I am mostly concerned about the ex-Iraqi wheeled armor. We took our guys out of Bradleys and M113's. If we are going to put them back in tracks they may as well be the ones they came out of. The 82nd and 101st could use some tracks, if they would let them.
They REALLY miss their Sheridans. A Humvee with a TOW launcher does NOT quite deal with the same tasks with the same levels of efficiency. Maybe they'll get the M8 AGS.... Someday.
Seems like the AML's and the Cascavels and the ERC-90's could be used alongside MP ASV's. The whole damn country is an ammo dump. Put out a reward for French and Brazilian 90mm and some will appear. I don't expect they will have a huge number of main gun targets to service. Do the French make a canister round for their gun?
The ALM-90 gun is a low-pressure number and may not be suitable with canister. But the South Africans got good results with HE and HEAT rounds, and I bet a WP round could be fielded real quickly.
I'm less certain about the EC-90 Cockerill 90mm/L36. But the Brazilians and Norwegians have used them, so it's at least possible, and it wouldn't surprise me if the Belgians had some sort of APERS round available. The Norwegians used them as a replacement for the 75mm in the M24 light tank, so they may have something available for the L36/90.
The Panhard and the PSZH-IV appear useful for motorized patrol. The Hungarians are on our side. The Hungarians replaced the PSZH-IV as recon vehicles with their BMP-1F recon track. But they likely have some support troops and mechanics familiar with the maintenance requirements of their older wheelie, and would be willing to give us a hand keeping the things going.
2nd ACR should grab up all the BTR-60's and practice being a BTR Brigade Combat Team.
The BTR60s are twin-mogas engined and lack the side access doors of the BTR 80 and 90; I'd rather see them reworked and re-engined for use by whatever Iraqi stabilization force results. But we might get a little use out of some of the early prototype rebuild models, and maybe some of the upgrades of the later models can be applied to the earlier BTR-60 and -70- like the side exits.
You probably have some hands-on experience with the BTR-152. I think this would work. Not much; I've ridden in Israeli reworked BTR-152s set up as antiaircraft [TCM-20 twin 20mm guns on the old M55 quad-.50 mount] and radio maintenance vehicles. They ride hard, but on-road they're usable, about like a ride in an engineer 5-ton dump truck.
Mechanical reliability aside, IF the need for armored patrol vehicles is that dire, BTR-152's are cheap and available. The Poles and the Romanians are on our side. Reengine them with stuff out of Saddam's motor pool.
We could. Or we could use the thousands of low-hour LD 456 multifuel engines being taken out of M35A2 Duece-and-a-halfs as they're rebuilt into M35A3s with Caterpillar, 6.6-liter 6-cylinder turbo diesel engines. I wouldn't even be surprised if the 150 HP Diesel in a Humvee might not do to bad in one, remember that they'll pull a 5/4-ton Humvee plus a 5/4 ton trailer.
Give the Urutu to the MP's to run with ASV's.
I don't know how many ASV's the Army ever actually procured, nor how many [if any] have made it to Iraq. But even the Urutu would be better than a plastic-body Humvee.
What excuse do they have for not using every running OT-84 in Iraq?
Afraid that the guys would get used to having a wheelie with a roof gun that actually works, maybe? I bet a Mark 19 40mm would go in where the 14.5mm KPV mounts with very little difficulty...and I know how I could find out REAL quick.
I think Humvee riders could ride in Walids. Haven't those been around since the Suez Crisis?
I think there's a picture of Egyptian President Sadat in one of the 4-wheel Walids during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, back when they were fairly new; before that they used 6-wheeled BTR-152s, deleting one axle for their shorter/lighter copy. The 6-wheel BTR-152 has been around since 1950, and the Israelis operate more than 1500 of them, which they obtained in 1956, '67, and '73.
