Обучение чтению литературы на английском языке по специальности «Ракетная и импульсная техника» (120

Text 1B

Infantry Weapons

Traditional infantry weapons include rifles, machine9guns, mortars and grenades. None of these weapons has sufficient explosive power to hurt an armored fighting vehicle (AFV). In fact, tank and other AFV armor is designed to stop standard infantry weapons. Otherwise an AFV isn’t much better than a truck!

Rocket Launchers

Man9portable rockets with HEAT warheads have been a common anti9 tank weapon since the “bazooka” and “panzerfaust” of late World War II. However, the strength of tank armor has grown much faster than the size of these rockets, making them less and less effective and now doubly ineffective because composite and reactive armors degrade the HEAT warhead. Infantrymen are no fools. They use their LAW (American) or RPG (Russian) rockets by sneaking up and firing into vulnerable spots, such as the rear. Here the rocket could penetrate and do serious damage. Firing from a tall building, tree or cliff onto the thinner top decks of a tank is also effective. The major weakness of infantry rockets is their inaccuracy. After 50 to 100 yards most rockets wobble or sway in the wind, often missing the tank entirely. Preferred firing range is 10 to 20 meters. Tanks defend against infantry rockets by having an infantry escort. The friendly infantry eliminates enemy rocket launchers, while the tank provides cover and fire support to the infantry. This “team” tactic, developed during WWII, is still extremely popular. Some tanks even have telephones on their rear, allowing the infantry escort to talk to the crew while both remain under cover (the infantry behind the tank, the crew buttoned up inside the tank). The M60 has this feature, but unfortunately the Ml lacks it.

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10B. Memorize the following key terms: mortar – миномет

grenade – граната

HEAT – High9explosive anti9tank – противотанковый бризант9 ный снаряд

rocket9launcher – реактивный противотанковый гранатомет LAW (light anti9tank weapon) – легкая противотанковая ракета infantry – пехота, боевая часть

warhead – боеголовка, снаряд

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11А. Read and translate Text 1C. The words to help you: destructive – разрушительный

to punch through – пробивать отверстие to survive – выжить, выстоять

to spin (span, spun) – вращаться ultimate – последний, конечный to expand – расширять

once (союз) – когда, как только, если

Text 1С

Warheads & Armor Penetration

Kinetic Energy & “Sabot” Shells

All cannons operate on the same general principle. A shell and an explosive charge are placed in the bottom of a long, strong gun tube. The base of the tube is closed off, but the muzzle is left open. The explosive charge creates a hot, expanding gas. This pushes the shell out the muzzle of the barrel at a high rate of speed. Modern high9velocity tank guns have a muzzle velocity of 1,000 to 2,000 meters/ second. The “old fashioned” 1940s and 50s armor9piercing shell for such cannons had a very strong nose. It was designed to hit armor with sufficient force to punch through to the inside and explode the small charge at the base of its armored nose. Then ballistic research showed that the fragmenting armor and nose9cone were far more destructive than the explosive following behind. In other words, the damage was done by kinetic energy transfer from shell to armor. As a result, modern armor piercing rounds are made entirely of a super9 hard metal, with no interior explosive charge. When it penetrates, bits of broken armor, plus what parts of the shell survive penetration; go flying around inside the tank, ruining equipment and crewmen. More research and creative thinking resulted in the ultimate armor9piercing round: “discarding sabot”. This multi9piece round is assembled around a long, narrow “bolt” of very hard, dense metal. The bolt is surrounded by a multi9 piece “sabot” so it can be mounted in the front of the shell casing. When the gun fires, the charge in the casing explodes, pushing the sabot9and9bolt pair down the barrel. The sabots fall apart once they are outside the muzzle, so the bolt alone flies onward at an extremely high speed. Originally Sabot rounds were fired from rifled cannons with groves that spun the sabots and the bolt (which had no fins). Most modern tank guns are smoothbores, so the bolts have small fins for flight stability.

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Bolts are usually made of a tungsten alloy (such as tungsten carbide), which is harder than steel. However, the US Army is now introducing bolts with a depleted uranium (“DU”) core. This material is about 2.5 times denser than steel, so it concentrates greater power at the point of penetration. A metal jacket on the bolt stops the slight radioactivity from the depleted uranium.

