nzt1939@dsacg3.dsac.dla.mil (William M. Aldo) (04/16/91)
From: nzt1939@dsacg3.dsac.dla.mil (William M. Aldo) >From: gregs@meaddata.com (Greg Smith) >>From: thi@mips2.ma30.bull.com >>I have just read a news brief that the US Army plans to buy only 65 M1A2 tanks >>[Is that 65 this year, or *ever*?? --CDR] > >The paper stated that it had been proposed to leave many of the older M1 tanks >for the Saudis and replace these with new M1A2 tanks. I have heard before I'm not sure where this figure of 65 came from; however, I definitely don't know why the Army would only plan for 65 if the Saudi contract (not sure if it's been approved/partially approved by Congress) calls for 300+ (I don't know why, but 315 comes to mind) M1A2s. Further, I read that the Lima plant would shut down in early '93...that is until the Storm arrived ;-) Now, they may get a new lease on life until sometime in '96, through possibilities of sales to Saudi, Egypt, Pakistan(?),....hell, General Dynamics thinks it may even sell some to Great Britain (not likely;-) Tank Stowage: As a former tanker (actually, always a tanker;-) , we would carry as much as possible...from personal stuff to spare parts, MG ammo, etc. Spare parts included a few extra track blocks, end connectors, center guides, 1 or 2 road wheels, etc. We even carried 2 extra barrels for the coax and an extra for the M85 50-cal (of course, these were appropriated by ourselves...we were supposed to have 1 extra coax barrel and no extras for the 50-cal). We had 2 towing cables...1 attached to each side of the turret. We had 4 pair of Arc- tic mittens (courtesy of Radar O'Reilly-style trading with other units). For commo problems, we had 3-4 extra 'spaghetti' cords. For a short time, we even had an extra bore evacuator (if memory serves me, we used that in bartering for something else...can't remember for sure, 'tho). At that time, we even carried a case of German beer as part of our 'full combat load'....trust me, you may be limited on space, but you carry what you can. BTW, this was an M60A1...but I'm sure the M1-crews carry what they can, also! -- 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....;-)