Armor: America Revives the Assault Gun

America Revives the Assault Gun

September 1, 2006: The U.S. Army has received the first of its MGS (Mobile Gun System) vehicles. This is a Stryker wheeled armored vehicle with a special turret that mounts a 105mm gun. There are two machine-guns (7.62mm and 12.7mm). The 12.7mm machine-gun is controlled from inside the vehicle. The 105mm gun is a modified version of the one used on the M-60 series of tanks. This gun has an autoloader, and carries 18 rounds of ammo. There are four types of ammo available; Sabot (armor piercing, using a depleted uranium penetrator that can take out most tanks) HEAT (anti-tank, using a shaped charge, like ATGMs and RPGs), HEP (a high explosive round that either blows a hole through thick walls, or causes concrete or metal to come?"at high speed-- off the inside of the wall) and canister (like a shotgun shell). The most useful round in Iraq would be HEP and SABOT, for blasting buildings or bunkers the enemy is in. The vehicle carries 400 rounds for the 12.7mm machine-gun and 3,500 for the 7.62mm machine-gun.

The 21 ton MGS is otherwise similar to other Stryker vehicles. There will be three MGS assigned to each infantry company. In effect, the MGS is a return of the assault gun, a turretless tank developed during World War II for infantry support. After World War II, the assault gun was dropped by most armies, to be replaced by tanks or self-propelled artillery. But that has not worked out as well as the assault gun, because during World War II, the assault gun was considered an infantry weapon, and "belonged" to the infantry. The MGS "belongs" to the infantry company it is a part of, will train regularly with the infantry, and thus be a lot more useful to the infantry.

The MGS had a lot of development problems, and is over a year late. The 105mm gun makes a whole lot of noise (bad for any nearby infantry), and initially caused lots of vibration problems inside the MGS when the gun was fired. The MGS contains a lot of electronics, and a very capable fire control system. MGS gunners regularly put 105mm shells through window size targets at 1,000 meters or more.

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