Talk:M247 Sergeant York

Historically funny

For a famous failure this version of the article reads like is was written by a still deluded project manager. I have begun a rewrite.

Hee hee, that is funny. If it has been in service with the Army since 1983, why did we only have M163_VADS in 1989? L0b0t 12:29, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

You are forgetting about MIM-72/M48 Chaparral. Vulcan was short range, Chaparral was long range. --Gadget850 ( Ed) 10:34, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

The Chap is still considered short range by the army. Chap along with Stinger, Vulcan, Linebacker, and Avenger PMS, comprise SHORAD (short range air-defence). For long range ADA you're looking at Hawk, Patriot and Improved Patriot.K1ng l0v3 15:36, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

<thunk>I forgot Patriot. Chaparral and Vulcan are no longer in service- I think even the Guard no longer has them. Through the mid-80s, Nike was the real long range, Chaparral was medium, Vulcan short and Redeye manpack. --Gadget850 ( Ed) 16:08, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

Wow, I forgot all about Nike. When I was in in the late 80s early 90s we got to shoot off many, many Redeyes for Stinger training as the Stinger was too expensive to live-fire. During AIT at Ft. Bliss all the Vulcan, Stinger, Chap, MOS's went to one part of post and the Patriot, Hawk folks went to another. SHORAD was considered Combat Arms while the long-range stuff was Divisional Support so women were allowed to serve with Hawk/Patriot. I miss the Vulcan sooo much. Mine is in the ADA museum at Bliss now, because we sank a PT boat with it during Just Cause. K1ng l0v3 16:24, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

I was staff at the Pershing school at Redstone Arsenal in the mid-80s. The Nike school was beside us. I watched them pack up Nike, bring in Roland, pack that up and bring in Sergeant York. Forgot about Hawk- I guess that was the long range mobile. I ended up in charge of all the land combat maintenance shops for a time, including the Vulcan and Chaparral but I really didn't know much about them. Air defense used such a mix of stuff that it is confusing. Air Defense Artillery could really provide a good overview on this, but it is just a stub right now. Pershing was Field Artillery and I was Ordnance, so I'm not real up on ADA organization. --Gadget850 ( Ed) 16:58, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

--

Hey, I remember this anti-aircraft beast when I was at Ft Bliss for training back in '82 and '83. It was known as a debacle even to us privates. The article doesn't mention it but I think the program guys were caught fudging shootdowns, saying that they would have been shot down anyway so why destroy a perfectly good drone (! LOL). I think that's when Casper Weinberger finally decided to pull the plug ..

-- —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.253.49.6 (talk) 00:20, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

I worked at the Lake Forest production facility at Ford Aerospace as a test mechanic and also at the field test center off Ortega Hwy. in San Juan Capistrano Ca. from 1983 to 1985. The army contract was to use off the shelf parts and to intergrate these systems to a WWII chassis. This chassis could not maintain speed with the main battle tanks the ABRAMS. The best system on the vehicle was the feed system for the 40mm rounds with a fire rate of 12 rounds per seconed. The ability to select amo from 4 different mags. The vehicle could also fire on the move which was also a requirement of the Army contract. We really got poor quality parts from the from the vendors. The hydraulic leaks were never and issue after we completed a zero leak after a full turret stress from the pruduction facility at Lake Forest. The problems were useing off of the shelf syetems which were not specifically designed for such a system. The real reason for cancilation of the system was it could not meet the threat. And at the time that was the soviet Hind E helicoper was the threat. We actually built 86 vehicles the 50th. tank was the completion of the first option of the contract. There was known at the pentagon at the time a missle mafia who were generals who wanted to go to missle systems. Regan also needed money for the MX missle. It was a fun project.

