Check Them Out: The U.S. Army's Upgraded M-1A2C Abrams Are Coming

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/check-them-out-us-armys-upgraded-m-1a2c-abrams-are-coming-974 ^ | November 19, 2019 | David Axe

[archy]

Target, cease fire! My suspicion: we’re about to see a replay of the *M1970* tank development program. Oh, and look for an automatic loader for the main gun, to accommodate female crewmembers on tank crews.

[archy]

***One BOLO with honor is a whole lot better than a thousand democrat office holders without!***

My forty-seven pairs of flint-steel roadwheels are in depot condition. Their tires of spun beryllium monocrystal, woven to deform rather than compress, all have 97% or better of their fabric unbroken. The immediate terrain is semi-arid. The briefing files inform me this is typical of the planet. My track links purr among themselves as they grind through scrub vegetation and the friable soil, carrying me to my assigned mission.
,br> There is a cataclysmic fuel-air explosion to the east behind me. The glare is visible for 5.3 seconds, and the ground will shake for many minutes as shock waves echo through the planetary mantle.

Had my human superiors so chosen, I could be replacing Saratoga at the spearhead of the attack. The rear elements of the infantry are in sight now. They look like dung beetles in their hard suits, crawling backward beneath a rain of shrapnel. I am within range of their low-power communications net. "Hold what you got, troops," orders the unit's acting commander. "Big Brother's come to help!"

I am not Big Brother. I am Maldon, a Mark XXX Bolo of the 3rd Battalion, Dinochrome Brigade. The lineage of our unit goes back to the 2nd South Wessex Dragoons. In 1944, we broke the last German resistance on the path to Falaise—though we traded our flimsy Cromwells against the Tigers at a ration of six to one to do it.
The citizens do not need to know what the cost is. They need only to know that the mission has been accomplished. The battle honors welded to my turret prove that I have always accomplished my mission. ... .

--Keith Laumer, FOR THE HONOR OF THE REGIMENT, published 1993.

[archy]

i saw a concept drawing once of an M1 with a GAU-8 Avenger cannon mounted on it for urban warfare, BAD ASS!!!

When the truly dreadful M247 Sergeant York DIVision Air Defense [DIVAD] system was, uh, *developed* in the early 1980s, an alternate vehicle was proposed, consisting of an M48A3 tank chassis with a GAU-8 in the turret mount. After $6.97 billion dollars later, A Ford Aerospace initial production run of 50 vehicles, a twin 40mm Bofors gun not terribly different from the WWII/Korean M19 *Twin Forty* and the Vietnam- era M42 *Duster, a live fire range test in which the unit's F16-derived radar locked on a nearby whirring latrine fan and successfully engaged it, and a well-publicised congressional inquiry that included a Tennessee congressman reading a letter from the surviving descendants of MOH recipient Your to please not use their family hero's name on the Army's expensive new latrine killer, the alternative plan was dusted off.

It had no chance. The horrible fowlup that preceded it had killed its future, budget, plans and all.

A few soldier on as gate guards, museum pieces and fish breeding sanctuaries. The last one I saw was earmarked for an Army museum, and they kept it canvas-covered as if they were ashamed of it. *pics here*

One of the earlier contenders had been a 6-barrelled 37mm Gatling AA gun on a stretched M113A3 chassis, testnamed T249 and generally known as Vigilante. But the Army really wanted a tank chassis platform, so it lost out to the M247. The GAU-8 idea may have been an idea to fuse the various programs together to produce an even better defense from flying latrines.

One T249 survives. Hope it lasts longer than the Patton Museum did.

[archy]

Plus, those jet turbine engines really can dry out a grunt or a sapper in a few minutes after a heavy rain..

A CH47 whirleypig's exhaust works real well too. Additionally, if you need a means of lighting a troop area at night, starting a cooking fire, or entertaining morale-weary personnel, just step to the side of a CH47 ramp while wearing a snipers ghillie suit. If the crew chief isn't overcome with laughter, he may take pity on you and hose you down with the fire extinguisher bottle.

Do not ask me how I know this. But you can put it on the list of good things to learn from other people's mistakes.

[archy]

All those are there as the 3rd backup. Manual traverse and elevation. 105-D “choke” sight (optics) slaved to the main gun. Manual blaster to fire the gun. Its always been there and always will be.

But no belly escape hatch for the driver. I hope that's for better mine resistance and not just a cost-cutting feature. It bothers me.

[GreyFriar]

I don’t remember hearing about the deaths back then, but I was doing intel jobs and in an armored cav squadron in Germany in the 80s. I learned about the initial prototype problems being resolved when I saw an old platoon sgt I knew when we discovered we were both in the Pentagon.

[archy]

The M60s had cranks to manually elevate and traverse the turret and a plunger type generator to spark off the primer and fire the gun along with a bubble level and an optical gunners telescope along side the gun, the 105D I think.

The stereoscopic coincidence range finder worker manually too.

AAAACK! Geese in my rangefinder! Yep, the M60 and '60A1 had a combat engineer's 10-cap hand-twist *hellbox* as an nalternate means of touching off a 105 round's electric primer. And yep the steroscopic rangefinders were fairly manual-reliable, though mud splashes could shut them down pretty quick. In an M48, the old ,30 caliber coaxial M37 gun would hit to about the same place as a main gun riund out to about 1100-1200 meters, with the later M219 7.62mm coax in an M60, the range was more like 900 meters to coincide with the 105mm main gun.

I was amused as hell in 1973 to discover that the Israelis used the same technique with their old leftover WWII M1919A5 Browning MG's, rebarrelled to 7,62mm...and which they used at an even 1000 meters. When you saw the tracers bounce off the other guy's armor, !Yore

[GreyFriar]

My tanker platoon sergeant friend had been involved with the final pre-fielding tests, which I think were done at Ft. Bliss by the 3d ACR. I don’t guarantee my memory is correct on Ft. Bliss, but I do know he was in the final testing group.

[Delta 21]

That hatch was a bitch in the M-60s. You sat more upright as well. Driving (everything, always) buttoned up was much nicer in the M-1. The seat was reclined just about horizontal. Accelerator is like a motorcycle twisting the grips. It was weird at first.

[Delta 21]

Dont tease.

[Chode]

oooooh, sh!t... 8^)

[Chode]

right??? my bad...

[Chode]

it had split tracks too, two tracks on each side...

each track had a sprocket and ran on three road wheels so it was a kind of four track drive

[Spktyr]

Better than that. I’ve seen setups like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1O2jcfOylU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbLshnfu0wY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psoLXEBmfRg

[dhs12345]

Thanks! Fun stuff.

Thinking about building one myself. Looks pretty straight forward but there are some nuances. Plus, you are working with some very high voltages (the line transformer secondary).

Interesting too that you can drive the oscillating circuit with a transistor. Must be a very high voltage transistor. That is how you get the music.

There are several plans.

Also, I have seen them and they are loud! And they generate a bunch of RF energy and noise which can really mess up nearby electronics. I wonder if my neighbors would appreciate it.

[archy]

it had split tracks too, two tracks on each side...

each track had a sprocket and ran on three road wheels so it was a kind of four track drive

I always thought two half-tracks end-to-end on either side might be a workable option, with a drive sprocket for each of the four sets of tracks.

Run into a mine and lose the front half of one side's drive traction, you might still be able to reverse out of a place you'd likely wish you hadn't driven into.

[Chode]

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