Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!cbnews!military
From: ssc-vax!shuksan!major@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Mike Schmitt)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: early bad press may be justified
Message-ID: <10371@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 19 Oct 89 03:33:13 GMT
References: <10178@cbnews.ATT.COM>
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From: ssc-vax!shuksan!major@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Mike Schmitt)

In article <10178@cbnews.ATT.COM>, gwh%typhoon.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (George William Herbert) writes:
 
 
> The Abrahms M-1 and M-1A1 (120mm sans 105mm main gun) are now fairly 
> reliable.  Except for certain problems inherent with moving a tracked 
> vehicle as fast as the M-1 moves, it's as reliable as any other Main
> Battle Tank.  There were some breaking-in problems, but those have
> been ironed out.
 
  
  I was with the 3rd Infantry Division (Mech) in Germany when we received
  the first shipment of M1 Tanks.  Yes, there were break-in problems...
  yes, it was a gas=guzzler, yes, it overheated, yes it broke track frequently,
  yes it would throw a track to the inside.  Yes, the crews loved it!
  As soon as the crews figured out the tank wasn't designed to compete in
  the Indy 500 - they settled down and drove it like a tank (even tank
  battles evolve more slowly then you'd expect).  

  Tanks require lots and lots of maintenance.  As we gathered statistics on
  maintenance per hour of operations - it was common to have to conduct
  3 hours of maintenance for every 1 hour of operation.  The cost of 
  operating a tank (fuel, oil, parts) was something like $15 an hour.
  Compare this to a 2 1/2 Ton truck:  1 hr maint for 5 hrs operating/$5 hr.
  Or to an M113 APC (one of the most maintainable tracked vehicles in the
  world):  1:1 maint/opn  $6/hr.

  And one of the biggest budget items in Mech or Armor Divisions is new
  track. 

  Now, what that translates to is 4-5 days of manuever training requires
  about 1-2 weeks of maintenance on a tank.  And that's the biggest complaint
  of tank crews - they are either on the gunnery range or in the motor pool.


  Within a couple years - for the first time - a US crew in an M1 tank won
  the NATO Tank Gunnery competition (I forget the name) which in the
  previous years had always been won by the Leopard II.  

  US Divisions in Germany were still receiving the M60A3 (Rise/Passive)
  tanks - mainly the Cav Squadrons - yet, the new M1 was THE TANK, everything
  else was a 'dinosauor'.

  
                     Warning Order:  Tank Attack

                     "Hot chow, and dry socks, hey didddle diddle right
                      up the middle, and don't trust the sonovabitch on
                      your flank." 


   major