Re: "Tanks, for the Memories"

On Mon, 7 Feb 2000, Los wrote:

> "Glover, Owen" wrote:
> 
> > No, tanks will quite likely have their uses for a long time to come.
> > Consider too that the tank will be able to reduce in size dependant
on
> > its role on the battlefield.
> 
> Just as a side note we are currently in the process of converting two
> tank/mech brigades into wheeled armor mobile brigades.  One is
standing
> up this quarter. 3/2ID out of Ft Lewis. They traded in their M1Abrahms
> for 46 LAV IIIs on loan from the Canadian Army.

for those (like me) not well up on AFVs in general, the LAV III is a
16-tonne, 8-wheel Canuck IFV, speed 100 km/h (62 Mi/h), carrying 3 crew
and 7 pongoes, armed with a 25 mm autocannon, coax and pintle MGs and
smoke/frag launchers.

http://www.army.dnd.ca/equip/veh/LAV-3_E.HTML

's basically yer modern light-weight wheeled IFV.

i guess swapping an M1 for a LAV3 is a pretty big shift in focus!

> The Army also just finished a major "test drive" if you will of a
> large number of new armored vehicles, tanks, APCs, mortar carriers,
> etc. The main requirements were that they had to be wheeled and that
> they had to be able to fit on a C130.

why must they be wheeled, rather than tracked?

tom