Chaparral and SP Vulcan Battalion Operations

SHORAD weapons are primarily used for the defense of the ground commander's forces and assets. However, they are also employed to defend theater assets such as air bases. Most SHORAD units are organic to divisions and consist of combinations of short-range guns and man-portable missile systems. At the present time, both new SHORAD systems and product improvements to existing systems are being introduced into the Army. In some cases this has resulted in the reorganization of some SHORAD units to support the Army of the 1980s and 1990s.Still lacking an effective anti-aircraft system, the Army started development of two stop-gap systems that were meant to operate in concert. The M163 VADS combined the M61 Vulcan cannon, the M113 chassis, and an all-optical fire control system with a simple lead-computing gunsight. Suitable for "snap shots" against nearby targets, the VADS system was equipped only with a small ranging radar for the gunsight, its firing range being too small to justify a larger tracking radar. VADS was intended to operate in concert with the MIM-72 Chaparral, which combined the AIM-9 Sidewinder missile with a more heavily modified version of the M113 chassis. The Chaparral's AIM-9D missiles were capable of tail-chase launches only, but offered ranges up to 5 miles. Also using an all-optical firing system, the Chaparral nevertheless required the operator to "settle" the missiles on the target for a period of time to allow them to lock on, limiting its ability to deal with quickly moving targets. Both vehicles were optionally supported by the AN/MPQ-49 Forward Area Alerting Radar (FAAR), but this system was towed by the Gama Goat and couldn't be used near the front lines.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Chaparral
• SP
• Vulcan
• 20mm
• cannonBattalion
• Operations
• air
• defense
• artillery
• US
• Army
• SHORADS
• forward
• area
• alerting
• radar
• FAAR

[lamaison1966]

Looks like my old unit. We trained at Donna Ana range near Fort Bliss before being sent to the DMZ in Korea in 1970. 8/61 Artillery Bn.

[TheMartyc471]

I was one of the last FAAR operators in the Army. 3/5 ADA 3rd AD "Mighty Fine"

[bighookah6]

who is this talking head they have at the start of this? he's like "the threat of modern high speed aircraft" and points at an SR-71 (an unarmed high altitude spy plane), then states that the weapon system is for 'low flying enemy aircraft' LOL epic fail.

[mystatwo]

my father operated a Sea Chaparral in the later years of the Vietnam war off the helo deck of the USS Henry W Tucker. I'm in secret scratch building him a model of the unit and if any of you that have been around them have pictures of the inside or other detail. Especially from that era, please message me and let me know. Thanks

[woodaddy3]

I was a Chaparral Missile Crewman from 1985 to 1989 at Ramstein , West Germany. I was with B. Btry 2/60 ADA later renamed B. Btry 3/44 ADA. I got to fire a live missile in Crete , Greece in 1989.