M1A3 Bradley IFV

[Gray_R]

Does anyone know for certain the bore width of the Bradley's Bushmaster? I've seen conflicting specs of 25 and 35mm.

[Michael RVR]

25mm.

Where did you see information stating that it is 35mm?

They do produce bushmaster cannons of 35mm such as that installed on the CV9035. ;)

[rossfrb_1]

Does anyone know for certain the bore width of the Bradley's Bushmaster? I've seen conflicting specs of 25 and 35mm.
Isn't the US transitioning from 25mm to 35mm? This has been a work in progress for a couple of years now hasn't it? So I wouldn't be surprised if there were both. Or that the transition has confused some writers.
I don't know why the US chose 35mm, when they could have gone to something as standard as 40mm. Does anyone know if the 35mm is somehow inherently ballistically superior over 40mm? I seem to recall that the AHEAD ammo developed for the 35 Millenium gun was done in conjunction with a German group (Rheinmetall) - who may have had their legacy Gepard (twin 35mm) systems in mind. Or I could just be way off track here.

rb

[Gray_R]

Now that you mention, I don't recall. Probably just a bad memory.

[Gray_R]

Isn't the US transitioning from 25mm to 35mm?

Not that I know of. I just read an article that talked about the transition from A1 and A2 to A3, with increased survivability, but it didn't mention anything about a change in caliber.

[Gray_R]

I don't know why the US chose 35mm, when they could have gone to something as standard as 40mm. Does anyone know if the 35mm is somehow inherently ballistically superior over 40mm?

I'm not sure, but if I had to guess, I'd say aerodynamics. I know that the .50 is perhaps the most aerodynamic round ever developed. And judging by 40mm grenades, 25mm is probably more aerodynamic.

[Michael RVR]

Does anyone know if the 35mm is somehow inherently ballistically superior over 40mm

I'm honestly not too sure. I've been told that you can change a 35mm bushmaster to a 50mm one with little more than a barrel change though, which is why the choice of 35mm would make sense - its future proof.

[LancerMc]

To your question that if the U.S. Army is switching to mostly using the 25mm. I haven't heard much in about the Army, but the U.S. Airforce seems to have decided to use 25mm in their guns meant for ground attack. The AC-130 and eventually the F-35 will use a 25mm cannon for ground attack missions. It would seem that this round is pretty good all around.

The Army has recently introduced at light 25mm cannon called the XM109. It's made by Barret Rifles. It does not use a standard 25mm shell but a short high explosive round ment to take out vehicles at long distances.

[HK_Thoughtful]

I believe that the US Army's Bradley's are currently fielding Bushmaster's 25mm Cannon, and as of right now I have heard no news of the Army replacing the current weapon of the Bradley.

Source: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/m2-specs.htm

Note: That the source above relates to the M2 and M3 varients of the Bradley, but I suspect that the M1 version is fielded with the same primary weapon system.

[B.Smitty]

The Brad definitely uses a 25mm Bushmaster. There has been talk and investigation into replacing it with everything from a 30mm Mk44 to a 45mm case telescoped weapon, but nothing has come of it, AFAIK.

There just isn't much reason to go bigger right now. It doesn't need additional penetration. The biggest reason might be to allow use of a more effective air burst munition but the Army has many other priorities right now.