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11B. Memorize the following key terms: sabot – поддон, подкалиберный снаряд discarding sabot – отделяющийся поддон to hit – поражать цель, попадать

to fragment – раздробить на осколки muzzle velocity – начальная скорость to discard – сбрасывать, отбрасывать gun tube – труба ствола орудия

shell casing – орудийная гильза multipiece – составной

kinetic energy transfer – передача кинетической энергии casing = jacket – кожух, оболочка

depleted uranium – обедненный уран core – сердечник снаряда

shaped charge – кумулятивный снаряд bolt – (зд.) подкалиберный боеприпас

11C. Describe the action of modern armor*piercing rounds and shells based on the principle of kinetic energy transfer.

UNIT II

Artillery

1. Translate the following sentences paying attention to the Infinitives.

1. There seems to be no solution to your problem. 2. The secretary has looked everywhere, but the file appears to have been misplaced. 3. Not surprisingly, such an ambitious program is proving (to be) attractive to defense companies. 4. They happened to know each other very well. 5. The General Director is not likely to return before the end of the week. 6. The film star is expected to give a press conference this afternoon. 7. Technology is known to have made dramatic advance in the past decade. 8. Man is said to invent the wheel about ten thousand years ago. 9. Global warming is

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believed to be a result of man’s activity. 10. This film is supposed to be the best ever made. 11. Could you let me use your dictionary? 12. The accident made the passengers wait at the airport for many hours. 13. A rocket in its simplest form is a chamber with a gas under pressure. A small opening at one end of the chamber allows the gas to escape, and in doing so provides a thrust that propels the rocket in the opposite direction. 14. A speed of over 40,250 km per hour, called escape velocity, enables a rocket to leave Earth and travel out into deep space. 15. Immediately after firing the last round, the vehicle leaves the position to avoid counter battery fire. 16. The rocket seems to have arrived in Europe around 1241.

2.Translate the following sentences paying attention to different meanings of “since”.

1.Kalashnikov automatic rifle (AK) has been used in hundreds of countries and conflicts since its introduction. 2. How long is it since the experiment was stopped? 3. Since the test results were unsuccessful, the lab assistant had to repeat it. 4. Since the introduction of computer9guided weaponry of all kinds, the accuracy has greatly increased. 5. Since the early days of mankind weapons have been a sign of human development. 6. It is most important to be able to carry out each step of the procedure with the maximum of precision since this is the surest means of providing first round accuracy. 7. Since several launched tubes can be fitted on one mounting, maneuverability of the equipment and the number of projectiles which can be fired in a short space of time increase. 8. Since accuracy is very much more difficult to achieve with a rocket than with conventional artillery shell and the price of a rocket is high, the gun remains a weapon of vital importance and every effort must be made to improve its performance.

9.The nature of destruction has made nuclear missiles essentially useless for the smaller wars fought since.

3.Translate the following sentences paying attention to “either” and its combinations.

1.There are two journals, you may take either of them. 2. There are individual boxes located on either side of the turret for equipment storage.

3.The smoke grenade launchers are located on either side of the turret.

4.The system receives target data via a radio link either while it is on the move or in a covered position. 5. Either the gunner or the commander operates the turret control system. 6. The muzzle velocity can be raised either by increasing the length of the tube or raising the interval pressure, or both. 7. The mutual possession of nuclear weapons and the ballistic

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missiles by the Soviet Union and the United States ensured that either nation could inflict terrible damage on the other so terrible that neither nation was willing to initiate direct war with the other.

4. Make up words using the following prefixes: anti* , counter* , self* , semi* , sub* .

Tank, aircraft, ballistic missile, personnel; moving, acting, governing, defense, propelled, destruction, protection, loading; attack, battery, mobility, fire, weight; area, artillery, caliber, group, unit, munitions, contractor, system, sonic; active, armor, automatic, covered.

5A. Find synonyms.

