George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 308

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-The number of Comanche helicopters has been reduced. The military has already reached an agreement, and the 30 Comanches already produced will be used for various special operations support.

“Instead, a project to apply stealth technology to transport helicopters using the accumulated technical skills. Is it the Black Hawk?”

-Yes, that’s right. It’s not practical to apply it to the Chinook, and the Black Hawk is perfect. Applying stealth technology to the Black Hawk is already a side project. This opportunity will simply promote it to the main project…

The key issue was the budget. Bush could practically see Congress in front of him, ranting and raving as if they were having a seizure at the mere mention of increasing the defense budget. But wasn’t it a legitimate investment in the future? It wasn’t like he was going to use it to create a slush fund; it was for the future of the United States, so Bush had nothing to lose.

“Proceed.”

-Thank you.

The conversation about developing new defense technologies always flowed smoothly.

“How is the plan to replace pilots with unmanned systems progressing?”

-I’m sorry. There’s not much progress. Unlike existing drones, it was designed with human movement in mind, so the only solution is to completely rebuild half of the helicopter from scratch…

“That’s enough. It’s enough that you’re developing it.”

The phone call ended there. Everything else was a mess, but for some reason, the development of defense weapons was smooth sailing.

‘The XM2001 Crusader has finished development, so they removed the X and are now deploying it fully. The XM1203 will be completed soon.’

The former was for defending the homeland, and the latter was for deployment overseas. In fact, the significance was in replacing the Paladin self-propelled howitzer, which was becoming increasingly outdated, rather than its performance. Frankly, using the Paladin these days felt like elder abuse.

It might work in places like the African battlefield, but it was no match for the battlefields where the U.S. military would be deployed in an emergency. Once the two new self-propelled guns were introduced and their performance was verified, the Paladin would be relegated to storage and slowly transferred or sold off as aid.

‘The Land Warrior project is almost completely integrated with the Future Warrior project. Is this around the time when RQ-4 [Global Hawk] derivatives will actively start to appear?’

To be precise, it wasn’t that they had started actual production, but rather that ideas and designs were emerging.

The MQ-9 Reaper, the most produced drone, goes without saying, and the MQ-47 [a fictional stealth combat drone] had already experienced actual combat, identified problems, and the D-type, which compensated for the shortcomings, was just being produced and deployed on aircraft carriers. It was a miraculous speed, but it was the result of pouring in a lot of budget.

It would be rude to call it a pig. Pigs, whether by instinct or learning, consume only as much as they need. Only humans can overeat.

‘It’s overeating to prepare for the future.’

The F-22 Raptor is already flying over the United States, and the F-35 Lightning II was won by Lockheed Martin in the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) project in October 2001, while Bush was unable to pay attention, and they were diligently accumulating data.

Since then, Bush has been pushing them, but the MQ-47, which was put into operation this time, has downgraded the urgent fire support role to just an urgent fire support role, so they are proceeding slowly.

Of course, when you consider that the Harrier [AV-8 Harrier II], a vertical take-off and landing attack aircraft, is operated from an amphibious assault ship, it is a completely different system from the MQ-47. But it’s not at the level where you need something immediately.

“How is the XM8 Buford coming along?”

The answer to this was the responsibility of the Chief of Staff.

“It’s about reviving a project that was suspended in 1997. To meet the performance required by the Department of Defense again, various changes were needed, from the applied technology and chassis to the smoothbore gun…”

“Just get to the point. Just the point.”

“About 4 months left until actual deployment.”

“That’s enough.”

Bush stroked his chin and thought for a moment, then rummaged through the new weapon development report as if he had remembered something and asked the Chief of Staff.

“What about the XM-29?”

“XM-29… If you’re talking about the OICW [Objective Individual Combat Weapon], I can only say that it’s ‘sluggish’.”

“Just tell them to accumulate technology quietly. Especially in the field of optical equipment. Frankly, I’m supporting them, but I don’t expect any proper results. And the budget is about the same anyway.”

The only thing that was known to be successful was the K-11 of the Korean army, which started development late, but even this was not very good in terms of performance. It was a compromise after compromise, but even in 2019, they were discussing suspending the project.

I don’t know if the project was actually suspended, but I thought it would be suspended. It was that kind of gun. The problem was the era. Bush thought that the fire control device would be useful in about 20 years.

Of course, if they invest as hard as they are now, the story might be a little different, but that’s how Bush thought, at least.

Besides, the M4 carbine was too good to be replaced now. In other words, the user doesn’t have any major complaints about the M4. Just looking at the new weapons listed above, the Army has some ‘complaints’.

The new weapon project is to solve that problem. In other words, if the user doesn’t have any major complaints, there’s no reason to change it.

‘And that’s why I’m developing a gun that uses cased telescoped ammunition [ammunition where the bullet is encased within the propellant].’

