En ciertas condiciones de combate, como terrenos montañosos y rutas improvisadas, los sistemas de armas de apoyo de fuego indirecto, de grandes calibres, carecen de la movilidad y maniobrabilidad requerida para cumplir exitosamente su misión.
Para resolver ese problema, ingenieros del Picatinny Arsenal (US Army) han desarrollado un revolucionario sistema de armas, denominado “Automated Direct Indirect-fire Mortar (ADIM). Este sistema puede disparar mientras está montado en un vehículo táctico liviano tal como el HMMWV (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle) o el que eventualmente lo reemplace.
El ADIM, basicamente un mortero 81mm, emplea un sistema de “retroceso suave” para reducir los esfuerzos transmitidos por el disparo, sobre la plataforma. El objetivo es permitir la ejecución de fuegos de apoyo inmediatos, realizados desde el mismo vehículo.
ADIM funciona de manera automática, por lo que las operaciones que normalmente se efectuaban en forma manual por el soldado, son ahora realizadas mediante actuadores electromecánicos, controlados por un Actuator Control System (ACS).
PICATINNY ARSENAL, N.J. (April 23, 2015) — In certain battlefield conditions, such as the mountainous terrain and unimproved roads of Afghanistan, large-caliber indirect-fire weapon systems lack the mobility and maneuverability required to successfully execute an assault.
To resolve this concern, engineers at Picatinny Arsenal are developing a revolutionary weapon system called the Automated Direct Indirect-fire Mortar (ADIM), which can be fired while mounted on a light tactical vehicle such as the HMMWV (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle) or its replacement.
The ADIM, currently an 81mm mortar weapon system, uses “soft recoil” to reduce the firing loads transmitted to the platform by a factor of eight, well within the limits of the HMMWV (or other light tactical vehicles) capacity. This enables mounted firing and supports rapid mobile operations.
An associated benefit of the soft recoil system is the ability to fire the weapon (direct) at low quadrant elevations (QE) as well as (indirect) at high QE to either compensate for terrain interferences or take advantage of the reduced time of flight associated with low QE firing solutions.
ADIM functions are automated so that operations normally conducted manually by the Soldier can instead be executed via electro-mechanical actuators controlled by the weapon Actuator Control System (ACS), which was also developed by Picatinny engineers and is a government owned technology.
ACS operation is directed by the Automated Fire Control System — Mortar (AFCS-M) which is an enhanced version of the fielded M95 Mortar Fire Control System (MFCS).
The AFCS-M provides the human interface for controlling the loading/unloading, emplacing, aiming and firing of the ADIM.
A key capability associated with the AFCS-M is the incorporation of an inertial navigation unit and GPS receiver, which enable full-time emplacement of the ADIM and thus eliminate the long setup and reset times of several minutes associated with traditional surveying and aiming stake methods.
The ACS and AFCS-M combination enables rapid execution of mobile “shoot and scoot” operations to reduce Soldier exposure to enemy fire and susceptibility to counter-fire. AFCS-M also provides the ability to operate the ADIM via remote control as an unmanned weapon system operated by Soldiers in a protected (Fire Direction Center) location. An ideal application for this is Forward Operating Base (FOB) protection.
Although the ADIM can be fired remotely, it is designed to require a Soldier to identify the target and make the decision to fire as prescribed in DoD Directive 3000.09 Autonomy in Weapon Systems.
ADIM automation and Fire Control reduces the Soldier burden while increasing survivability.
ADIM was demonstrated at the Army Expeditionary Warfighter Experiment (AEWE) Spiral J event at Fort Benning, Georgia, in January 2105. AEWE is the Training and Doctrine Command’s premier live fire, prototype experimentation campaign.
This year, 66 industry and military technologies participated in three AEWE Spiral J experiment cases: two force-on-force and one live fire (the first time AEWE included a live fire case).
ADIM participated in the AEWE live fire exercises, which included Soldier training, simulated and live fire exercises. Soldier training included manual weapon operations (loading, unloading and misfire procedures), and automated operations executed via the AFCS-M.
Simulated missions were executed using radios for voice communication between the remotely located Fire Direction Center (FDC) operator and the ADIM passenger (Chief of Section), and digital communication of firing missions sent directly from the FDC to the ADIM.
Due to interim safety release limitations, Soldiers were not permitted to be in the HMMWV while the ADIM was firing. Instead, shoot and scoot missions were executed with simulated firing to demonstrate the ability for Soldiers to:
- Receive a call for fire
- Stop the vehicle
- Initiate the mission
- Execute automated pointing and firing
- Resume driving in less than 50 seconds
During two days of AEWE live fire exercises, 174 rounds were fired with Soldiers operating the ADIM via remote control. Several multiple aim-point missions were executed with rounds fired at multiple targets in succession, demonstrating ADIM’s ability to rapidly engage multiple targets.
Multiple target suppression missions (one round per target and then target sequence repeated) and automated search and traverse (or single gun sheaf) missions (firing multiple rounds into an area surrounding a specified target) were also executed.
“Give me ADIM and I’m ready to go back to Afghanistan,” said a Fort Benning Soldier after observing the ADIM’s performance.
ADIM is being developed by the Weapons Systems and Technology Directorate of the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development, and Engineering Center at Picatinny Arsenal.
Plans are underway for the ADIM to participate in Manned Un-Manned Teaming (MUM-T) exercises as part of the Network Integration Evaluation (NIE) 16.1 at Fort Bliss, Texas, in October 2015.
Fuente: http://www.army.mil
