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From: nzt1939@dsacg3.dsac.dla.mil (William M. Aldo)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: tanks
Message-ID: <1990Sep25.005029.17637@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 25 Sep 90 00:50:29 GMT
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From: nzt1939@dsacg3.dsac.dla.mil (William M. Aldo)
||M1 and M1A1 Abrams 
||	Performance:
||		Maximum road range: 300 miles.
||		Maximum speed: 45 mi/hr.
|
|  It is noted in Tom Clancy's _Red Storm Rising_ that the governor
|limiting the tank to that 45 mph speed is one of the first things
|removed by the tank crews when they get assigned to a tank; producing
|a new top speed  of about 60 mph (!).  Can anyone verify this?

As a former tank commander....yes! I can't verify this with current
crews of M1/M1A1s, but I would speculate that they do this also. I was
a tank commander when M60-series tanks were the mainstay. Our top-speed
was supposed to be 35-36 mph. After removing the governor, our speed
would easily get to the 45-55-range in mph. I've heard of some im-
pressive speeds for the M1/M1A1, but that is usually media-hype ----
I've never talked with a crewmember who could/would verify that. I
must admit, though, as a former tank commander (and a tax-payer), I
would love to get my hands on one to get/give my own personal evalua-
tion!!!!

||	Armor:
||		Most details appear to be classified. The armor seems to be
||		similar to Chobham armor developed in UK...
|
|  Is this the armor that is made up of alternating layers and gaps of
|metal to break up the plasma from an exploting HEAT round or fragment
|an incoming solid-core round?
   
Supposedly, yes....specifics about Chobham armor is classified.

||		Some of the TV news footage from Saudi Arabia shows M1s with
||		what appears to be applique armor strapped to the sides of
||		the main turret.
|
|  Reactive armor?  I heard that Isreal (and the USSR) are ahead of us
|on this one.  Might it be being deployed now on US armor?

This is a distinct posibility, as I read something somewhere a couple
days ago about M1A1s with reactive armor in a comparison of technology
in the Middle East between Iraqi and U.S. capabilities matching Iraqi
T-72s and M1/M1A1s....in which it stated that 'while the T-72s didn't
have reactive armor, they had maingun (125-mm) ammo capable of defeat-
ing reactive armor on the Abrams.' Something didn't sound quite right
in the article, but I just can't place it just yet.

Sorry, I couldn't give you more....

--

Mark Aldo   UUCP: (osu-cis)!dsacg1!waldo   INTERNET: waldo@dsac.dla.mil
Defense Logistics Agency Systems Automation Center       | 614-238-8111
DSAC-ZTB, P.O.Box 1605, Columbus, Ohio (USA) 43216       | AV  850-8111
I'm not authorized to have an opinion....;-)