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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday August 27 2019, @11:51AM   Printer-friendly
from the hardware-that-comes-with-a-bang dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow3196

Milspec Teardown: ID-2124 Howitzer Data Display

It’s time once again for another installment in “Milspec Teardown”, where we get to see what Uncle Sam spends all those defense dollars on. Battle hardened pieces of kit are always a fascinating look at what can be accomplished if money is truly no object. When engineers are given a list of requirements and effectively a blank check, you know the results are going to be worth taking a closer look.

Today, we have quite a treat indeed. Not only is this ID-2124 Howitzer Deflection-Elevation Data Display unit relatively modern (this particular specimen appears to have been pulled from service in June of 1989), but unlike other military devices we’ve looked at in the past, there’s actually a fair bit of information about it available to us lowly civilians. In a first for this ongoing series of themed teardowns, we’ll be able to compare the genuine article with the extensive documentation afforded by the ever fastidious United States Armed Forces.

For example, rather than speculate wildly as to the purpose of said device, we can read the description directly from Field Manual 6-50 “TACTICS, TECHNIQUES, AND PROCEDURES FOR THE FIELD ARTILLERY CANNON BATTERY”:

The gun assembly provides instant identification of required deflection to the gunner or elevation to the assistant gunner. The display window shows quadrant elevation or deflection information. The tenths digit shows on the QE display only when the special instruction of GUNNER'S QUADRANT is received.

From this description we can surmise that the ID-2124 is used to display critical data to be used during the aiming and firing of the weapon. Further, the small size of the device and the use of binding posts seem to indicate that it would be used remotely or temporarily. Perhaps so the crew can put some distance between themselves and the artillery piece they’re controlling.

Now that we have an idea of what the ID-2124 is and how it would be used, let’s take a closer look at what’s going on inside that olive drab aluminum enclosure.


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  • (Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Tuesday August 27 2019, @12:06PM (10 children)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane (4757) on Tuesday August 27 2019, @12:06PM (#886039)

    if money was no object, but it was spent on fundamental science, medical research, health care or education instead of stupid military shit.
    You know, things that would benefit mankind instead of destroying it. What a concept eh?

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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday August 27 2019, @12:44PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday August 27 2019, @12:44PM (#886044) Journal

    We would get annihilated by an asteroid. :)

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Entropy on Tuesday August 27 2019, @01:11PM (6 children)

    by Entropy (4228) on Tuesday August 27 2019, @01:11PM (#886051)

    Then we'd be slaves working to fund the military budget of whomever screwed us last. In another world that doesn't exist where no one is predatory then I'd agree--it would be amazing. Unfortunately we don't live in that world. There is a bright side of course, more than a few things we use a lot came from the military:
    - The Internet. (formerly Arpanet)
    - GPS
    - Super glue
    - Duct tape.
    - Digital photography
    - ..

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 27 2019, @02:00PM (4 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 27 2019, @02:00PM (#886073)

      Medical research did not come from military, only field dressing for wounds received while invading foreign states for their resources (and also for making zionists happy), and "treating" PTSD.

      Operating systems did not come from the military that we cannot do without.

      Jet planes did not come from military (some bootlickers would say they did).

      Internet would have happened whether or not there was a military. Military is a cancer that spreads and needs treatment, preferably with radiation therapy.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 27 2019, @02:30PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 27 2019, @02:30PM (#886087)

        Hate to tell you, dude, but you are part of the malignant tumor that you want to treat. Me? I enjoy being an omnivore. If it moves, I'll chase it down and eat it. If it doesn't move, I'll eat it. If it's bigger than me, I'll get a hatchet, chop it to pieces and eat it. Wait - what was that? Did you just move?

      • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday August 27 2019, @06:16PM (1 child)

        by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday August 27 2019, @06:16PM (#886281) Journal

        It's not at all clear that the Internet would have happened without the military. SOME internet would have happened, but "the Internet" is the result of a specific series of requirements from ARPA. If it had been a commercial development, then "walled gardens" would have been the default mode.

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        • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday August 27 2019, @09:33PM

          by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday August 27 2019, @09:33PM (#886413) Journal

          If it had been a commercial development, then "walled gardens" would have been the default mode.

          Maybe, maybe not.
          Maybe you'd be living today the socialist dream of having the state build telecom networks for strictly civilian purposes, like Minitel [wikipedia.org] in 1980.

