Posted on 08/19/2004 8:47:02 PM PDT by Southack
You don't want to be the manual loader in charge of inserting canister rounds for a full 360 degree clearing manuever in an urban fight as your turret slowly traverses around. Trust me.
For urban terrain, you want an auto-loaded, shorter-range, higher-rate-of-fire main battle weapon (instead of an old single-shot 105mm cannon).
Moreover, you want a vehicle that is impervious to RPG fire.
The U.S. Army is upgrading to a more mobile, modular, and powerful fighting force in the immediate future. It is expected to rapidly engage the enemy, and once engaged, to defeat said enemy while remaining present on the battlefield for extended periods of time.
The M1A10 Modular Combat System will enhance our ability to meet and exceed all expectations of the above goals. It is the next generation urban combat tank.
The M1A10 is a modified M1 (or M1A1 or M1A2) Abrams main battle tank platform. It contains eleven unique improvements:
Taken in sum, these modifications adapt existing M1 and aircraft combat components into an ideal M1A10 anti-personnel urban weapons platform. They enhance the overall ability of this new ground-based combat system to specifically enable more lethal close-in fire support to be available for longer periods of time to our infantry. These changes also enhance the tank’s ability to remain functional on the battlefield even if damaged.
Change Number 1 replaces the 105mm M1 or 120mm M1A1 main battle cannon with the 20mm GAU-4 gattling cannon (or 30mm GAU-8). This permits vastly more anti-personnel and anti-armor rounds to be fired in combat. The end result is that an M1A10 crew can use this weapon to provide the close-in urban fire support previously available only in low-flying A-10, Apache helicopter, or Harrier ground-support fighter aircraft. In essence, the M1A10 is an armored A-10 fighter on the ground protecting our troops.
Change Number 2 replaces the M1’s two tank treads with four half-tracks. This permits the M1A10 to remain mobile on the battlefield even if an entire track is knocked out by enemy action or thrown off in maneuvers. The existing M1 two track design heritage is almost a century old, and its lack of redundancy is an almost unforgivable liability in today's modern world. Four half tracks can be spaced and powered such that battlefield redundancy is built in to a dependable platform. This new design eliminates the need for additional side-skirt reactive armor (with all of the added maintenance, weight, and associated cost problems of said armor).
Change Number 3 automates the job of the M1’s loader. Since the GAU-4 (or GAU-8, if desired) is auto-loaded, a loader is no longer required in the crew of an M1A10 compared to an M1. This reduces training costs, reduces on-going expenses, allows the existing tank force man-power to be spread out further, reduces the number of potential casualties from enemy fire, reduces weight and supply considerations, as well as enhances the overall ability of each tank crew to know precisely what the rest of the crew is thinking/doing.
Change Number 4 replaces the ammunition storage area for 105mm shells in the M1 with the integrated GAU-4 (or GAU-8) weapons system in the M1A10.
Change Number 5 reinstates the medium and long range anti-tank capabilities to the M1A10 of the M1 that would otherwise be lost due to the change in main battle cannon. HellFire missiles can be directly integrated to the M1's existing targeting laser.
Change Number 6 adds two powerful, weatherproof intercoms, one on each side, to the exterior of the M1A10. This permits basic communication and coordination between urban support infantry and the M1A10 crew. Such communication is advantageous for the close quarters work of urban combat.
Change Number 7 adds a projectile detection system to locate incoming enemy small arms fire such as the Projectile Detection & Cueing (PDCueTM) Counter Sniper System by the AAI Corporation. The PDCue detects sonic disturbances and calculates their point of origin.
Change Number 8 camouflages the M1A10 with an electrically deployable, 387 inch long, infrared-blocking urban, jungle, winter, or desert disposable ghilli suit.
Change Number 9 gives the M1A10 tank crew heads up notification that their vehicle is being targeted by a laser (and from where), as well as jams enemy laser and infrared targeting.
Change Number 10 adds slat armor, when desired, in such a way to the M1A10 as to deflect the hot M1 exhaust gasses both skyward and earthward. This enables infantry to walk close behind the M1A10 in order to use it as a shield from enemy fire, and it also adds critical protection to the rear of the M1A10 from enemy RPG's, which would otherwise pose a disabling threat to the turbine. Additional chains may also be draped from the slat armor when the situation merits even more protection.
Change Number 11 permits the M1A10 crew to view in real time the live feed from the closest overhead UAV, giving the crew the ability to see over walls and hills.
The M1A10 uses all of the same components as the M1, save for the above changes. Existing M1 series tank crews will be readily familiar with most of the M1A10 from Day One in service. Existing stockpiles of spare parts, existing manufacturing plants, and existing supply chains will see very few changes to accommodate the M1A10, making this advanced ground-support weapons platform a cost-conscious system.
In combat, the M1A10 will shrug off enemy RPG hits on the battlefield in precisely the same manner as the M1, with the added bonus that an RPG, mine, mortar, artillery, or IED blast to a tank tread will be less immobilizing to the four half-tracked M1A10 than to the two-tracked M1.
The auto-loaded GAU-4 (or GAU-8) gattling cannon on the M1A10 will provide much more rapid firepower than the M1’s manually-loaded 105mm cannon, and this gattling gun will enable our return fire to cover a wider spread of territory as the M1A10 turret sweeps the field. This system is what our troops need on the ground for fire support in urban areas such as Najaf. Firing an auto-loaded GAU-4 over a 360 degree turret sweep is vastly faster and superior to firing round after round of canister shot from a manually loaded 105mm main battle cannon, for instance.
All of the above changes from the M1 to the M1A10 incorporate existing, proven technology. Current M1 units in storage, manufacturing facilities, and existing blueprints can be used off the shelf for almost all of the above enhancements, thus providing a swift path from Army approval to actual deployment of M1A10 units.
By selecting this modernization proposal, the U.S. Army can inexpensively update currently unused M1 tank platforms into hyper-modern urban anti-personnel fire-support weapons systems. This weapon will be comfortable in responding to the most RPG-infested urban combat ambushes, as well as lethal to any enemy tanks in the area (if equipped with the GAU-8).
The M1A10 combines the very best of the M1’s battlefield "staying power" with the unparalleled anti-personnel and anti-tank abilities of the A-10, Apache, and Harrier ground attack aircraft.
The M1A10 further improves on the M1 by reducing crew size and increasing the number of tank treads such that the combat loss of any single track will not immobilize this vehicle. These changes greatly reduce the overall potential for friendly casualties from enemy fire.
A GAU-8/A is 25ft long ans has a 2 ton recoil.
The split tread seems like a good idea until something gets stuck in between them.
Why jackup a perfectly go tank?
Lose alot of ground pressure with the lost of a single tread.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v601/Able/M60A551.jpg
This is my idea.
165mm Demolitions gun.
12x7.99mm Vulcan AA gun
and all the tech crap it can hold.
m1a3 should have following improvments...
If possible make the abrams have light weight armour that still has the same amount of protection atm
the TUSK should be utilized to hold not only browning m2s, but TOW’s and other guns.
the engine is perfect for stealthy missions, because its so quiet but more distance would be good(it already goes 2 miles further then challenger 2)
120mm stays the same same coaxial
the abrams was made to blow up other tanks, it dus its job better then any tanks, it can take on 6 T-80s at 1 time, m1a3 could improve and make it a more effective killing machine, whats under 500 challenger 2s when u got over 9 thousand abrams?
the abrams is the best tank in the world, no country has figured out how to make a tank like the abrams, america will always win a war with the most advanced technology in the world, we needed a general patton in viet nam, north korea should be a battleground because of the act of war against the south, america is, and probably always will, make the best crap there is.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
