Warlord's "40 Years On"

[Weaver]

So I was looking through a pile of ten year old papers today, and found a series of pages cut from Warlord comic 30 years previously (welcome to my life...)

In 1980 and 1982 they ran an occasional series of one-page features called "40 Years On", which attempted to predict the future military hardware of the 2020s. Since we're now in a position to judge, let's see how they did...

(The Artist is possibly one Ian Kennedy)

[Old Wombat]

Bit of a fail, really.

But some very good Whif/Sci-Fi ideas!

[kerick]

Everything looks right out of a Gerry Anderson show. However, the description of the tanks capabilities are not too far off. Other than the 30mm main gun. That's a little silly.

[Wardukw]

Guy pretty much covered that ,,very nicely 
Some very nice wiff fodder there for certain ...and ill admit ..the tank has me itching ,,the good itch 

[Wardukw]

Everything looks right out of a Gerry Anderson show. However, the description of the tanks capabilities are not too far off. Other than the 30mm main gun. That's a little silly.

Very true Ken ,,,not for a MBT ,,,,,but for a IFV tho ....bang on .

[Thorvic]

  I recently picked up the 1982 &1983 Warlord 's and have been reading them, ah the nostalgia  , I  noticed some of the 40 years on you posted here and had a chuckle, especially as some of the hardware they covered for the current military hardware is still around. The modelling pages are fun too although upon re-reading i can see how huck it had an influence over the rest of my life 

[Weaver]

Everything looks right out of a Gerry Anderson show. However, the description of the tanks capabilities are not too far off. Other than the 30mm main gun. That's a little silly.

I mean, I can see what the thought process was: guns can't just keep getting bigger without vehicles weight+width becoming impractical, so the next step would be missiles for anti-armour and a 30mm for everything else. The problem is that 120mm-armed MBTs carry about 40 rounds, of which at least half are anti-armour, so 4 missiles, on exposed launchers no less, are not really a substitute. Suspect there was a bit of "fighter-plane thinking" going on there.

The use of remote weapon stations and smaller crews is a good call, although hardly an original idea. I remember even back then having discussions about whether an unmanned, remotely operated turret was "too futuristic" for whatever given future date.

The Viper's concept and spec are certainly more than credible, perhaps even a bit conservative, however funky the artwork. Don't know whether they were influenced by the real-world Swiss Piranha concept that came out in 1977 or not, but the two are certainly very much in the same ballpark. Maybe they were just doing an F-16-era Gnat...

Piranha: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALR_Piranha

[Weaver]

Somebody on Twitter("X" ) reckons these are the work of an artist called Ian Kennedy. Can't confirm it for certain, but if they are, then credit where credit is due.

[Old Wombat]

Just make the 30mm gun turret a bit bigger than a VW Beetle & it's a GAU-8. With a 1-in-4 or 1-in-5 ratio of DUC rounds & it's not perfect but it becomes pretty respectable at middle distances & under.

Of course, the turret could be smaller & carry more ammunition stored in the hull of the tank.

[jcf]

A GAU-8 would make no sense on a ground vehicle, you'd not need, nor want, that rate of fire. At full chat less than 18 seconds to empty the ammo tank. An AFV operating on the ground doesn't need the "firehose" effect of the GAU-8, or a Vulcan for that matter. Could a revolving barrel cannon have a use? Sure, but a 3 to 5 barrel gun with a much lower rate of fire would make more sense. More like a Hotchkiss type rather than the higher speed Gatling type. Personally speaking, a 3-barrel gun would be the logical choice. It would be more compact, and still have a higher rate of fire. In land artillery form the 37mm 5-barrel version was capable of 60 to 80 rounds per minute. It's also much simpler than the Gatling in terms of design and operation. Developing a feed system from ammo tanks in the hull to the gun in a rotating turret would most likely be far more straightforward than trying to do the same with a GAU-8, or other high-speed rotary cannon.
Something else to bear in mind is the lag as the high-speed Gatling
has to spin up to operating speed
before it starts firing. 

