United States Army air defense
Their smaller tactical needs were filled with four M2 (.50 BMG|.50 caliber) machine guns linked together (known as the "Quad Fifty"), which were often mounted on the back of a half-track to form the Half Track, M16 GMC, Anti-Aircraft.
While relatively capable for the era it was designed in, by the time it reached widespread service in the late 1950s, it was clear that it was ineffective against high-speed jet-powered targets.
Mauler mounted a nine-missile magazine on top of an adapted M113 Armored Personnel Carrier chassis, along with detection and tracking radars.
Mauler featured a completely automatic fire control system, with the operators simply selecting targets and pressing "OK".
The M163 VADS combined the M61 Vulcan cannon, the M113 chassis, and an all-optical fire control system with a simple lead-computing gunsight.
VADS was intended to operate in concert with the MIM-72 Chaparral, which combined the AIM-9 Sidewinder missile with a modified version of the M548 Cargo Carrier chassis.
Both vehicles were optionally supported by the AN/MPQ-49 Forward Area Alerting Radar (FAAR), but this system was towed by the Gama Goat and couldn't be used near the front lines.
At one point, the Army started to become concerned about developments in sensor technologies that would allow attacks by fixed-wing aircraft at night or in bad weather.
The U.S. led the field with their TOW missile on the Cobra gunship, demonstrating this powerful combination in combat in 1972's Easter Offensive.
The Soviets initially lagged the U.S., but the introduction of the 9K114 Shturm (known in the west as the AT-6 "Spiral") missile on the Mi-24 "Hind" in the mid-1970s offered the USSR a level of superiority.
While the Chaparral had enough range to engage the "Hind", its lengthy lock-on period meant they would have hit their target and hidden behind terrain again before the Sidewinder would reach it.
Colonel Russell Parker testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in March 1977 that "We expect this somewhat unorthodox approach to permit a much reduced development time, thus resulting in an earliest fielding date, albeit with higher but acceptable risks... the manufacturer will be required by the fixed price warranty provisions, to correct deficiencies.
This system became the M247 Sergeant York DIVAD (Division Air Defense), a self-propelled anti-aircraft weapon developed by Ford Aerospace in the late 1970s, which featured twin radar-directed 40 mm rapid-fire guns.
Subsequent production tests 5 turned up a continued variety of problems, failing 22 of 163 contract requirements, and 22 serious failures in operational readiness.
The M247 OT&E Director, Jack Krings, stated the tests showed, "...the SGT YORK was not operationally effective in adequately protecting friendly forces during simulated combat, even though its inherent capabilities provided improvement over the current [General Electric] Vulcan gun system.
It was finally phased out of US service in 2002, the last users, the US Marine Corps replacing it with the man-portable, IR-guided, visual range FIM-92 Stinger.
[7] The FIM-92 Stinger is a personal portable infrared homing surface-to-air missile developed in the United States and entered into service in 1981.
The AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel is a three-dimensional radar used to alert and cue Short Range Air Defense (SHORAD) weapons to the locations of hostile targets approaching their front line forces.
The antenna uses phase-frequency electronic scanning technology, forming sharp 3D pencil beams covering large surveillance and track volume.
The radar automatically acquires, tracks, classifies, identifies and reports targets, including cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, rotary and fixed-wing aircraft.
Mounted on a towed platform, it can be positioned remotely from the rest of the unit, operated autonomously and communicate with the Fire Distribution Center (FDC)[9] via wideband fiber-optic link.
The MIM-104 Patriot is a surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, the primary of its kind used by the United States Army and several allied nations.
