Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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1
SET DEFENCE MEANS
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Field of the Invention
This invention relates to defence means. In particular this invention relates
to
set defence means for defending a designated area.
Discussion of the Background Art
Conventional set defence means for defending a designated area is by
placement of concealed land mines throughout the designated area. These land
mines are normally placed randomly throughout the designated area.
This form of set defence has been widely used in the past and unfortunately it
has resulted in many past war zones remaining mined long -after peace has
returned
to the zone. This often renders good fertile land unusable and causes
widespread
injury to innocent civilians.
Furthermore areas which are mined are not normally mined with a view to
preventing all personnel passing beyond the mined zone. Typically areas are
mined
so that the likelihood of personnel being injured is high. This acts as an
effective
deterrent to ingress upon the mined zone. To this end, the mines are arranged
randomly and not on any fixed grid spacing as any fixed arrangement would
enable
relatively simple clearing of a mined site.
Typically persons who may be considered as dispensable in a war situation
may be induced to pass through the mined area to establish a safe path for the
following army. Likewise, mines may be cleared from a relatively narrow path
through the mine zone in order to render the mining ineffective for preventing
an
enemy breaching the mined zone.
Unfortunately the random placement of the mines make them difficult if not
impossible to recover at a later date.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Object of the Invention
This invention aims to provide set defence means which will alleviate at least
one of
the abovementioned disadvantages.
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Disclosure of the Invention
With the foregoing in view, this invention in one aspect resides broadly in
set
defence means for defending a designated area including:-
at least one monitor for monitoring the designated area to detect any zone
therein in which a new presence appears;
defence including multi-barrel weapons each having barrels loaded with
multiple sequentially fired projectiles selectively fired by electronic
controls and
capable of debilitating personnel or vehicles present anywhere in a remote
designated area; and
communication means providing communication between the monitor and the
defence for triggering selective activation of the defence for delivering a
debilitating
attack to the detected zone.
The monitors include one or more on-site sensors deployed in the designated
area or remote sensing means deployed remote from the designated area.
Alternatively the monitoring means may include both on-site and remote sensing
means.
The monitoring means may also provide a visual display of the monitored
designated zone so that manual override means may be actuated, if desired, to
enable manual control of the set defence means.
Preferably the defence is adapted for inconspicuous placement, however in
some applications conspicuous defence may be utilised as a deterrent. The
defence
may be any suitable arrangement of conventional weapons such as machine guns,
grenades and rocket launchers, cannons, or combinations thereof.
Suitably the set defence means comprises or includes multi-barrel weapons
each having barrels loaded with multiple sequentially fired projectiles
selectively fired
by electronic controls and more preferably of the general type described and
or
illustrated in the present inventor's earlier International Patent
Applications Nos.
PCTIAU94100124, PCTIAU96100459 and PCT/AU97/00713.
This preferred arrangement provides the advantage of the set defence means
being relatively transportable and compact and thus easily concealed while
providing
the ability to deliver relatively large numbers of projectiles to the detected
zone in a
very short space of time.
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The set defence means can also be of a one-use disposable type enabling
size optimization to be more easily achieved and also providing cost benefits.
This
has benefits over conventional weapons in that each set defence module is free
of
ammunition feed and ejection systems, breech opening or mechanical operation.
This enables each defence module to be self-contained in a compact shell or
container which may be partially buried readily deployed without much concern.
BRIEF DETAILS OF THE DRAWINGS
In order that this invention may be more readily understood and put into
practical effect, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings
which
illustrate typical embodiments of the invention wherein:-
FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic layout of a typical installation;
FIG. 2 provides a diagrammatic perspective view of the embodiment Illustrated
in Fig. 1;
FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic perspective view of an alternate layout;
FIG. 4 is a view which is similar to Fig. 3 but illustrates alternate forms of
set
defence means;
FIG. 5 illustrates a further embodiment of the invention in which the said
defence means and the remote monitoring means are deployed on a vehicle;
FIG. 6 illustrates an alternate form of vehicle deployment;
FIG. 7 illustrates an installation in which the said defence means provided
with
permanent in-ground mountings in the designated area with reloadable inserts;
FIG. 8 illustrates a remote visual display monitor for a manual override
control
of the said defence means;
FIGS. 9, 10 and 11 illustrate yet further embodiments in which the defence
means is delivered by an aircraft; and
FIG. 12 is a table listing different weapon types and their relevant criteria.
DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION
Referring initially to Figs. 1 and 2, it will be seen that a designated area
10 to be
defended is monitored by an array of field sensors 11 distributed over the
designated
area and which may be of any suitable type such as pressure, acoustic or
seismic
type sensors.
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The illustrated set defence means 12 employs a weapon in the form of a pair
of grenade boxes 13 each of which is substantially identical and coupled to a
remote
sensing means 14 and to a receiver unit 19 associated with the field sensors
11. The
remote sensing means 14, which in this embodiment is tower mounted, is adapted
to
sweep the designated area 10 using electro-optical or microwave techniques to
monitor any intrusion into the designated area by a personnel or vehicles.
