Taliban shoots down Chinook helicopter, killing 31 US soldiers

[Razgovory]

Yep.

[CountDeMoney]

What about a proximity fuse on a mortar round? Would that work betterer?

[Razgovory]

What about a proximity fuse on a mortar round? Would that work betterer?

Well if the Helicopter is on the ground, I guess it would.

[Berkut]

A fucking procimity fuse on an RPG round?

How fucking STUPID is that?

Why in the fuck would anyone be so dumb as to suggest something like that, when you could just fucking slap a heat seeking doo-dad on there so it just hits the helicopter straight on?

Christ, I weep for you people.

[Slargos]

A fucking procimity fuse on an RPG round?

How fucking STUPID is that?

Why in the fuck would anyone be so dumb as to suggest something like that, when you could just fucking slap a heat seeking doo-dad on there so it just hits the helicopter straight on?

Christ, I weep for you people.

While I have a faint idea of what a proximity fuse does, I have no idea how it works nor how big it is. Hence, I have no idea whether it would be feasible to mount one on an RPG.

What I do know is that RPGs are being used against helicopters, and that someone other than Ide must've thought of it once. Well, I don't know the latter, but it certainly stands to reason. I don't know the sun will still be there tomorrow, but I expect it might.

I will work on the assumption that other than me and Ide, there are likely several more people who are equally ill-informed on the subject matter and would possibly be interested in a more elaborate answer than "OMG STOOPT", so why don't you get down from your medium sized Ass and provide an answer that is more interesting than "LOOK AT ME I CAN BE A HUGE FUCKING CUNT ALMOST AS WELL AS GRUMBLER", you histrionic fucktard.

[Ed Anger]

Okay Ide. A prox fuse on an RPG would defeat its main purpose, penetrating armor on a vehicle. Or blasting holes into buildings. The kinetic energy of a prox fuse would be wasted, since you usually aren't firing at flying objects.

But I'm just a layman,not an expert. But I play one on TV.

P.S. YUO ARE A DUMFUCK. 

[Berkut]

A fucking procimity fuse on an RPG round?

How fucking STUPID is that?

Why in the fuck would anyone be so dumb as to suggest something like that, when you could just fucking slap a heat seeking doo-dad on there so it just hits the helicopter straight on?

Christ, I weep for you people.

While I have a faint idea of what a proximity fuse does, I have no idea how it works nor how big it is. Hence, I have no idea whether it would be feasible to mount one on an RPG.

What I do know is that RPGs are being used against helicopters, and that someone other than Ide must've thought of it once. Well, I don't know the latter, but it certainly stands to reason. I don't know the sun will still be there tomorrow, but I expect it might.

I will work on the assumption that other than me and Ide, there are likely several more people who are equally ill-informed on the subject matter and would possibly be interested in a more elaborate answer than "OMG STOOPT", so why don't you get down from your medium sized Ass and provide an answer that is more interesting than "LOOK AT ME I CAN BE A HUGE FUCKING CUNT ALMOST AS WELL AS GRUMBLER", you histrionic fucktard.

You don't get sarcasm, do you?

You could not more stick a heat seeking "doo-dad" (I really thought the use of such technical jargon would make things obvious, but I guess not) on an rpg round that you could a proximity fuse, at least not as some taliban guy who is lucky to be able to read the instruction manual.

If you want a more elaborate answer as to why you cannot put a prox fuse on an RPG, well...where to start?

1. Taliban fighters in the hills do not have any prox fuses to put on them, or the necessary knowledge to do so if they did, or the facilities to do so.
2. If one was going to do so who DID have those things, it would not really make sense to put one on a HEAT round, which so far as I know is what RPGs fire. They are designed to penetrate armor or buildings by creating a jet of super heated gas that melts through armor. So having one blow up *near* the target would be nearly useless. The round has to strike the target to form the necessary jet of material. Just blowing up would do nothing.
3. They do make straight HE rounds for RPGs, which would certainly work better against something like a helicopter. Would not surprise me if this is what was used, in fact. But they do not have prox fuses, and for reason #1, they could not be improvised.

Now you could almost certainly design a mission specific weapon that would basically function like an RPG with a prox fused round designed to take out helicopters. But if you are going to do that, why not just design a manpad? Which....has already been done. The afghanis, in fact, had great success shooting down Soviet helicopters with US supplied Stinger missiles. The Soviets/Russians have the SA-7 and its derivatives.

Of course, a manpad almost certainly costs a lot more than an RPG, and is probably rather hard to come by for the Taliban. Thank god for small favors.

I suspect the real reason there are not prox-fused HE RPG rounds is that by the time you design and develop one, the round is no longer cheap, which is the entire beuaty of the RPG. And if you are going to have something expensive, you might as well go with something really effective, which is going to be a IR seeking missile like the Stinger or SA-7.

However, the basic idea is not at all stupid, just ignorant.

[Berkut]

I would actually be willing to bet that the US has invested CONSIDERABLE resources from an intelligence standpoint and a diplomatic standpoint to make sure that nobody supplies the taliban with cheap manpads, in the fashion that we did with the Soviets.

[Ideologue]

Okay Ide. A prox fuse on an RPG would defeat its main purpose, penetrating armor on a vehicle. Or blasting holes into buildings. The kinetic energy of a prox fuse would be wasted, since you usually aren't firing at flying objects.

But I'm just a layman,not an expert. But I play one on TV.

Cool.

[Berkut]

Okay Ide. A prox fuse on an RPG would defeat its main purpose, penetrating armor on a vehicle. Or blasting holes into buildings. The kinetic energy of a prox fuse would be wasted, since you usually aren't firing at flying objects.

But I'm just a layman,not an expert. But I play one on TV.

Cool.

I think the bigger issue is that you could put a prox fuse on a RPG round (they do have fuses on them, although they are generally contact set), but then the cost of the fuse would be several times, probably even an order of magnitude or more, greater than the cost of the RPG to begin with.

And if you are going to spend that kind of money, just get a real manpad.

[Ideologue]

What sucks is that my google searches almost certainly have me on a terrorist watch list now.

[DGuller]

What sucks is that my google searches almost certainly have me on a terrorist watch list now.

Was is just idle curiosity, or are you looking for some stuff?  Just curious. 

[Ideologue]

What sucks is that my google searches almost certainly have me on a terrorist watch list now.

Was is just idle curiosity, or are you looking for some stuff?  Just curious. 

Idle curiosity.  I'm not very mechanically inclined.  I doubt I could get a Molotov cocktail to work right.

[DGuller]

Idle curiosity.  I'm not very mechanically inclined.  I doubt I could get a Molotov cocktail to work right.

Oh.    Good luck with your curiosity.

[The Minsky Moment]

I know for a fact you can take down a helicopter with a bow, an arrow, and a proximity fused mullet.  I saw Stallone do it.