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I've recently moved next door to a guy in the Queen's Royal Dragoon Guards. Seems a good egg but I'm at a complete loss at what cutting remarks and barbed wit I can fire in his direction. Dragoons???

Any help would be gratefully received. Cherry Berets, Falling Plates, Green Cowards, Agile and Suffering Highlanders etc... present no problems, but a Dragoon. Help!!!!

One interesting point we talked about was the UK blue on blue on one of our tanks. Apparently the FFR fitted to tanks these days is fantastic and none of his guys can figure out what went wrong. (by the way the slats you see on the sides of Challengers are to give the tank a distinct heat profile/thermal image which is unmistakeable - but not, it seems in the heat of battle??) His concern was for the gunner who fired the shot, and who will have to live with it for the rest of his life. Here, here!

One other interesting comment he made was about the power and effectiveness of the ammunition used in British tanks: British tanks have the finest armour in the world, Chobham, but one round took out the tgt with no problem.

By the way, one for your trivia list. Brit tanks have rifled barrels, US tanks have smooth barrels. OK, OK, I'm getting boring!! It was just nice to get an insight into a field of warfare I knew diddly squat about. I remember working with some Italian tanks. I thought they looked scary beasts but felt safer outside one that inside one!

I think the reason for the Abrams smooth barrel is because it fires a 'Sabot' round generally. That's like a semi missile, a round carried within a sheath and then released on impact, it also enables greater versatility of ammunition.

How many guards does the Queen need for her Dragons?

Rob

The smooth barrel means the yanks have to have "finned" ammunition. Apparently there are (as usual) pros and cons with each system but I didn't have time to explore this. Later. Much later, as he's off to Canada tomorrow for five months!

Sisyphus,The Queen's Royal Dragoon Guards,formed on the 1st Jan,1959 from the The King's Dragoon Guards and the Queens Bays, the nicknames of these regiments were 'The Trades Union', because in the nineteeth century they were used in quelling trade riots,and to other cavalry Regiments they were derisively, known as the 'The King's Dancing Girls',and also known as the 'Rusty Buckles'.Aye JR

In the case of the US and UK tanks both anti tank rounds are finned.
The UK round discards the sabot on leaving the barrel.
Presumably the US round remains attached and discards on impact.
I will comfirm this later today.
The UK tank can also fire unfinned rounds such as, HESH rounds.

Brian E wrote:In the case of the US and UK tanks both anti tank rounds are finned.
The UK round discards the sabot on leaving the barrel.
Presumably the US round remains attached and discards on impact.
I will comfirm this later today.
The UK tank can also fire unfinned rounds such as, HESH rounds.

The sabot on a US round also seperates immediately after leaving the barrel. If anybody wants the de facto look into armoured warfare on your PC, check out http://www.esimgames.com for 'Steel Beasts'. It's a little old, but it's used by several armies for training and a sequel is coming out within the next six months.

Thanks for the feedback guys. And thanks for the background info JR - I'll work on my act while he's away!!

Gipper wrote:

Brian E wrote:In the case of the US and UK tanks both anti tank rounds are finned.
The UK round discards the sabot on leaving the barrel.
Presumably the US round remains attached and discards on impact.
I will comfirm this later today.
The UK tank can also fire unfinned rounds such as, HESH rounds.

The sabot on a US round also seperates immediately after leaving the barrel. If anybody wants the de facto look into armoured warfare on your PC, check out http://www.esimgames.com for 'Steel Beasts'. It's a little old, but it's used by several armies for training and a sequel is coming out within the next six months.

Gipper is quite right, as a penetrator with a sabot attached would generate a lot of air resistance and defeating the purpose of the round:which defeats it target by a combination of mass and velocity.