And there was a very big complaint in the squad weapon category. Anyone who has used a light machine gun has no choice but to have a complaint, which is the ‘weight’ that inevitably comes with the machine gun.

What is a machine gun? Isn’t it a weapon that has to provide firepower continuously? That’s why there are spare barrels and belts. The cased telescoped ammunition was to solve that problem. The case and belt used polymer. That alone made it about 35% lighter than existing ammunition.

The LSAT [Lightweight Small Arms Technologies] light machine gun, which uses that ammunition, was originally supposed to come out in 2007, but thanks to the massive investment, a prototype was already out and tested by special forces deployed in the Second Iraqi War.

Since it uses polymer, it won’t be able to replace existing guns entirely due to price issues, but I expected it to be introduced gradually.

The advantages are too great. There was a concern about confusion in supply because the ammunition type is different, but I thought it was worth more than that. Besides, the M60 and M240, which are currently in use, also use 7.62mm. Of course, this is a general-purpose machine gun, and to compare it properly, you have to compare it with the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon.

‘Anyway, if the performance of the cased telescoped ammunition is guaranteed and it is recognized as convenient, a derivative of the M4, which is a personal weapon, will come out.’

If that happens, the existing 5.56mm NATO ammunition will meet a new successor. If the dominant United States changes, Europe will have no choice but to change, even if they cry and eat mustard [a Korean idiom for being forced to do something against one’s will]. That’s because Europe is now starting to show a proper appearance as an integrated army, and as far as the military is concerned, it is gradually moving away from the United States, regardless of diplomacy.

To be precise, Europe was getting tired of letting the United States handle its defense by tying it to NATO. It was truly humiliating to entrust national defense to another country. They had welcomed it with open arms because it didn’t cost them money, but the story changed after the integrated army was created.

They were even determined to build a new aircraft carrier.

Anyway, back to the story of cased telescoped ammunition, it was inevitable if the field reaction was not good. You can’t force someone to use something that they can’t use in the field.

However, it had received a decent evaluation in the field.

And the most praised point was, of course, the weight of the gun and ammunition. In the case of the LSAT light machine gun, the weight of the empty gun was only 4.3kg [9.5 lbs]. It’s a bit lacking compared to personal weapons, but this is not a personal weapon, but a light machine gun.

Considering that the current standard light machine gun, the M249, weighs 7.5kg [16.5 lbs], this advantage could not be emphasized and praised enough. Of course, there would be a problem if the accuracy and reliability were compromised because they were obsessed with weight reduction, but at least there were no particularly noticeable problems in that area so far.

“What about the Bradley?”

“Bradley? Are you talking about the Bradley fighting vehicle? The M2 Bradley is… This is not a completely new weapon.”

“Not that, you know. That, what is it.”

“Are you talking about the next-generation BUSK [Bradley Urban Survivability Kit] kit?”

The armor of the Bradley fighting vehicle is aluminum. In other words, it was a flimsy armor that was easily penetrated by heavy machine guns. Therefore, BUSK was an additional armor package added to compensate for this in order to secure superiority in urban warfare and secure minimum protection. So, the thing being developed now was an improved version of that.

But that’s not what Bush was talking about now.

“No, not that, the 45mm one that they insisted on taking the budget to modify, that one.”

Due to the lack of firepower of the Bradley fighting vehicle experienced in the last war, they wanted more firepower. I don’t know why they wanted firepower in an armored vehicle in the first place, but anyway, the Army was demanding more and more powerful firepower in the armored vehicle.

And this was why Bush was pushing for the introduction of the XM8 Buford. Even Bush couldn’t control the entire defense research as he pleased. People don’t trust without performance.

“I heard that a prototype came out around November last year, but in my opinion, it will probably be buried soon.”

“They just wasted the budget! Does the Army still insist that they can’t get rid of that shitty turret?”

“The Army claims that it has clear effectiveness on the battlefield.”

“They must be insisting. If that’s the case, why did they make it an armored vehicle? Damn it. They should blow the additional purchase budget for the Humvee [High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle].”

Bush shook his head greatly as if he was fed up with it.

“Forget it all. Tell them to make AMPV [Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle] well.”

AMPV stands for Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle. What is this thing? It was a troop transport vehicle using the chassis of the Bradley fighting vehicle.

That’s right. It has completely returned to the beginning. It was questionable why this didn’t exist until now. Bush muttered, ‘These morons,’ and flipped through the reports on the 45mm Bradley.

“I will convey that.”

Bush buried himself in his chair as if he was tired of everything now.

“President.”

“What is it this time?”

It was hysteria itself. The Army was giving Bush so much stress that he was being harsh to his Chief of Staff.

“There seems to be a problem in the Middle East.”

“Damn it.”