Posted on 12/20/2014 3:29:05 AM PST by iowamark
Mostly, it needs a new engine. The existing turbine is a fuel hog.
The problem with the tank is that other systems delivering the same death potential (RPV’s and bombers) have a significantly lower logistics cost. It is difficult and slow to get the tank to where you need it and the cost of keeping it fightable (fuel and maintenance) is exorbitant. Many of the places where you would use the tank are not suitable for maneuver, so the tanks get bogged down or restricted to a few easily attacked routes. The Army would like to forgo the high fixed cost and low utility of the tank for more modern methods.
Well, I would argue the contrary.
The question becomes are we willing to go out of the tank business? Are we willing to bring to an end the knowledge and skills within the minds and hands of the tank builders and scrap the tooling and machines that exist at the Lima plant forever.
$120 million is a rounding error .0001 of the budget
tanks made by Fiat then?
Oh how reliable.
Stupid.
What we REALLY NEED is a whole bunch of new MEDIUM TANKS. These jerks are buying HEAVY/SUPERHEAVY tanks.
They would most likely be cheaper, too.
Getting ready to fight WWII all over again!
Smart bombs cannot hold ground. Tanks and troops are needed for that. Unless, of course, you want to pin prick the enemy, lose the battle and then the war - sort of like what the mil is doing now under the kinder, gentler WH micro-management.
$120M? What does that buy? 1 Tank and 5 barrels and a compass and this thing that tells time?
Our MIC is not what it once was. $120M isn’t going to fix even a semblance of that.
As I recall, Greg Kelly of Fox News rode into Baghdad in a tank in the vanguard of the American armored force. The armor essentially destroyed the Iraqi ground forces allowing the troops to follow, consolidate and occupy.
That was just 10 years ago.
No. General Dynamic’s BOUGHT Chrysler’s Defense Division in 1982, and named it the General Dynamics Land Division.
Chrysler hasn’t been part of it for decades, and they CERTAINLY do not own General Dynamics!
I’ll take one if the Army doesn’t want it.... We have a small ranch in S.E. Oklahoma. A tank would make a nice bug out vehicle down there....
Yep. And the latest and greatest series of Hellfires have shaped charges that can blow to pieces even the most advanced tanks. I'm sure the Russians and Chinese have their equivalents to the AGM-114.
People envision these great tank battles like Kursk taking place again but the Army is probably right. Tanks are expensive and becoming obsolete. Land can be held with smaller, faster, more agile (and cheaper) fighting vehicles.
A couple of Ford eco-boost engines would be much more fuel efficient and I’m sure they could come up with a pair that put out X horsepower. Not sure what would be needed to push the Abrams. Probably close to a grand.
“Smart bombs cannot hold ground. Tanks and troops are needed for that. Unless, of course, you want to pin prick the enemy, lose the battle and then the war - sort of like what the mil is doing now under the kinder, gentler WH micro-management.”
Good point!
Closing the last American tank manufacturing plant in Lima, Ohio is nothing short of suicidal short sight. We don’t have too many heavy tanks. We have way too few armored divisions and mechanized divisions. We cannot fix that problem nor produce lighter and more agile tanks by shutting down our last experienced tank manufacturing plant. Look at the grossly lopsided number of tanks our potential foes have available versus the U.S. or the U.S. and Allies:
Tank strength continues to be the primary symbol of power for any modern land army.
http://www.globalfirepower.com/armor-tanks-total.asp
Land can[not] be held with smaller, faster, more agile (and cheaper) [disposable manned targets].
One wonders though..since the Army is now lead by Obamabots that the declaration that they don’t want any more tanks, is not exactly free of political agenda.
Everything in the country has been corrupted beyond the rational and the leadership of the military is no exception.
I don’t know if they need these tanks or not, but I don’t believe the Obamabot Generals either.
I googled what are the components of this 1.1T Cromnibus bill. Two things stuck out at me clearly.
Couples can now contribute up to $3.1M to certain political entitites and the limit on other contributions has been raised TENFOLD.
Clearly, half of this bill is for DoD, the excess is for items they did not request. Coincident in this bill is a reduction to 1% of the 1.8% planned military pay increase, along with other benefit cuts.
My take on this is that establishment Republicanism got what it wanted from this bill. A way to vastly increase the selected sources and amounts of political contribution payola so they wouldn’t have to answer to the common conservatives in this country. Scoundrels!
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