I think that was the way the WRG tabletop modern rules handled SADARM - as extra-effective cluster arty ammo.
SADARM seems to have been one of those 70's projects that dropped by the roadside - I have not heard of it any more anyway. probably on cost-effectiveness (why use this round that costs 10 or 20 times a regular DPICM round, for maybe 3 times the individual effect, and which needs separate storage in the supply chain, training, procurement etc, when we can just fire 3 salvos of the DPICM we have sitting in the ammo bins for the same effectiveness (and it hurts any acompanying infantry as well so is a general-purpose round, which SADARM is not)!
Hmm - SADARM as a cluster munition with next to no HE value (heK 1-2 say), but 3x the AP value??
COPPERHEAD - the problems with this one were the length (it had to be assembled on the gun feed with the rear doors open (not good for NBC!) and indiividually rammed, and as a single round shoot, left the other guns in the battery twiddling thier thumbs (or preparing thier own COPPERHEADS, they took time to assemble). It was not a round with the same envelope as a regular 155mmm to "wham bam" into the breach (unlike the soviet tube launched tank rounds). Additionally, the round had to be fired into the correct "aquisition basket" above the target - a cone in which the seeker could a) aquire the laser and b) correct the trajectory to hit which proved a finnicky process, the round had to be falling steeply, so it was not useful at short ranges unless fired into a very steep up and over trajectory - so howitzers rather than guns, or at the longer range of the piece's range bracket, not too close in. Another problem was the cone's basket needed a rather high altitude for initial aquisition - which could be a problem in northern europe, if the cloud cover was low...
Again - rather than go through the bother of breaking out and assembling COPPERHEADS (they would be unlikely to leave dedicated guns with one up the spout sitting idly by and waiting for the specialist mission) from the ammo vbehicles (and the rounds were a handling problem on the ammo carriers too as they had thier own package size, different from crated 155mm shells and propellant) - just spray the target with the DPICM rounds you have already in the ammo bins of your SPA, as and until the threat is dealt with. Plus - no need for some Joe to actually be in LOS of the target with a laser designator then either.
Yet another reason to can the "specials", most likely, is that DPICM ammo has improved over time. (cluster ammo in our game is generally static, but enough to deal with all modern MBT still, as roof armour is not greatly increased over time, and still remains the weak spot (along with the belly) of modern MBT). DPICM does not need to "aquire" anything, so cares not a fig for weather, cloud base, whether the IR signature is being masked by the fact it is desert at high noon, or what have you. It has a nice simple point contact fuse at the sharp end and that's that. It is treated as a bog-standard shell in the ammo supply chain, no special treatment or molly-coddling required. No laser designator needed either, and cheap enough to fire "blind".
Sure - I could give you COPPERHEAD in some future (non SP) game engine. Kewl!
- but most users would likely not use them once they realised the delay required till the gun was ready to shoot.
- Hello Charlie, this is Alpha, fire mission COPPER over..
- Alpha, this is Charlie, preparing COPPER, wait figures two zero, over..
!
Cheers
Andy