The receiver unit 19 is adapted to receive signals from the array of field
sensors 11, using a radio frequency (RF) communications link in the embodiment
(although a cable link may also be employed), such that upon any such
intrusion the
zone of the intrusion will be isolated for targeting by grenades fired from
the grenade
boxes 13. Thus the designated area 10 may be monitored by either or both of
the
array of field sensors 11 or by the remote sensing means 14.
It will be seen that each grenade box 13 is located in a substantially
concealed
position in the ground and, of course, once set up the hole in which the
grenade box
13 is placed may be back filled without causing any detrimental effects to the
operation of the grenade box.
Typically the grenade box 13 has an outer case in which the weapon is
delivered to the front and which includes a lower casing portion 15 supporting
the
barrels 16 and which remains as an integral part of the weapon. An upper
removable
lid assembly 17, when removed, forms an adjustable base mounting for setting
the
trajectory and direction of the grenades launched therefrom.
For this purpose screw jacks 18 or the like may be coupled between the base
mounting 17 and the lower casing portion 16 to adjustably set the trajectory.
A turret
type mounting may also be provided to aim the barrels 16. The hole in which
the box
13 may be backfilled to substantially bury the grenade box 13 to provide
substantial
concealment and stabilization of the weapon.
Typically the weapon illustrated contains 588 grenade carrying projectiles
contained six to a barrel with the box containing a stack of 98 barrels in
rows of side
by side barrels. It is considered that such a box for 40 mm grenades would be
in the
order of 600 mm square in cross-section and 750 mm deep.
A small control circuit (see Fig. 2), provided as a plug-in connection to the
grenade box 13, is fitted on-site but not during transport so as to maintain
safety of
the weapon during transport. Once fitted with the control circuit, the weapon
is
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armed and ready to fire in accordance with controls provided by the sensor
unit 14
and/or the receiver unit 19.
A central remote sensor 14 in Fig. 2 is linked to multiple grenade boxes 13
via
respective control boxes 13a. In use, if an intrusion into the detected area
is
5 detected at a zone, such as any one of the zones indicated as 20 to 29, the
selected
grenade box 13 can be activated to fire one or more grenades into that
particular
zone. For this purpose, the barrels of the weapon may have an in-built aiming
system providing sufficient variation for selection of any one of the target
zones at a
respective side of the designated area.
Alternatively the grenade boxes 13 may be such that, in the operative range of
say 100 m to 1500 m, the grenades launched from the lower left hand tubes or
barrels will reach the near left hand corner of the designated area, whilst
the
grenades launched from upper left hand barrels will reach the far corner of
the
designated area. Similarly those grenades launched from the corner barrels at
the
right hand side of the box will reach the near and far portions at the middle
of the
designated area.
In this manner, selected barrels can be activated to fire grenades to the
desired zone. For this purpose, the barrels can be disposed with their axes
parallel
or splayed to achieve the desired target impact pattern.
From the above it will be seen that if desired, all barrels may be
simultaneously activated to fire one round so that all of the designated area
is shelled
with grenades. Alternatively, one grenade may be fired to any zone in which a
presence is detected. Then again, that zone or all zones may be subject to any
selected number of grenades up to the six contained in each barrel. If
desired, all of
the grenades may be despatched to each or all of the designated zones in a
fraction
of a second.
The grenade boxes 13 of the embodiment utilise the inventions disclosed in
my previous International Patent Applications which provide simple and
effective
means of stacking multiple electrically fired projectiles in individual
barrels or in
groups of barrels, being free of feed or ejection systems or any mechanical
operation.
The grenade boxes may be buried just below the ground or their upper end
may be open and concealed by suitable camouflaging. Ingress of water or other
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contaminants into the backfill or the hole into which the grenade box 13 is
located will
not affect the operation of the grenade box.
Thus it will be seen that such grenade boxes can be quickly deployed in a war
zone and connected to on-site or remote sensors to provide a hands free
defended
zone which will perform the functions of a minefield without having the
disadvantage
of remaining permanently after the defence is not required. In this respect,
at any
time the grenade boxes may be easily removed as a unit when not required.
Correspondingly, they may be easily replaced and if desired, a plurality of
grenade boxes may be located in each site such as in a trench with suitable
controls
to have them fire in series so that after one grenade box 13 is depleted of
its
grenades, the next is activated.
Furthermore, if desired, the leading rounds of a grenade box may contain
sensors which are fired upon installation of the grenade boxes so as to locate
the
infield sensors in the actual position to which the grenades will be fired
from that
barrel. Thus, designated areas may be set with an array of field sensors for
subsequent activation of the remaining rounds of the particular or associated
grenade boxes.
In the embodiment illustrated in Fig. 3, the grenade boxes are replaced by
banks of weapons 30 which are configured as kinetic close range solid state
gun
systems and which; -in the illustrated embodiment, comprise- groups of
repeatable
solid state barrel blocks 31 arranged to fire 9 mm rounds across the
designated area.
