mil "a unit of angle measure, used in the military for artillery settings. During World War II the U.S. Army often used a mil equal to 1/1000 of a right angle, 0.1 grad, 0.09°, or 5.4 arcminutes (often written 5.4 moa). More recently, various NATO armies have used a mil equal to 1/1600 right angle, or 0.05625° (3.375 moa). In target shooting, the mil is often understood to mean 0.001 radian or 1 milliradian, which is about 0.0573° or 3.43775 moa. In Britain, the term angular mil generally refers to the milliradian. 1 milliradian corresponds to a target size of 10 millimeters at a range of 10 meters, or 3.6 inches at 100 yards."
Baron Carter -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, 19 March, 2002 06:12 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:18890] Re: Metric shortened names > >I also thought of 'mil' as used in NATO for angles. There are 64000 in a > >circle. > > > I think there are only 6400 military mils in a circle. In artillery, > knowing the range to a target in kilometres and the error in metres from > where the shells are landing to the target. You are almost certainly correct. I seem to remember that a mil is 1 metre at 1 kilometre. That made it simple for soldiers. It is almost certainly a corruption of milliradian. Of course, military aviators use degrees so ground-air interfaces require a conversation. >the needed correction to the azimuth of the gun in mils is error/range. As I am sure you know, the relationship between azimuth and correction also depends on the relative locations of the observer and gun. The observer reporting the error is usually nearer to the target than the guns, and facing a different direction. I wonder if they actually use milliradians inside the computer calculations? -- Terry Simpson Human Factors Consultant [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.connected-systems.com Phone: +44 7850 511794