Programs

Let's see- MIM-46A Mauler was canceled and replaced "short term" by Chaparral. Chaparral was supposed to be replaced by Roland which was canceled and replaced by Sergeant York, canceled and replaced by ADATS, canceled and finally replaced by Bradley Linebacker. Think this should be mentioned? --Gadget850 ( Ed) 01:21, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

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Picture contradicts text

I'm just a visitor who'd wanted to know about the device I'd read the name in a book; at the first lines I am struck with a discrepancy: two rapid firing 40mm guns in the text, one only on the picture beside.

Greetings to all, and thank you anyways for the information

90.24.227.75 (talk) 12:00, 30 April 2012 (UTC)

If you're talking about the following image, there are two barrels, they're just side-on to the camera. 87.115.189.96 (talk) 11:51, 21 April 2013 (UTC)

Description

The Sgt York used a revolutionary dual linear linkless feed system to load the rounds into each 40 mm Bofors cannon. This feed system had both an upper and lower system, allowing the loading of both High Explosive and Proximity Fused rounds in separate magazines. At the time there was no equivalent system in use by any country, land, sea or air based.

Magazine capacity for one side upper was ~81 and the lower ~179. At preprogrammed firing bursts, that was eight helicopters shot down before reload. Loading rounds into the magazine system was from the top of the turret, a hatch opened and a loading rack was attached and the classic four round stripper clips of 40mm were loaded as fast as troops could relay them up.

There were four distinct magazine LRU’s, a mirror image left and right sided. The system was powered by a hydraulic motor and turned at 75 rpm, slow, but feed the canon perfectly. The first LRU from the canon was the Fan, moving rounds from cross cannon axis at the trunnion to pointing parallel with the barrel at the weapon. The Fan had two parallel levels. The upper was feed from the upper magazine with an integrated articulating arm, and the lower was feed by the Elevator that was responsible for moving the rounds up, and at the same time outboard, far enough to match the Fan’s attachment. The Lower Magazine was a semi circular arrangement in the tank body that was two inches smaller than the turret ring.

The upper magazine was located in the front of the turret, and was a box configuration that used horizontal rods on number 40 ANSI chain to move the rounds in a vertical feed. It transitioned to the patented articulating arm, since the upper fan was higher than the gun and Fan trunnion point, all while keeping the same chain length.

The lower magazine used a series of cast 17-4 stainless steel buckets, one for each round. These buckets were set up in loops that traveled horizontal in an arc, and feed strippers were used to strip a round out of one bucket, and up (for firing) or down, (for loading) into the next, and then to the elevator. Buckets were used to lower the friction, static and dynamic, of moving so many rounds, the startup inertia was bad enough. The Elevator used horizontal sliding buckets to move the rounds out and to the Fan.

The Fan had two parallel rows of cast 17-4 buckets that feed a Transfer shaft that dumped the rounds into the Bofors chamber. In combat there would be two rounds of one type of ammo ready to go, and not retrievable. What is interesting is the method to extract the spent brass. It was kicked down by the Bofors ejector, and it slid under the guns for over six feet in a greased half tube, and was flung out under the barrels and slightly to the side. While firing the driver needed to be sealed in his hatch for safety.

All of this feed system was complex and was required so that each round be controlled at all times as the vehicle was capable of firing on the move and hitting targets. It was tested numerous times with locking onto an airborne target, firing the standard 20 rounds from each lower magazine, and while that was happening, target a ground target, and nearly without noticeable switch to HE rounds and destroy the ground target.

None of the competing designs used a linear linkless feed system, all used link ammunition, which would require access and disablement of the weapon, re clipping the additional rounds, (how many do I need?) and then reassembling. The Sgt York could be in the middle of loading at any time, bang a lever twice, and within 20 seconds the loading session was aborted, and the hatch closed, and the system ready to fire. No disassembly was required. Each magazine assembled in the tank only needed three sensors to tell the tank how much ammo it had of each type.

This material was added in one big chunk here by @Lightning Zapper:. If it any of it can be sourced then it'd be great to include in the article. But it seems like it's taken from personal knowledge. Felsic2 (talk) 18:59, 30 December 2016 (UTC)