The barrel blocks may be angled to deliver cross fire on targets within the
designated
area. In one particular arrangement, one bank 30 comprising a group of three
(3)
barrel blocks together provide 192 barrels loaded with a total of 768 9 mm
rounds,
capable of a maximum firing rate of 8.4M spm. Each block has approximate
dimensions of 100 mm x 100 mm x 150 mm (4" x 4" x 6") and, when loaded, weight
only 5.5 kg (12 Ib) each.
In the embodiment illustrated in Fig. 4, the weapons 40 fire air burst 25 mm
high explosive rounds onto the target zones. The air burst rounds are adapted
to
explode at a low level above the ground such as at about 1 m to 3 m. The bank
40
of barrel blocks 41 of this embodiment provide 27 barrels loaded with a total
of 81
rounds, capable of a maximum firing rate of 100,000 spm. The blocks have
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dimensions of 125 mm x 125 mm x 600 mm and , when loaded, weigh 18 kg (40 Ib)
each.
Of course, the grenade boxes 13 of earlier embodiments may be used in
combination with the kinetic rounds, air burst rounds or other special purpose
rounds
so as to suit the particular situation. Different battlefield situations may
have varying
terrain and include bodies of water and in such instances, the type of round
can be
selected to suit the terrain at each particular zone.
Additionally, the weapons can be carried on a vehicle such as a wheeled
vehicle 50 in Fig. 5 or a tracked vehicle 60 in Fig. 6. In the wheeled vehicle
50, a
grenade box 13 is supported in a turreting platform 53 on the tray of the
utility while
the roof supports the target acquisition sensors 51 and grenade dispensers 52
fired
horizontally from the roof of the vehicle 50.
According to a further embodiment which could be particularly suited to
defending an area such as the perimeter of an airfield or the like, such as
illustrated
in Fig. 7, the designated area contains permanent in-ground launching cases
70,
each of which is adapted to receive removable inserts 71 of multiple
projectile barrels
to suit the particular purpose. For example, the projectiles may contain air
burst
grenades 75 adapted to explode several metres above the ground for use as anti-
personnel defences. Alternatively, the projectiles may be adapted to explode
at a
higher level for anti-aircraft defence. Preferably the in-ground cases are
installed
permanently and are armed or disarmed as required by inserting or removing the
removable barrel insert.
Suitably each in-ground case 70 includes a power source, such as a battery, a
firing sequencer and transmission means, such as communications electronics,
for
remote control of an inserted barrel. Remote control may be effected from a
manned
fire control station 72, which receives detection signals from sensors 73
associated
with each in-ground case. The signals are relayed to and from the sensors and
firing
sequencer via a communications link 74. A sensor mast 76 may also be employed
for remotely monitoring the area to be defended.
Additionally, in this embodiment, as in the earlier embodiment, manned
stations may be provided to override the automatic controls and as illustrated
in Fig.
8, the ground control may have a screen 80 for video surveillance cameras
which
monitor the designated area and suitable control means 81 which enables an
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operator to highlight the visible area in the screen where troops or vehicles
are
intruding for automatic firing of a barrel of a selected weapon 82 which will
target
those areas.
As illustrated, the screen 80 may include rate of fire, area of fire, density
of fire
and duration of fire or other controls such as type of round to be despatched
to the
targeted zone.
Furthermore, the rounds may be delivered from pods supported by aircraft
provided with remote control from the minefield sensors such that a manned or
unmanned aircraft may deliver the grenades or other grounds to the target zone
indicated by the monitoring means.
Figs. 9 and 10 illustrate how a plane and/or a helicopter may be used to
support the weapons for discharging a fixed array of rounds onto a target
zone. A
fixed wing ground attack aircraft 85, such as the Fairchild A-10
"Thunderbolt", when
fitted with 4 grenade pods, can deliver 21,168 grenades from 3,528 barrels or
tubes
at any desired rate up to 10.4M spm. In the illustrated arrangement, there are
provided minefield boundary sensors 86, together with a fire control station
87 up-
linked to the aircraft 85.
Alternatively, as illustrated in Fig. 11, the grenade box 90 may be of a
cylindrical form provided with barrels radiating from a central control core
which may
be either mounted ~on the ground or dropped by a parachute, but again with
control
from the monitoring means so that the rounds may be despatched to the
designated
target zone.
Each barrel assembly may have multiple grenade carrying projectiles of
substantially known form loaded in rifled barrels to impart spin upon firing
for
activating the arming device. However a rupturable propellant cup is fixed to
the
projectile for flight therewith.
In use, as per my earlier inventions, loading of the projectiles forms wedge
type seals at the leading and trailing ends of a sleeve associated with each
projectile
while firing releases the leading seal but maintains an operative seal at the
rear end
of the sleeve. As the pressure projecting the projectile is relative low, in
the order of
3000 psi, only minimal sealing is required.
Fig. 12 lists typical weapons which may be used with the present invention
indicating range, the number of simultaneous rounds which may be despatched,
the
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maximum rate of fire, the total number of rounds per weapon, the envisaged
overall
dimensions and envisaged overall weight.
It will of course be realised that the above has been given only by way of
illustrative example of the invention and that all such modifications and
variations
thereto as would be apparent to persons skilled in the art are deemed to fall
within
the broad scope and ambit of the invention as is herein set forth in the
following
claims.
