The Most Inept Weapon Ever Developed by the US Army

image via MilitaryToday

A self-propelled anti-aircraft gun is basically a fancy way of saying a tank, but instead of shooting other tanks, it's supposed to shoot aircraft. They operate alongside armored units to protect them from devastating attacks from ground attack aircraft like the A-10 Warthog.

In the 1970s, the US military was looking to replace its current self-propelled weapons system, the M163 VADS with a new weapon called the M247 Sergeant York. Although named after a total badass, the Sergeant York was anything but, and possibly the worst weapon the US military ever threw money at.

image via NuttyNewsToday

Please remember, this is the same military that attempted "cat-guided munitions".

In order to improve production time, the Army opted to jump straight to low scale production and use "off-the-shelf" military parts. In effect, the weapon was a Frankenstein of parts designed to function as a high-tech anti-aircraft gun. It featured twin 40-mm guns on top of a tank chassis with the fire control radar of the venerable F-16 fighter aircraft. It all sounded fantastic on paper, and the Army banged out fifty of the vehicles.

Unfortunately, they then found out that the vehicles had a slight problem with their mission of hitting enemy aircraft; in that it couldn't hit them. At all.

All it could really do was pose for photos well.

image via Corbis

"Worth it."

For starters, the 20 ton turret was effectively useless. It was far too slow to track fast moving aircraft, and was a whopping one third of the vehicle's weight. The other two thirds were an outdated M48 tank chassis that served up even more technical issues due to improper maintenance. But the real issue was the fire control radar.

It couldn't differentiate ground clutter from aircraft. Being designed for the F-16 fighter, it performed flawlessly in the skies where there is next to no ground clutter. Stick it on a tank however, and it couldn't distinguish an enemy aircraft from a cradle of baby orphans and puppies for example.

image via OnlineHome

"Abort! Abort!"

Unable to lock-on to targets, even if they were hovering in place, Army testers attached radar reflectors to the drone aircraft. Still unable to lock-on, they attached more and more until target drones were flying around with an absurd four reflectors before it was able to maybe hit the target. This was described by one reporter as ". . . being similar to demonstrating the abilities of a bloodhound by having it find a man standing alone in the middle of an empty parking lot covered with steaks."

Just how bad was the target tracking issue? During one demonstration in 1985, it locked onto a grandstand of previously sitting, now running Army Generals and US Congressmen.

image via PixShark

In other words, the only injuries caused by the M247, were to ourselves, scrambling to hide from it.

The whole thing was shelved shortly after that incident, and the fifty produced M247s were shipped off to (ironically) become the most expensive targets for the US Air Force ever, since the program ran up a bill of $7 billion.

Meanwhile the M163 VADS continued serving for nine years after its "successor" had been nixed.