Re: DSII/SGII-related question: fighting vehicles

At 5:33 PM -0800 3/17/02, John Atkinson wrote:

>NIH Syndrome.	Driving force of all US procurement
>problems ever since the French screwed us over during
>WWI (foisting all their reject weapons on us. . . )

Yeah I know. We at least get some things here. The Mowag based gear 
is good. So are the AV-8's. But we build them under license as is 
usual. Then there is the FN family of MGs.

>  > Yep, they still use the M113. The ACE ceratinly is
>>  good for what it
>>  does, its size limits its speed in making lanes
>>  through minefields.
>
>So, tell me, have you even been an ACE crewman?  I
>have been.  Furthermore, I'm going to be stuck on an
>ACE next month (big company reorganization coming
>up!).	I suggest that when I say it's a piece of utter
>garbage I know whereof I speak.  It's got insufficient
>dirtmoving power and it's completely unreliable.  It
>sucks much ass.  It's the only only piece of equipment
>in the US Army that can be perfectly fine on Friday
>when everyone goes home for the weekend, and then
>you've got a 12' oil slick come 0900 Monday morning.
>Give me a decent bulldozer any day.

Ok, so I was being generous. I didn't know they were so unreliable. I 
think I did mention a certain lack of size for its ability to clear a 
lane.

>Oh, and the ACE doesn't create lanes through
>minefields.  It _proofs_ them, which is a different
>item altogether.

Sorry I'm not using quite the right terminology here, but I am on the 
same chapter. Breach the lane with your line charge and then run the 
ace over it in the overlapping arcs so everything larger than the ACE 
(read as wider) can get through the lane. Granted, you never run a 
dozer straight through a MF unless you are bulling your way through 
with a desperate in-stride breach. Far better to use proper gear to 
make a lane and proof it with a dozer blade equipped vehicle.

-- 
--
Ryan Gill			  rmgill@mindspring.com
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