Newsgroups: sci.military
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!cbfsb!cbnewsc!cbnews!cbnews!military
From: welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty)
Subject: Re: Leopard_III
Organization: New York State Institute for Sebastian Cabot Studies
Date: Thu, 29 Nov 90 01:50:47 GMT
Approved: military@att.att.com
Message-ID: <1990Nov29.015047.25491@cbnews.att.com>
Followup-To: sci.military
References: <1990Nov27.045911.4944@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Lines: 32



From: welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty)

In article <1990Nov27.045911.4944@cbnews.att.com>, William M. Aldo writes: 
* The Leopard II utilizes a 120-mm smoothbore gun manufactured
*in Germany by Rheinmettal (the same maingun used in the M1A1,

note that by and large, US tank guns are manufactured at the Watervliet
Arsenal here in upstate NY, regardless of the design origin.  the US
would be unlikely to purchase guns of German manufacture for various
sound economic reasons, mostly having to do with the outrageous cost
of chrome plating in German cannon plants.  since i know someone is
going to ask: the principal difference between the US approach and the
German approach is that in US production, they aim, as it were, for the
best price/performance rate, accepting a certain level of chrome plating
failures on proof firing and simply sending the failed tubes back for
replating.  the Germans don't find the US `bang for the buck' approach
to be acceptable, and they set extremely high standards for the yield
of the plating process.  this sends the price/tube through the roof,
as the process control needed to acheive what they consider acceptable
yield rates is incredibly tight.  people that i know at the arsenal
consider the German yield rate amazing, but they laugh at how much
more it costs than is strictly necessary.

richard
-- 
richard welty         518-387-6346, GE R&D, K1-5C39, Niskayuna, New York
welty@lewis.crd.ge.com                 ...!crdgw1!lewis.crd.ge.com!welty            
``We're in a road movie to Berlin, can't drive out the way we drove in''
                                -- They Might Be Giants