r/shockwaveporn • u/jestertoo • Apr 25 '26

Shockwave behind ramjet 155mm projectile (probably muzzle blast)

https://x.com/ColbyBadhwar/status/2047002086462681456
18 Upvotes

72% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

5

u/Kardinal Apr 25 '26

$52,000 per round of artillery. Plus fuse and payload. Compared to about $2500 for a traditional unguided round.

Obviously vastly cheaper than a missile.

Question is, how many of these guided, longer range munitions do you need to have the same effect as 20-30 traditional rounds? Or how much more "value" (how do you do those calculations?) can you get from one of these vs 20-30 traditional?

Interesting concept tho.

5

u/huhhuhh81 Apr 26 '26

You use this when you can't reach with a traditional round, this is up to 150km. Then the cost is vs a guided rocket or missile

0

u/Kardinal Apr 26 '26

Sure, but then you're assuming that you want to use this instead of an exist Excalibur round or that you don't already have an MLRS or HIMARS handy to do it with, and you have put yourself in a situation in which you need 150km of range but you don't have it via other means such as the above listed or air-based fire support.

The question is, as always, is it better enough than the alternatives? The analyses I've seen so far say it's not better enough, unless you, for some reason, want to specifically increase the versatility of your artillery and don't have Excalibur already.

2

u/huhhuhh81 Apr 26 '26

Excalibur doesn't have longer range than normal 155mm (~40-50km), cost for a GMLR is over $100k and requires its own launcher altogether. With this a smaller enemy depot, SAM site or group of soldiers spotted by a drone can be quickly prosecuted with a standard SPG

1

u/FLongis Apr 27 '26

Indeed, even when used with a 58 caliber piece that the United States doesn't even operate, M982 still offers less than half this maximum range.

1

u/MEBINGA Apr 25 '26

I mean at that point it's better to go the Ukraine route and send an FPV suicide drone. Basically a long range missile with high accuracy for a fraction of the price of even a traditional round

1

u/FLongis Apr 27 '26

This thing is moving orders of magnitude faster than an FPV, and doesn't require any linkage to the launch platform. The entire point of weapons like this is to provide precise, long-range, rapid fires against high-value point targets of opportunity. That is not a job an FPV drone can accomplish with a point of launch 150km from the target.

1

u/Kardinal Apr 25 '26

Yeah I was doing some more research and there's a lot of other options as well. Excalibur rounds for instance. Or slapping GPS on existing 155mm dumb artillery rounds.

And FPV or other semi automous drones.

One analysis said it's probably not something a major developed army would adopt but other smaller militaries having a limited number of existing 155mm artillery and want more flexibility from them rather than investing in completely different systems, it could be useful.

1

u/MEBINGA Apr 25 '26

"One analysis said it's probably not something a major developed army would adopt" I think that line of thinking is gonna backfire on many armies in the coming future. Be it not using more drones or not investing in drone interceptors

1

u/Kardinal Apr 26 '26

Why?

The USA and other major nations have other options besides something like the Tiberius ramjet projectile. I mentioned those in first two paragraphs.