Also, modern main battle tanks are not air droppable. In fact, the lack of an air drop capable armored vehicle with the retirement-without-replacement of the not-very-good M551 Sheridan ‘light tank with a big gun’ is currently causing some consternation in the Army and Marines.
The M1A2 SEP v4 ‘Super Abrams’ is already knocking on the door of 73 tons. The soon to be added Israeli Trophy active protection system will add another half a ton to that. That’s 147,000lbs before you fill the fuel tanks, install a basic ammo load on board, etc., etc. 42k lbs is considered the safe upper limit for parachute deployment systems we have with 60K being bleeding edge and sometimes not working.
Once again, great information.
Thank you.
That’s why you drop APC’s. They can kill tanks with ATGM’s while fighting ground troops and air assets.