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Hey, Folks, just a few observations...

The M1 Series does what it's designed to do - engage enemy armor with overmatch range, firepower, and accuracy - but turning it into an infantry-killer might not be such the great thing.

All the add-on goodies we've discussed make for a great Swiss Army knife, but there are limits to what the vehicle can do. Ammo for all these gadgets has to be stowed someplace, and if anyone's ridden one, a tank's interior can get real crowded, real fast. Changing the gunner's coax, for instance: the ammo storage is rigged for 7.62; changing it to a .50 cal means less base load, or expand the ammo room.

An autoloader? The Soviet tanks have them. And we all knew to aim for the turret ring, to get a one-shot turret-launching catastrophic kill. Stories I heard coming out of Aberdeen indicate that the autoloader tended to load the crew, along with the round. Further, the turret has to be swung back to 000 azimuth, for the autoload to function; meaning that, during a fight, you had to slew the gun away from where the enemy was, to reload. With a man loading, the gunner/TC can keep the weapon trained on the enemy while the round's getting up.

"An autoloader? The Soviet tanks have them. And we all knew to aim for the turret ring, to get a one-shot turret-launching catastrophic kill. Stories I heard coming out of Aberdeen indicate that the autoloader tended to load the crew, along with the round. Further, the turret has to be swung back to 000 azimuth, for the autoload to function; meaning that, during a fight, you had to slew the gun away from where the enemy was, to reload. With a man loading, the gunner/TC can keep the weapon trained on the enemy while the round's getting up."

For 105mm and up, I agree that auto-loaders aren't ready for prime-time.

But for the 30mm gattling cannon as found on the A-10 attack fighter, auto-loading is the best solution, and it has proven itself in combat.

Moving that system from the air into an old M1 that would otherwise remain mothballed, deleting the 105mm main battle cannon from said M1, and upgrading the treads from 2 on the M1 to 4 half-tracks on the new vehicle would give you an urban infantry support platform.

It would be like having a super-armored A-10 attack fighter parked on the ground along with our infantry; always available; damn tough to kill; unmatched firepower always on tap.

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