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An early experience with the M47 Dragon in CMCW


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So, I've put a decent amount of time into CMCW today and witnessed a funny thing near the start of a turn, where my emotions went on a bit of a rollercoaster ride. I felt obligated to install Bandicam and share a small video of it with you fine people. I'll let the video do the rest!

Apologies for the watermark - I might have to look for alternate free software if I want to make more of these in the future

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First guy scored a hull hit. 😀  Second guy flubbed his shot, not sure what his intended target was. I read Team Yankee decades ago but I remember the part about the private trying to set up his dragon and missing his first shot, and his race to get a second shot off as the T80 was spotting him.

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As a former 11BC10 (med AT Gunner) in my first enlistment (1983-1985), I can tell you, the M47 was indeed a system that made one nervous with regards to reliability. Though we had a trainer, it failed to reproduce the initial launching shock of the missile leaving the launcher and the follow on "popcorn" sound of the 200+ small engines igniting to keep your bird on track with your sight. More than a few dumped their missiles initially because of the surprised popping noises and the new gunner trying to get the missile to rise to their viewpoint, rather than giving enough time for it to rise to the proper sighted crosshair. The biggest reward for firing the Dragon is you no longer carried it on your back...lol. Admittedly, I studied every WP armored vehicle poster, noting the location of engine compartments and vulnerabilities on the sides and rear of WP vehicles.

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9 hours ago, MikeyD said:

If you switch the time to night the Dragon gets the same big night vision sights as is in that header photo up top. During night time several things change in the game.

Kinda think they’d use the thermal during day also.

Edited by akd
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3 hours ago, akd said:

Kinda think they’d use the thermal during day also.

US never bought the Dragon III, which had a newer sight with day/night capability in one unit. Dragon and Dragon II only had a day sight and you would attach an AN/PVS-5 (AN/TAS-5, just googled it) on the tube instead, or was it attached to the sight? (attached to the sight, then onto the missile, bulky as hell, not to mention the weight). Been a while. Anyway, never thermal, but passive night vision, so challenging when there's a lack of star/moon light

Edited by StrykerPSG
Researched the sight.
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2 hours ago, MikeyD said:

Night stuff.

figI-3.jpg

ANTAS5 night sight.jpg

It is indeed, but actually a separate sight, added to the day sight. They were always 2 pieces, as the combined weight of both sights would be a bit cumbersome for extended carrying. The day sight(tracker) is an SU-36P and the AN-TAS-5 gets added for night operations.

Here's the link: https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/23-24/Ch1.htm

Now trying to remember the night picture on the sight, maybe it was thermal and I am confusing the sight picture with AN/TVS-5 sight picture, which was very much starlight. I just remember the issue was getting batteries and coolant for the night sight and while batteries were in abundance, the coolant was not always readily available. Then, there were issues with the batteries and over-heating. Just not a reliable system overall.

 

Edited by StrykerPSG
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The thermal image for the operator was relatively low resolution and red on black.  Not the green on black most people associate with thermal imaging.  Its interesting watching it fly in Steel Beasts.  It has the popping sound, is inaccurate, and has a hard time doing more than damaging and pissing off a T-62.

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And that's exactly what it should be doing.  The perspective I have on the M47 is it does what its designed to do.  It replaces some very outdated missiles and recoilless guns.  That's all the 1960's and early 1970's infantry teams had.  It was meant to counter IFVs and make T-55s and T-62s evaluate infantry threats.

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23 hours ago, nik mond said:

First guy scored a hull hit. 😀  Second guy flubbed his shot, not sure what his intended target was. I read Team Yankee decades ago but I remember the part about the private trying to set up his dragon and missing his first shot, and his race to get a second shot off as the T80 was spotting him.

His target was another BMP about 800-900 meters away which was basically the only other target in sight at the time. If it doesn't look like it in the video, he came fairly close to nailing the M60 in front of him (would have been even closer if I didn't reverse the M60 that turn).

I was trying to get a good angle of the video that showed both the success and then the failure, but it turns out there's some talent required to effectively display moving gameplay (which I do not have!). 

Basically I was on high from getting my first kill with the Dragon (partially because I assumed it was going to fail with what I've read about it), and then #2 comes along with his "Limp Dragon" shot that almost results in a blue on blue kill..

22 hours ago, IICptMillerII said:

If you have an Nvidia card, shadow play comes free with it and is great for CM. 

I set up Geforce Experience and got Shadowplay running now - I'll give that a whirl the next time I feel like recording something. Thank you for the recommendation!

 

Finally, as unreliable as the Dragon can be, I've gotten pretty good results out of it. I'm starting to learn you want to hit targets from their sides instead of front on (I mean, it sounds obvious when I write it..

 

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My most spectacular ATGM fail in the game was a M150 firing a TOW an a distant T72. The T72 blinks out of LOS, the TOW goes nose-down and strikes a full friendly M113 killing everyone inside. Ouch! So, yeh, stuff like that can happen.

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29 minutes ago, MikeyD said:

My most spectacular ATGM fail in the game was a M150 firing a TOW an a distant T72. The T72 blinks out of LOS, the TOW goes nose-down and strikes a full friendly M113 killing everyone inside. Ouch! So, yeh, stuff like that can happen.

Oof.. At least it makes for a funny story!

I really enjoy that things can go wrong in sims / realistic games, though sometimes it takes me a while to remember that after something goes wrong for me!

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3 hours ago, ng cavscout said:

It's done a great job on T-55s for me in the first 1979 US Campaign.

Yeah, and that snap Dragon shot from that guy who just dashed into a building out of area fire. I didn't realize the Dragon has no set up time?

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1 minute ago, dpabrams said:

Yeah, and that snap Dragon shot from that guy who just dashed into a building out of area fire. I didn't realize the Dragon has no set up time?

One was a Dragon, the other was a LAW, not sure which you are referring to, but I thought the Dragon team had been there for a minute or two.

 

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5 hours ago, Thewood1 said:

The thermal image for the operator was relatively low resolution and red on black.  Not the green on black most people associate with thermal imaging.  Its interesting watching it fly in Steel Beasts.  It has the popping sound, is inaccurate, and has a hard time doing more than damaging and pissing off a T-62.

Thanks for the clarification. I now recall that similar image, when the parts were all available. I remember being told to never try a frontal shot, only flank or rear shots to maximize a higher chance of a kill shot. They were indeed renown for being inaccurate and unreliable, as would become amplified during expenditure of older stock.

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4 hours ago, KungFuTreachery said:

the M47 seems a lot more accurate and reliable in CMCW than I had been led to believe from anecdotal reports about its real life capabilities...

Yup. I think a lot of people are going to find the Dragon to be better than they assumed based on anecdotal evidence. It has its flaws for sure, but it is not the complete disaster that its reputation would have you believe. 

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On 5/3/2021 at 4:07 AM, MikeyD said:

My most spectacular ATGM fail in the game ...

Nothing like watching a Shillelagh crawl towards you only to drop in desperation after the guiding M60A2 is blown up by the return shot.

Best regards,
Thomm

 

 
 
 
 

 

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