          The service was rolled out experimentally in July 1980[1] in Saint-Malo and from autumn 1980 in other areas, and introduced commercially throughout France in 1982 by the PTT (Postes, Télégraphes et Téléphones; divided since 1991 between France Télécom and La Poste).[2] From its early days, users could make online purchases, make train reservations, check stock prices, search the telephone directory, have a mail box, and chat in a similar way to what is now made possible by the Internet.

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      • (Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday August 27 2019, @08:09PM

        by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Tuesday August 27 2019, @08:09PM (#886346) Journal

        A tremendous amount of improvement in emergency medicine (especially trauma and shock) has come from combat medicine.

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    • (Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Tuesday August 27 2019, @09:27PM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday August 27 2019, @09:27PM (#886409) Journal

      Then we'd be slaves working to fund the military budget of whomever screwed us last.

      Who would that be? The Canadians or the Mexicans?
      Joke aside, at a certain point enough is enough. Do you think you need to go beyond top-predator status to be safe?
      Especially when it becomes more expensive by the day to maintain the said status, are you really ready to scale up the military?

      There is a bright side of course, more than a few things we use a lot came from the military

      As long as you don't imply those would have never been invented without military, you'll be fine.
      Because, you see, there are mistakes on your list:

      1. superglue [wikipedia.org]

        The original patent for cyanoacrylate was filed in 1942 by the B.F. Goodrich Company as an outgrowth of a search for materials suitable for clear plastic gun sights for the war effort. In 1942, a team of scientists headed by Harry Coover Jr. stumbled upon a formulation that stuck to everything with which it came in contact. The team quickly rejected the substance for the wartime application, but in 1951, while working as researchers for Eastman Kodak, Coover and a colleague, Fred Joyner, rediscovered cyanoacrylates. The two realized the true commercial potential, and a form of the adhesive was first sold in 1958 under the title "Eastman #910" (later "Eastman 910").

      2. Duct tape [wikipedia.org]

        The first material called "duck tape" was long strips of plain cotton duck cloth used in making shoes stronger, for decoration on clothing, and for wrapping steel cables or electrical conductors to protect them from corrosion or wear. For instance, in 1902, steel cables supporting the Manhattan Bridge were first covered in linseed oil then wrapped in duck tape before being laid in place...

        ...In 1930, the magazine Popular Mechanics described how to make adhesive tape at home using plain cloth tape soaked in a heated liquid mixture of rosin and rubber from inner tubes...

        The idea for what became duct tape came from Vesta Stoudt, an ordnance-factory worker and mother of two Navy sailors, who worried that problems with ammunition box seals would cost soldiers precious time in battle.

        Fucking two civilians invented duct tape as we know it today

      3. Digital camera [wikipedia.org] - first used in space exploration by NASA/JPL in 1965, not military
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  • (Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday August 28 2019, @04:39AM

    by driverless (4770) on Wednesday August 28 2019, @04:39AM (#886641)

    It's also not tremendously "military", it looks like a lot of 1970s embedded/control circuitry. I once disassembled the controller for some sort of fryer/cooking device used in a KFC to repair a problem and it didn't look too dissimilar to that, and I'm pretty sure KFC wasn't buying milspec parts.

    Still, there's something to be said for hand-routed boards with human-designed circuitry on them.

  • (Score: 2) by ledow on Wednesday August 28 2019, @08:08AM

    by ledow (5567) on Wednesday August 28 2019, @08:08AM (#886695) Homepage

    I don't understand why money would be no object in the military, no matter what.

    That's just a stupid concept.

    Even a military should recognise that 1000 drones that work 99.9% of the time is way better than one that works 99.99% of the time.

    Value for money should not be an alien concept in any field. Wastage of unnecessary over-adherence to extreme requirements is a false economy if that means that you then can't afford more men, medical facilities, on-the-ground equipment, helicopters, whatever.

    No military should have a blank cheque. Value for money, yes. Maybe even "not skimping at all". But not a blank cheque.

    It's only a fool that thinks that two $100m jets can't out-match a single $200m jet... and stand twice the chance of making it back home to be re-used.

    If people were removed from that mindset, there might well be a few less deaths-in-service, not to mention a much better live outside the military for everyone, including veterans.