[bitt]

I like em both!!

does it take muscles to pilot one of them??

[little jeremiah]

Good night to all good people everywhere, wishing you a peaceful night's rest and a happy heart in the morning. May God give His mercy and protection to every person thirsting for justice, for the restoration of the rule of law, and for victory over evil.

[LonePalm]

To drive one? Probably not much. To do all the other things associated with them? Absolutely.

FWIW - I got the fire the main gun of an Abrams on the calibration range down at Fort Hood in '93. I would NOT want to be on the receiving end of one. For all of the inter-service rivalries the Army guys were all right. They were impressed that a Navy guy understood their gunnery problems.

I would still rather fight at sea.

WWG1WGA

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[Porkchop]

***I like em both!!

does it take muscles to pilot one of them??

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not necessarily to drive one, the station that gets the most workout during firing (for the M1) is the loader - they get to lug a 45-50 lb. round from the ammo storage bin (back of the turret) to the breech of the main gun, get out if the way of the recoil, flip off the safety, and announce “UP!” - after the main gun goes BOOM, gets to repeat as needed. In the older M48-M60 series of tanks, he also gets to dance around in the turret to avoid the empty casings rolling around. In the M1A1 the casing is self-consuming, so only the aft end cap comes out of the breech.

M1A1 loader (minute video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC2ePKRvo9k

In the Bradley, the guys in the back do the heavy lifting during the TOW missile reloads. IIRC, the TOW missile weighs about 50 lbs. To reload, the gunner had to erect the TOW launcher and elevate it while one of the scouts in the back partially popped open the troop hatch and replaced the missiles.

A non-tactical reload at about 2:20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VBgauqDeYA

Up until recently, there were no women in the Armor/Cavalry branches. that has changed in the past few years.