6. Memorize the following words: either – любой (из двух)

to site – располагать, выбирать место in case – в случае

to overrun – захватить

to shatter – разбивать вдребезги

to aim – прицеливаться, направлять, нацеливать to fuse – (зд.) воспламенять

fuse – взрыватель, воспламенитель, запал jagged – неровный, зазубренный

casualty – потери, подбитое орудие to inflict – наносить урон

proof – недоступный, непроницаемый; испытательный, пробный to acquire – приобретать

to warn – предупреждать, оповещать

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to deflect – отклонять

tiny – очень маленький, мелкий to lag – отставать

precise – точный

to saturate – насыщать

to pick up – найти, поймать, обнаружить

7A. Look through Text 2A and find the answer for the question “What do gunners use for self*defense?”.

7B. Read and translate the text.

Text 2A

Artillery

Traditional artillery is composed of guns and howitzers. The difference is the length of gun tube. Guns have longer tubes to fire longer ranges, howitzers are shorter. Most modern artillery is “gun9howitzers”, which are halfway between categories and able to serve in either role. In all cases the guns are sited miles behind the front line. Modern artillery is mounted on a tracked chassis, so they can quickly move after firing. Most guns also are protected with light armor to protect the weapon and crew in case they’re caught by counterbattery fire (enemy artillery fire aimed at them) or overrun by mechanized infantry.

Artillery normally fires high explosive shells. These shells have casings designed to shatter into hundreds of jagged steel fragments (“shrapnel”). Shells can be fused to explode above the ground (“air bursts”) or on contact (“ground bursts”). In either case, the shrapnel almost always inflicts more damage than the explosion. In fact, artillery shrapnel caused between 70 % and 90 % of all battlefield casualties in World War II! The original reason for APCs (Armored Personnel Carrier) and IFVs (Infantry Fighting Vehicle) was to protect infantry from artillery, allowing them to advance through artillery fire, riding inside an armored vehicle that was proof against shrapnel.

Special Artillery Rounds. Most artillery carries a small number of HEAT rounds for self9defense against armored vehicles. In addition, modern artillery can fire laser9guided shells that fall onto targets illuminated by infantrymen and spotters using hand9held lasers. The most famous of these are the “Copperhead” rounds used by the US Army.

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Laser9guided shells have numerous problems. First, each shell is quite expensive, making them in short supply. Second, shells sometimes don’t pick up the laser, especially in bad weather, and therefore automatically miss. Finally, the enemy can use smoke screens to deflect and “fool” the laser, which automatically throws the shell off course. This last tactic is more common as vehicles acquire laser warning systems.

Western artillery also uses “submunition” rounds whose warheads crack open (разбиваться) a few hundred feet above the ground. Some warheads carry tiny explosive bomblets, others small self9forging armor9penetrating missiles, and yet others have tiny mines. This ammunition is proving more and more effective, although most of the types now available are “first generation” experiments that aren’t always reliable or effective. Russian technology lags behind the West in this area, since submunitions require tiny, precise design and manufacturing made possible by computers.

Rocket Artillery is a special variation of regular artillery, first used in mass by the Russian Army during WWII (the famous “Katyusha”, or “Stalin’s Organ” launchers). A battery of rocket launchers can fire dozens of 220–227 mm rockets in a single volley, while a battery of artillery only fires eight 152–155 mm shells. The rockets arrive with a terrifying scream and saturate an area hundreds of meters with explosions and shrapnel. The latest generation of rockets and launchers are larger than standard artillery, and therefore well suited to submunition warheads.

7C. Memorize the following key terms: howitzer – гаубица

high explosive shell – осколочно9фугасный снаряд burst – разрыв снаряда

spotter – корректировщик огня

submunition – вспомогательное военное снаряжение

rocket launcher – пусковая установка; реактивный гранатомет volley – залп

track – гусеница

tracked – на гусеничном ходу bomblet – бомба малого калибра

self9forging missile – фугасный подкалиберный снаряд

8. Answer the questions.

1. What do we understand by the term “traditional artillery”? 2. What is the difference between a gun and a howitzer? 3. Are these guns frontline guns? Where are they usually located? 4. Is it possible for a gun to change its

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location? How is it done? 5. When was Rocket Artillery first used? 6. How does it function? 7. What ammunition is used in traditional artillery? 8. What is the structure of a high explosive shell? 9. How does a laser9guided shell operate? 10. Are laser9guided shells perfect? What are their disadvantages? 11. What is a submunition round? 12. What new ammunition is used at present by Western artillery?