[Weaver]

Just make the 30mm gun turret a bit bigger than a VW Beetle & it's a GAU-8. With a 1-in-4 or 1-in-5 ratio of DUC rounds & it's not perfect but it becomes pretty respectable at middle distances & under.

Of course, the turret could be smaller & carry more ammunition stored in the hull of the tank.

The reason why you don't see gatling guns on ground vehicles, except air defence ones, is that they rip through huge quantities of ammo so fast. An AFV might need to be in a multi-target slugging match for hours, whereas an attack aircraft can get away with a dozen three-second bursts and then it's home for tea and reloads. You could get the same effect however by using an Oerlikon KCA (the gun from the JA-37 Viggen). That uses the same 30x173mm round as the GAU-8 but in a single-barreled revolver cannon, so with a decent length barrel, you'd get the same muzzle velocity.

However even 30x173mm isn't magic. GAU-8s, despite the A-10's hype, _cannot_ penetrate the frontal armour of modern MBTs. They kill tanks with it by hitting the rear and tops, and maybe, at short range, the sides. That's not usually an option for ground vehicles, hence why MBTs carry 120-125mm main guns. The fact remains that the MBT2020 only has four stowed guaranteed kills against MBTs, plus a few hundred kills that are guaranteed against lighter AFVa but only maybe-if-you're-lucky against MBTs. To be credible it needs at least 20 missiles, carried and launched from under armour. The problem there is that missiles are WAY bigger per kill than 120mm ammo: look at how few rounds dedicated ATGW vehicles carry:

Jadpanzer Rakete: 20 x HOT
M901 ITOW: 12 x TOW
FV438: 16 x Swingfire

[Weaver]

A GAU-8 would make no sense on a ground vehicle, you'd not need, nor want, that rate of fire. At full chat less than 18 seconds to empty the ammo tank. An AFV operating on the ground doesn't need the "firehose" effect of the GAU-8, or a Vulcan for that matter. Could a revolving barrel cannon have a use? Sure, but a 3 to 5 barrel gun with a much lower rate of fire would make more sense. More like a Hotchkiss type rather than the higher speed Gatling type. Personally speaking, a 3-barrel gun would be the logical choice. It would be more compact, and still have a higher rate of fire. In land artillery form the 37mm 5-barrel version was capable of 60 to 80 rounds per minute. It's also much simpler than the Gatling in terms of design and operation. Developing a feed system from ammo tanks in the hull to the gun in a rotating turret would most likely be far more straightforward than trying to do the same with a GAU-8, or other high-speed rotary cannon.
Something else to bear in mind is the lag as the high-speed Gatling
has to spin up to operating speed
before it starts firing.

Yes: to me, the only advantages of a Gatling would be on a remote mount, where it's powered operation means that a) it's very high reliability (just spits duds out and carries on) means that you don't have to climb out to clear jams, and b) the powered feed means it could have continuous ammo feed from a drum in the hull, so you don't have to climb out to change ammo boxes. However you could say all the same things for a Chain Gun, which would be lighter and smaller than a Gatling at the kind of fire rates that are realistic for ground combat.

[Old Wombat]

I forgot to add smiley emojis, didn't I.     

[Rick Lowe]

I forgot to add smiley emojis, didn't I.     

Yes...          

[Rick Lowe]

Somebody on Twitter("X" ) reckons these are the work of an artist called Ian Kennedy. Can't confirm it for certain, but if they are, then credit where credit is due.

I remember the artist from the days of reading Warlord and Commando comics and (wherever they appeared), the stories about The Black Sapper, and the UK getting invaded by the Purple Sun country and a lone Scorpion running around causing havoc... and the odd Dan Dare...
Whoever it is, is/was very good, but I always thought they were better at drawing Sci-Fi than WW2 or modern.
Horses for courses and just my opinion.