Posted on 03/18/2005 1:23:22 PM PST by Cannoneer No. 4
American tank crews have now had two years of using their M-1 tanks in urban areas. They now know that tanks are very useful for streetfighting. While the M-1 has done quite well, the tankers have developed a wish list of upgrades they would like to see. First priority goes to protection. While the M-1 has generally been invulnerable to RPG rockets, there are three parts of the M-1 that were vulnerable. First, there is the rear of the tank, where the gas-turbine engine spews out hot exhaust. Put an RPG round in there and you can shut down the engine. Tank crews have noted the success of the slat armor used by the Stryker. Some of this would work to protect the rear of the M-1. The other vulnerability is the running gear (the wheels and tracks. These items were never meant to be resistant to RPGs, but a lucky shot here can slow down or stop an M-1. The solution here would be side skirts covered with reactive armor (that explodes when hit by an RPG, or anything else, and destroys the ability of the RPG to penetrate armor.) Neither of these additions would cost much, weigh much or otherwise lower the performance of the vehicle.
The third vulnerability is the turret machine-guns. The tank commander has a .50 caliber (12.7mm) machine-gun in a powered turret, and the loader has a 7.62mm machine-gun. In city fighting, these two machine-guns are often more useful than the tanks 120mm gun. There is also another 7.62mm machine-gun, mounted next to the 120mm gun, and operated from inside the tank by the gunner. But it’s the first two machine-guns, out in the open, that need some protection. The tank commander and loader have to leave themselves vulnerable to enemy fire while they are operating their machine-guns. One suggestion is to add some armor shields to these two machine-guns. Some tank crews do that, using material scrounged locally. This approach was followed as far back as World War II. Another suggestion is to install a RWS (Remote Weapons Station) for the commanders .50 caliber gun (like the RWS used with great success by the Stryker), so the commander can operate the weapon from inside the tank. The .50 caliber is a very useful weapon in city fighting, but the RWS adds another bit of complex gear to the tank, and is only really useful in urban warfare, where the tank is likely to be taking a lot of small arms fire. When that happens, the most important weapon tends to be the coaxial 7.62mm machine-gun.
Another requested addition is a thermal sight for the loaders 7.62mm machine-gun. At night, or bad weather, the thermal sight is a key item in spotting enemy troops trying to sneak up on you. The gunner has one, as does the commander. The more the better.
Another problem is communications. Troops outside the tank have a hard time talking to the crew when there’s a lot of enemy fire, and the crew is “buttoned up” inside the tank. The infantry platoon commander can talk to the tank crew via his radio, but that still makes it difficult for infantry squad and team leaders working close to the tank to exchange important information with the tank (like where enemy fire is coming from.) In World War II, it was common to have a telephone mounted to the back of the tank, allowing an infantryman to pick it up and talk to the tank crew. That won’t work too well with the M-1, which uses a gas turbine engine that puts hot air (over 1,000 degrees hot) exhaust out the back of the tank. One improvisation is cheap walkie talkies. The tank crew has one rigged to run off an external antenna, and gives the other one (or two) to the infantry outside. Some sort of wireless phone seems to be the solution here, and maybe a bunch of these walkie talkie units may be the solution. The tank crews also want all those new Internet commo goodies. They also want to be able to see the live vid feed from the UAV overhead. As the infantry get their personal radios, the tank crews want to be able to talk to individual grunts, and get more closely involved in the street fighting situation.
ping
read later bump
Coolbeans!
They seem like reasonable requests to me. I'll sign off on them.
What if there were an RPG hardened machine-gun nest? Twin .50s on a turret plus some grenade launchers? You could put that on a much smaller profile / cost vehicle, and as long as you don't go up against another tank, you could take care of certain missions well.
Maybe we need a "Tank plus" sqad, of one or two tanks and 5-10 smaller machine gun nests.
(Warning: Ignorant musings of an arm-chair soldier....)
A little snub nose main gun, and high protection gun nest, plus the increased armor, and you get the M1-A3UDV Urban Dominance Vehicle! Ohhh yeah!!
Tank mounted flame throwers, backed up by the large machine gun, are sometimes useful against tough targets in confined areas.
Another crazy idea: a remote controlled dummy tank that cannot be differentiated from a regular one by appearence. It rolls through town at the head of a column attracting IED's, mines, and RPG's.
I'd armour the engine and drive train like crazy to keep it rolling. The turret and main gun could be steel-looking plastic to allow the extra armour weight. Manned tanks behind take out any resistance that reveals itself. Heck you would even have an animatronic "careless" TC stitting up high to get snipers to reveal their position.
OK...getting back on my meds now...
Is this the Friday night (big) gun porn thread?
Pics, please!
Why make it a dummy when you can just make it a remotely controlled fully-armed one. Start with an APC, upgrade armor and engine at the expense of crew space. Add several R/C turret and full R/C control. Fill what ever space is left with ammo. Put that puppy at the head of the line.
The old M60 had the MG in an armored cupola, seems like an idea to bring back.
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Marine flame-thrower tank (dragon) firing a load of napalm in to a house that is full of NVA soldiers that have been firing a B-40 rockets, RPG's and sniping at grunts.
Sometimes the old ideas work. ;-)
Put a pair of vulcan 20mm's on it or perhaps one 30mm rotary cannon from the A-10 Warthog.
Sounds to me like there are some easy mods to make on the tank wrt the commander's gun, slat armour for the turbine, sights and comms. Be easy to put together some milspec portable VOIP gear - a la www.vocera.com on steroids so the crews could speak with the dismounts.
But instead of big infrastructure changes on the M1, why not just make tactical changes to the fighting unit. A Bradley has [most of] the weapons you guys wanted to put on the M1. If your wingman is a Bradley, you make a killer team. Just a matter of who's on point.
If the street is so small you can't progress together, then level the street ;-)
All weapon systems are compromises. I'd say the M1-A1 makes very few.
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