and hope for the best?
The IR detector is can tell if the target is burning.
This is an absolutely mad system. The engineer who conceived it must be a chaotic genius.
I still don't understand something about it: if the munition rotates at 30° to scan as widely as possible, how can it strike INSIDE that 30° cone?