TUSK to update Abrams for urban battle (TREAD-HEAD ALERT)

ARNEWS ^ | 03/09/05 | Eric W. Cramer

[endthematrix]

Re: flame thrower?

Would white phosphorous rounds followed by some beehive darts suffice?

[Lurker]

To be able to kill bad guys who are hiding in urban areas.

L

[SandRat]

Armed Services committees might pay heed; it's not over-engineering when the military asks for these capabilities and they get blown off by staffers and Representatives who just can't understand why they are needed---until the body bags show up.

But then it's the Service fault because they didn't write the RFP correctly and foresee this (~KongressKritter is a)running for reelection, b)has a grieving Mom on his back and wants to get reelected by blaming the service, c)grandstanding for the MSM to make a run for the BIG office, and d) is John Kerry or Nancy Pelosi.)

[Calpernia]

I assumed that much.

[Calpernia]

Is there a foreseen urban need?

[Strategerist]

Hope they show a little more imagination next time they build a major system.

At the time the Abrams was designed people were worried about 10,000 Warsaw Pact Tanks pouring over the Inter-German Border. It's design was perfectly understandable and reasonable.

[Lurker]

Well then you answered your own question.

And just for the record, the Defense Department is absolutely incapable of dealing with unforseen needs. I think it's a Law or something.

L

[SandRat]

Rather than fighting Nation State wars solely we can expect more combat to be asymetrical and require combat in urban areas. This is nothing new, it used to be an acronym MOUT Military Operations Urban Terrain during the cold war and in WWII was just a pain in the tucas. If you're prepared for it and equiped for it it can clean your clock. Stalingrad, Berlin are both good example of how the SNAFU the MOUT battle and get your clock cleaned and how to do it right.

[Redcloak]

Why do I have the USC marching band playing in my head?

[SandRat]

It comes with the territory of PMs more interested in their Star and a Legion of Merit or the VP slot with the Contractor they are supposed to be supervising and a Legion of Merit than doing their job and listenting to the troops on the ground.

[SandRat]

Why do I have the USC marching band playing in my head?

I don't know why do you?

[Calpernia]

Was there a sudden prepared need?

[spetznaz]

Beautiful machine.

[Billthedrill]

Huh...not that we'd ever need this sort of thing, but what kind of camouflage goes best in, oh, say, Damascus? Not that we'd ever want to go there...

[Lurker]

Yea, and the German heartland is entirely non-urban....

The Abrams was designed to stop Soviet Tanks at the Fulda Gap. There was never a thought to making it an urban fighting platform.

It's superb at killing enemy vehicles at long range. Its utility as an urban platform remains to be seen. From the reports I've seen, it's not doing all that well.

Hence the need for a 'retrofit' as it's politely called.

L

[Valin]

Tread head alert!

[SandRat]

Most of the technology is not new, drawings, specifications, maybe even components were already available along with tool and die machines, when someboy listened to the troops and went: "Aha! That's a good idea."

[Calpernia]

Ok. Sorry. Nice piece of machinery.

[SandRat]

That's a stumper having never seen downtown Damascus but I'm sure genius is try to figure it out.

Speaking of cammo stuff see if you can get hold of a book about a British Cammo officer in WWII called The Magician you'd like it with such an interest in cammo stuff.

[SandRat]

No don't be. You're asking some very good questions. Better than the MSM ever ask.