The radar proximity fuse was a device first employed by the US in 1943 that enabled anti aircraft guns to become over an order of magnitude more effective by replacing the manually timed or impact fuses on shells with a fuse that could detonate automatically when it was within a specific distance of a target based on the timing of increasing return radar frequencies as it closed in. This required a number of innovations that caused other countries to abandon the idea, namely advanced electronics that could remain in storage for years and function perfectly after withstanding 20,000 g’s from being fired out of a gun. Retaining the ability to activate their detonators based on the doppler shift of returning radar pings from nearby objects. When these were first employed in 1943 it enabled AA guns to become an order of magnitude more effective going form a hit rate of less than 1/1,000 to one better than 1/80. enabling American ships to effectively defend themselves from Japanese attacks and eventually in conjunction with the discovery of the Zero’s lack of hydraulic actuators informing fighter pilots to stay at high speeds to out maneuver them these & other factors lead to the killing in combat of nearly all of Japan’s most skilled pilots.
They also have this really cool battery that assembles itself mid flight by breaking the a sealed vial full of the electrolyte only after the shell is fired and spun from the gun’s rifling, and the centrifugal forces would evenly distribute the acid between the anode & cathode plates that surrounded the vial.
by Teboski78
7 Comments
Yes I added the see comment flair and then wrote the explanation in the body text. Yes I know it’s full of typos. I’m up way too late again.
I guess I’ll just leave this on this point. As simple as it seems this was probably one of the most important ‘wonder-weapons’ Of the war. Everyone remembers the atomic bombs or all the wacky impractical engineering the Germans were up to. But this device changed the course of the war especially in the pacific and probably shortened it by years, I would argue even nuclear bombs were relatively inconsequential by comparison with regard to the outcome of the war
[deleted]
10%
Yeees! VT fuse appreciation! It’s the little things like this bad boy that *actually* help give armies an edge rather than stupid resource hogging over-engineered “wonder weapons”, as Japan and Germany found out.
I don’t think that’s 30% landmass, and adding control of the Sea to that calculation probably shouldn’t count because it implies some fucky things like how much of Earth’s surface the British Empire at its height was
Proximity fuse appreciation goes hard
It’s just a great idea. Quality over quantity
Funny thing Is that germans got IT too but never got idea to use IT on flack shell