Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: allen%codon1.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Edward Allen;345 Mulford;x2-9025)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: MBT Tank Turrets - (question)
Message-ID: <7525@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 16 Jun 89 03:34:26 GMT
References: <7406@cbnews.ATT.COM> <7457@cbnews.ATT.COM>
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From: allen%codon1.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Edward Allen;345 Mulford;x2-9025)


Richard Welty mentions that U.S. tanks are taller than Russian ones in
part because of crew comfort.  Part of the reason the Russians can get
away with small crew compartments is that they select tank crews
differently.  We design our tanks so that men of a bit greater than
average height can operate them.  They select tank crews from among their
smallest soldiers (smallest 10% is the figure I seem to remember).  My dad
told me about a (nonclassified) orientation film on the Soviet military
organization that he saw when he was in the Air Force.  I believe that's
the source where I first learned this tidbit.  If I remember right,
fighter pilots and cosmonauts were picked from among the shortest men in
the potential pools for the same reason.  I also seem to remember accounts
of the difficulty that crews of Isrealis had with captured Russian built
tanks because of the crewman size difference.

Ed Allen (allen@enzyme.berkeley.edu)