Australian Bushrangers?

[thatguy96]

I've been looking at pictures of these things and I was been pondering what made them [the Aussies] decide to mount an additional M156 with two miniguns on it forward of the main cabin and one in the standard position (usually with M158 rocket pods) rather than the XM21/M21 armament system which combines both on a single M156 universal mount.

http://members.aol.com/cobra6/wRaaf-1.jpg

vs.

http://www.aircav.com/img/cav/bm21.jpg

I just find it interesting that they seperated the systems onto two mounts.

[TacoDelRio]

That's pretty high speed! Talk about some firepower!

That should slow some VC down!

[digrar]

Who know's what the RAAF were thinking.
The really sad thing is we have only just retired the bush rangers in the last year or so.

[thatguy96]

The only thing I can think of is mounting them further up on another M156 might have given a better field of fire, since the guns are trainable. On the XM21/M21, the guns have 10 degrees of elevation and 85 degrees of depression, and 12 degrees of outboard traverse and 70 degrees of inboard traverse.

[Zorro C9]

I thought this thread was about The Bush Tucker Man.

[Bugalugs]

Theres a 20 or 30mm on the new recce helo, should bring back a bit of the old days

[Skye]

I remembered reading about this a while ago at this site:

http://www.hotkey.net.au/~marshalle/raaf/bushranger.htm

From that site:


The American Iroquois gunships had major problems with accuracy, weight and balance. The Australians fixed the accuracy problem by dispensing with all the hydraulics in the gun and rocket mounts. The US gunships employed a system where a gun sight, pivoted from the aircraft ceiling frame, would hydraulically drive the gun or rocket mount to 150 from centre in any direction. Imagine what a little hydraulic slack did for the cone of fire when a vibrating mini-gun was firing 70 to 100 rounds per second! So the 9 Squadron team simply welded all the weapon mounts to make them solid mounts. Then the gun sight was latched into a rigid mounting from the aircraft ceiling frame and a rigid weapons platform was formed. If the pilot wished to shift the point of aim, he simply pointed the aircraft, just as he would an old fighter aircraft. Then to remedy the weight and balance problem, the gun mounts were mounted on the forward hard point just behind the pilot's door: the rocket pod mounts were mounted on the aft hard point, just forward of the transmission well. On the US gunships, the aft hard point carried both the gun and rocket mounts.

[James]

I thought this thread was about The Bush Tucker Man.

I thought it was going to be about Ned Kelly. :|

[Zorro C9]

I thought this thread was about The Bush Tucker Man.

I thought it was going to be about Ned Kelly. :|

The Bushtucker Man would waste Ned Kelly.

[Bugalugs]

I thought this thread was about The Bush Tucker Man.

I thought it was going to be about Ned Kelly. :|

The Bushtucker Man would waste Ned Kelly.

Crikey!
look at that!

*clank*clank*clank*

BANG! BANG! BANG!

crikey!............*croak*...........

[James]

I thought this thread was about The Bush Tucker Man.

I thought it was going to be about Ned Kelly. :|

The Bushtucker Man would waste Ned Kelly.

Pfft... I don't think so... :roll:

[Zorro C9]

Well, the Bush Tucker Man was a major in the Aussie army. There's an advantage right there. As previously stated (:D) Neddy makes a fair bit of noise while moving. Also, his old shotty wouldn't be much match for TBTM's SLR.

Futher, TBTM can survive in the bush on nothing. Neddy was a yobbo who wouldn't know the bush if it bit him in the arse.

TBTM didn't get captured.

Hence, The Bush Tucker Man could waste Ned Kelly.

[drose]

I thought it was about those silly IMV things. (http://www.adi-limited.com/2-01-010-040-030.html)

[digrar]

Major Les Hiddens started out as a baggy arse forward scout in South Viet Nam in the great and glorius Royal Australian Regiment, I'd probably pick him over Ned Kelly.

[Zorro C9]

Ah, it should have occured to me he had fought in VN. Do you know if he's still alive Dig?

[Bugalugs]

http://img238.exs.cx/img238/9366/bushhunter21ma.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

[digrar]

I haven't heard of his demise, but he isn't on the TV all the time like he used to be. Last I heard he was tied up with trying to save a Viet Nam Veterans camping/fishing retreat up North, which would have been a couple of years ago IIRC.

[Bugalugs]

I haven't heard of his demise, but he isn't on the TV all the time like he used to be. Last I heard he was tied up with trying to save a Viet Nam Veterans camping/fishing retreat up North, which would have been a couple of years ago IIRC.

He lives up on Magnetic Island, off Townsville

[Zorro C9]

Well, I can say he's a bloody legend. He's the one that got me interested in the bush and how we should respect it, not the other way around.

[digrar]

I'd take him over steve Irwin any day.

[oldsoak]

Remember seeing some of the bush tucker series - and when I was in Oz, I went to the local ABC shop in Adelaide .Ccould I get a DVD of the series ? Could I f**k. Managed to find a book eventually, but would have loved to have got the DVD. Good to hear the man is still about.
but I did get a swag and a 4wd :) - not in the ABC shop tho.

[marktigger]

The Bushrangers seamed an excellent force anything I've read on them has been good. Just think Veitnam would probably have been wone if the ANZACS had been in charge. ;)

[RGRBOX]

Great Helo..

[Adam Wilhelm]

Les beats Steve any day! p-)

[PrincessRAR]

I thought it was about those silly IMV things. (http://www.adi-limited.com/2-01-010-040-030.html)

In a sense they are IMV's as that is just a wordage thing, but we have an IMV in service (the 6x's - dig would be used to these back in 6 RAR's hayday).

But the bushmaster you are talking about is a waste of money, I am yet to hear aynthing good about it - an absolute deathtrap, further more who needs aircon and cold water fountains in a vehicle.
Nothing like the army used to be ill tell you that much!

[Recidivist]

Major Les Hiddens started out as a baggy arse forward scout in South Viet Nam in the great and glorius Royal Australian Regiment, I'd probably pick him over Ned Kelly.

Ned Kelly was a badass outlaw who knew the bush like the back of his hand, so don't blow him off either. He wasn't a bad man really.

In his last stand, he did take 28 shots and then escaped back to the bush. That's pretty badass, having been shot 28 times and still running off wearing a heavy suit of armor.

[digrar]

Ned picked armour over field craft which goes against the grain for me.
He was a bit of a champ though ;) .

[James]

I haven't heard of his demise, but he isn't on the TV all the time like he used to be. Last I heard he was tied up with trying to save a Viet Nam Veterans camping/fishing retreat up North, which would have been a couple of years ago IIRC.

He lives up on Magnetic Island, off Townsville

As a young Corporal in the USMC, I spent a few days in Townsville in March, 1997.

It was glorious. woot

[ShotOver]

The bushtucker man, i saw on a docco had to stop making his show because of the nightmares about `Nam he was getting.
Poor bloke.

[oldsoak]

The bushtucker man, i saw on a docco had to stop making his show because of the nightmares about `Nam he was getting.
Poor bloke.

x2 - I hope he gets it sorted. He came across as a great down to earth bloke.

[digrar]

Les left the 'regular' Army in 1989 with the rank of Major and some years later, in 1998, Les rejoined the Army, part-time. He served in the 5th Aviation Unit based at Townsville and as far as we know he continued his enthusiasm for troop survival training and bush tucker information collection.

Found this on an Australian site.