Technology

Weird Harold wrote:

fallsfromtrees wrote:I think we are more likely to see a Gatling gun before we see a Gatling cannon - the need against the Harchong army would appear to be much higher.

Why would the Charisian Navy be used against the Harchong Army? A Gatling, of Civil War Vintage, is a cumbersome piece of crew-served field artillery, or a naval close in, anti-small craft/boarders weapon.

It's suitable for the Navy or for fixed defenses, but not what the Army needs; the Army needs something like a BAR, or AK-47 (in battle rifle caliber) -- which are automatic weapons that are also within Charis' tech capability.

TN4994 wrote:Since Charis has cheated in having insider knowledge of advanced weaponry, let's look at the weapon of choice during the Prohibition years, the Thompson Submachine Gun.

Mr. Spock on Sigma Iotia II, carries a M1928A1 Thompson with 50-round drum magazine - .45 ACP, in A Piece Of The Action. CLASSIC

Give a marine one of these and stand back.

Down Under wrote:I would think that any automatic weapon for general use should be something that can survive all sorts of misuse and abuse. I understand that the AK47 has this sort of reputation

Weird Harold wrote:

Down Under wrote:I would think that any automatic weapon for general use should be something that can survive all sorts of misuse and abuse. I understand that the AK47 has this sort of reputation

True with respect to general issue automatics, but not necessarily true for crew served automatic weapons, like Gatling Guns or belt-fed medium and heavy Machine Guns like Maxims or Brownings. With Crew served weapons, the crew would naturally get more detailed training on the weapon and such weapons generally don't get drug through the mud like a personal weapon would.

Weird Harold wrote:

Down Under wrote:I would think that any automatic weapon for general use should be something that can survive all sorts of misuse and abuse. I understand that the AK47 has this sort of reputation

Weird Harold wrote:
True with respect to general issue automatics, but not necessarily true for crew served automatic weapons, like Gatling Guns or belt-fed medium and heavy Machine Guns like Maxims or Brownings. With Crew served weapons, the crew would naturally get more detailed training on the weapon and such weapons generally don't get drug through the mud like a personal weapon would.


Air Tech wrote:
The biggest problem for an AK47 is that it is gas operated and so will not work reliably with gunpowder (which is truly mucky (not surprising as its major ingredient, potassium nitrate, comes from decomposed urine and manure). Until you get smokeless powder gas operate arms choke on the smoke (i.e. unburnt crap) just like their operators... Recoil operated guns are possible but suffer from fouling too (bigger bores are better as the fouling is smaller in proportion to the caliber per shot). Smokeless powder loaded brass cartridges change everything.

AirTech wrote:The biggest problem for an AK47 is that it is gas operated and so will not work reliably with gunpowder ... Until you get smokeless powder gas operate arms choke on the smoke (i.e. unburnt crap) just like their operators... ... Smokeless powder loaded brass cartridges change everything.

Weird Harold wrote:

AirTech wrote:The biggest problem for an AK47 is that it is gas operated and so will not work reliably with gunpowder ... Until you get smokeless powder gas operate arms choke on the smoke (i.e. unburnt crap) just like their operators... ... Smokeless powder loaded brass cartridges change everything.

Charis is already working on putting smokeless powder into full scale production and their cartridge based firearms are over-built for Black Powder in anticipation of the change.

Designing and manufacturing an AK derivative will take longer than putting smokeless powder into general use, so I've pretty much ignored the issue.

The Black Powder fouling issue has been a big argument in favor of Gatling style automatic weapons for the army but the same delay past the introduction of Smokeless powder really applies; by the time a Gatling clone could be designed and manufactured, Black Powder won't be an issue.

n7axw wrote:IIRC, at the time of the discussion between Iron Hill, Rock Point, Howsmyn, and Pine Hollow in LAMA, the kinks in producing smokeless powder would be worked out by the following summer which from that point was a bit less than a year away.

Don

Weird Harold wrote:
Sounds about right. Design (debugging) and manufacture of any "machine gun" would take at least that long and could take the availability of Smokeless Powder into design consideration.