After years of using these big dudes in urban warfare, NOT what they were designed for, the U.S. Army is beefing up the Abrams with more protection designed for the urban setting. Turns out there's really nothing like a shot from that 120mm smooth bore to convince some of the other folks that they need to keep their distance.
Just to give the guys a bit more oopf, the army's buying 2,832 "loaders' armor gun shields," to provide protection around the loaders hatch on the top of the M-1 Abrams turret. The loader (who normally loads the 120mm gun), also has his own hatch, and a 7.62mm machine-gun on top of the turret.
The other machine-gun, next to the commanders hatch, is 12.7mm (.50 caliber) and already has a gun shield. The loaders gun shield kits cost about $16,000 each.
The loaders gun shield is part of the TUSK (Tank Urban Survival Kit). The kit is a collection of additional features for M1 tanks, which make them more effective when fighting in urban areas. Many of the items in TUSK have been added to tanks over the last three years, as they became available.
Bottom line with all this... Our tanks are lookin' more and more like Israeli tanks, which are designed for this shit from the ground up. Too bad it took this long to learn this lesson.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
I guess experience is still the best teacher.
Posted by FHB at 8:00 PM
Labels: Tank stuff.
10 comments:
We haven't lost a whole lot from what I understand but it's good that they are retrofitting to make them safer and more effective.
I always thought those Merkavas were badass.. I don't see an Abrams getting a passenger compartment in the rear anytime soon though...
our guys over here can't even seem to get access to night vision vision goggles, let alone much else - our soldiers are being sent over with pitifully inadequate equipment to protect them..
as sad as it is, armor is a product of evolution, compare that to the tin cans of wwi and the better ones in wwii, our vest in vietnam and the body armor of today. You are right, it is a shame it takes so long but evolution is evolution...
by the way, Germany had much better tanks than we had, if they had not ran out of gas they would have kicked our ass.
Tanks...for the lesson.
That's a bad ass piece of machinery!
Nice illustration dude...clear as a bell!
Never understood why an RPG could take out an Abrams...now it's a little clearer.
You beat me to my OWN comment, with your closing line of how they are beginning to resemble Israeli armor more and more!
It's about time, indeed, that they start building rolling armor "tough as a tank".
And, SARGE CHARLIE up there made a real good point on the subject of modern-day body armor. Todays' system makes those "frag-catchers" of back then look almost like what's used for a glorified "hunting vest" nowadays...!
In may cases the "leaders" in the Military have the same mind-set as our political "leaders"
Nuff Said, except in both cases, the grunts/taxpayers get the short straw.
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