Check out the ChiCom version of the military-grade Humvee...
Posted on 03/08/2009 12:51:56 PM PDT by SandRat
BAGHDAD — Program managers from the United States and Iraq, along with representatives from the General Dynamics Contract Logistics Support (CLS) group, met to discuss the fielding of M1A1SA Abrams tanks for the Iraqi Army, March 4.
The tanks are scheduled to arrive over an 18-month period in groups of 35, according to Mark Bangsboll of Multi-National Security Transition Command - Iraq’s (MNSTC-I) Joint Headquarters Army Advisory Training Team Planning Office.
Charles Campbell, JHAATT M1A1SA program coordinator, said, “This meeting is meant to initiate dialog on the support and sustainment required for the M1A1SA program, as well as setting-up delivery, fielding, and training. The first regiment will begin full-scale training in December of 2010. From there, we would instruct and train on how to support and sustain these tanks. “
Eugene Meredith, General Dynamics CLS, said, “The new M1A1SA technology makes it perform better in a desert environment. The technology, related to the gunnery and air filtration systems, helps the new tank perform much better than the previous Iraqi fleet of mostly Russian T-72’s and French models.”
The presentation by CLS provided a detailed program including training for tank crews, a spare parts logistics program, including warehousing and inventory control, and a security agreement for sensitive weapons and communications systems featured in the M1A1SA Abrams.
According to Brig. Gen. Charles Luckey, deputy commanding general, MNSTC-I, Security Assistance Office, "Properly fielded and maintained, the M1A1 represents a quantum leap in the modernization of the Iraqi Army. The survivability, lethality and agility of this tank in a desert environment have been proven repeatedly."
MNSTC-I’s efforts in supporting the Ministry of Defense and the Iraqi Army represents a vital step towards ensuring Iraq’s self-sufficiency for the future.
I was just thinking that the M1A1 is getting a bit long in the tooth. Not that I really know anything about armor. I doubt we have anything on the drawing board to replace it tho.
“I was just thinking that the M1A1 is getting a bit long in the tooth.”
I know little of armor but what I’ve read is that you can upgrade certain systems and vastly improve the whole. Its one of the best tanks in the world already.
Put new electronics or engine and you don’t need to start from scratch.
I'd be willing to bet that the guys who design this stuff have plenty of suitable replacements on the drawing board.
Funding, on the other hand, is nonexistent.
By the way, selling tanks to Iraq could end up being like the F-14's we sold to Iran. Just sayin'.
I was just thinking what you were “just sayin”.
We do! Some would make even the most tech savvy moderen Buck Rogers jealous.
(I am one of the "guys who design this stuff")
Are the tanks a freebie from Uncle Sugar or are the Iraqis paying for them?
Let me guess...these tanks will be given free of charge. A gift from the American people. We won’t even demand any of the oil we should have been taking as payment for the past 5 years +.
Don’t know.
Obviously things can go wrong, and currently the constant war between missiles and armor (whereby you develop a great missile, then a few years later a new armor solution comes up that defeats that missile, leading you to come up with a missile that can defeat that armor, making the armor maker come up with an armor that is better than the missile, etc etc ad infinitum) is starting to give the missile an advantage. There are more and more top-attack dual-warhead ATGMs that can punch through the top-armor of a tank, and have a dual-warhead system to defeat reactive armor. The Kornet, for instance, was used to great effect against the Israelis (it managed to stop several Merkavas, which are very good tanks, but the reason i said 'great effect' is not because of that ....that was actually a little hyped up. The 'great effect' is due to the proganda war effect the missile gave to the Hezbollah Jihadis). There are some new prototypes being worked on that are quite ingenous (and dangerous), including a new one that actually fires a smaller missile ahead of the main missile (instead of simply having a dual warhead) so as to defeat hard kill anti-missile systems (tanks have started coming up with hard kill systems that fire small projectiles at incoming missiles, since that is better than risking a hit from the newer missiles. Now the newest prototypes are working on defeating hard kill systems, even though hard kill systems have still not yet been fully adopted in Western tanks).
Thus, missiles seem to be slowly taking a slight advantage.
However, while the Leo2 and Chally 2 may equal the Abrams, there is no better tank in this entire world. It is still a beautiful machine at what it does. It is just that going forward it will need to be employed with better support, and avoid urban battles where some jihadi may pop up with one of the new missiles from the school building to your left!
Don’t know.
That's great to hear.
Now, about that funding thing...
One would hope they put a hidden “Low Jack” switch on them in the event Iran gets a chance to “take one for a ride”!
Hussein has vowed to drastically curtail military spending and I believe every bit of that.
He has also stated in public that we can't be setting our heaters so high, using as much energy, driving our big cars, or doing a lot of things that have come to define “success” in the modern world.
As we come to grips with massive debt, sky high prices for oil, food, and energy, and therefore become the modern liberal’s wet dream for us, our children, and our country , all of which makes us heavily, if not totally, dependent on government subsidies, who here thinks that we can maintain, develop and field a 1st World power armed force?
Have you ever heard of Dr. Phillip Lett? He is probably no longer with us but I am not sure. His Father who had a PHD from Yale was pastor of our little Southern Baptist church when I was a boy.
I’d prefer something that would give anyone that jacked an Abrams to Iran a real charge - say 50KT in size.
The M1A1 is being replaced by the M1A2 version in the US Army with M1A3 on the drawing board. A good thing just keeps on getting better.
What about the K2 Black Panther?
Check out the ChiCom version of the military-grade Humvee...
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