CRUSADER KAPUT: Donald Rumsfeld has cancelled the Crusader artillery system, a 40-ton, self-propelled, rapid-fire cannon that was to have entered service by 2008. I’ll be interested to see if the Sarge and the Group Captain have any thoughts on this.
UPDATE: Group Captain Mandrake weighs in, complete with photos–and this comment, which shows how cumbersome the Crusader would have been:
Crusader is a wonderful hi-tech system. Unfortunately, at 48 tons per unit, it was designed for the Cold War and the battles that it was assumed would be fought during it.
Crusader should ideally be in place long before the battle. Each Crusader system comprises the firing vehicle, the ammunition vehicle and crew. One C-5 aircraft Galaxy can carry one Crusader unit. That’s a lot of Galaxys’ needed to move a usable amount of systems into your theatre of operations.
Back during the Cold War, a system like Crusader would be in position long before any fight, and use its self-propelled ability to move around with the battlefield.
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