9. Translate the following word combinations.

Smoke screen; shell fragments; submunition round; submunition warhead; battlefield casualities.

Latest generation rocket; laser9guided shell; laser warning system; hand9 held laser; armor penetrating missile; initial ammunition supply; fire support requirements; rapid deployment forces; weapon system configuration; unrefuelled travel range.

New generation cargo rounds; fragmentation bomblet dispensing round; automatic hydraulic laying system; self9propelled artillery vehicle; six9 man gun crew; six9cylinder diesel engine; relatively unprotected area targets.

Centralized ground pressure distribution system; fully computerized fire management system.

10A. Translate the following words paying attention to the suffixes.

Integrate, integration, integrity; perform, performer, performance; guide, guidance; transport, transporter, transportation, transportable; custom, customer, customary; separate, separation, separable, separably; chemistry, chemist, chemical; autonomy, autonomous; protect, protective, protection, protector; manual, manually; load, loader; nucleus, nuclear; electric, electrical, electrician, electricity, electrify; construct, construction, constructive.

10B. Use the words on the right to form a word that fits in the space.

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10C. Translate the above text without a dictionary.

11A. Read, translate Text 2B and summarize the main feature of the artillery system described. The words to help you:

self9propelled – самоходный truck – грузовик

supply – запас, снабжение

to meet requirements – удовлетворять требованиям deployment – размещение, развертывание

to maintain – поддерживать

to dispense – выбрасывать, освобождать to obscure – загораживать, затемнять terminal – конечный

ratio – отношение, соотношение

to fit – подгонять, монтировать, соединять to lay – наводить (орудие)

obstacle – препятствие

Text 2B

Caesar 155 mm Self Propelled Artillery System, France

The Caesar truck mounted artillery system is a 155 mm 52 caliber self9 propelled gun developed in France.

Caesar is equipped with all the systems needed for independent operation, a cabin to protect the six man gun crew against shell fragments and small fire, an initial ammunition supply of 16 complete rounds and instrumentation for navigation, aiming, ballistic calculations and command aids. The system was specifically designed to meet the fire support requirements of rapid deployment forces.

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Armament

Caesar can maintain a firing rate of 6 to 8 rounds per minute in sustained fire, or three rounds in 15 seconds in rapid fire.

The FAST9Hit computerized fire management system, a muzzle velocity radar system and a SAGEM Sigma 30 navigation system and Global Positioning System (GPS) are fitted so there is no requirement for topographical teams and goniometers. The weapon has an automatic hydraulic laying system and the loading system is semi9automatic.

The gun can be set into and out of action in less than one minute. The weapon system configuration and the provision of hydraulic drives give a time of approximately 30 seconds to take the Caesar out of battery.

A unit of eight Caesar self9propelled artillery vehicles can dispense, in less than one minute, more than 1t of projectiles, 1,500 bomblets or 48 smart anti9tank munitions on targets at ranges up to 40 km.

Munitions

Caesar is capable of using a wide range of ammunition for deployment against protected and unprotected targets, to create counter9mobility obstacles to block the maneuvers of enemy armored forces and to obscure or illuminate an area.

Caesar can fire conventional High Explosive (HE) or new generation cargo rounds, which provide increased accuracy and terminal effectiveness.

The Ogre shell is an anti9tank and fragmentation bomblet dispensing round for use against relatively unprotected area targets such as command posts, artillery batteries, light armored vehicles or logistic sites.

Ogre dispenses 63 bomblets, each fitted with a self9destruct mechanism. The bomblets are capable of penetrating more than 90 mm of armour. A salvo of six Ogre shells releases 378 bomblets to saturate an area of 3 hectares at a range of 35 km.

Propulsion

Caesar has an unrefuelled travel range of 600 km and maximum speed of 100 km/h. A centralized ground pressure distribution system gives speeds of 50 km/h on hardened tracks. It has a six9cylinder diesel engine, developing 240 hp and power9to9weight ratio of 13.6 hp/t.

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