It’s Tanker Tuesday Again
Nice to see our tax dollars at work, isn’t it?
No, I did not forget Tanker Tuesdays. Doing due diligence on such things is fun.
For Tanker Tuesdays, two videos,
1 – Practice rounds with the Abrams at the shooting range:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goPcT14cLkc
2 – The real reason that enemies fear the M1 Abrams tank:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpRmqv99DuM
Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Army
Hey did you see the future of Armor? The US Army Futures Command introduced it new Robotic Tank (one of three: Light, Medium, Heavy)!
https://defence-blog.com/news/army/u-s-army-researchers-takes-new-steps-to-create-robotic-mini-tank.html
I can understand the wisdom of using “practice” rounds but
the targets look like nothing more than saw horses.
Put some junk cars out there and at least make it interesting.
Even shooting rats at the dump gets boring with just .22 LR and
you have to break out the AR at some point.
The targets are actually well done. They are on lifters so present for limited amounts of time. The different colors you see are for thermal patterns to replicate armored targets. You wouldn’t see or engage old junk cars effectively with thermal sights which are our preferred optics. Also at about 2:55 where you see the target destroyed, you see a launch signature indicating you destroyed the target. Yes, good targetry. My only concern, as a tanker, were slow engagement times, tanks staying up too long, and a couple missed targets. .
Nice to see some effective, tracked, mobile Artillery Platforms. I’d feel more better if we had a coupla thousand more of them, on standby ready reserve. We may need them…soon!
Got to agree with my Boy, 26Limabeans. They need some old junk clunkers of some sort on the range so we can hear some Earth Shattering KAAA–BOOOMS right after somebody hollers…ON THE WAY!!!
Looking forward to another Field Artillery Friday?
Junk clunkers have a problem. No thermal signature to simulate that of a AFV. Granted firing under degraded mode could provide some training benefit. Issue I see is that degraded mode gunnery hasn’t been a thing for a wile. Nothing like firing the Degraded mode engagement at night using indirect Illum and the GAS (in the M1) or the 105D (in the M60A1/A3). Well better make that a battle sight engagement.
A little saying that was drilled in to my head: “What can be seen can be hit. What can be hit, can be killed”
To kill any tank, you better come big or stay home. And remember, If you hear the ‘BOOM’ of the main gun firing, you not the one getting shot at. Yet.
Taking my battalion through the live fire at NTC was one of the top 2-3 professional events in almost 32 (and counting) years of service, and nothing else will top it. Tanks, Brads, mortars,155, some MLRS, even A10s. And, yes, I knocked down my share of targets.
I was a little disappointed at the flag usage in the NTC firing clip. Unless there has been changes to the procedure if a tank is firing or ready to fire a red flag should be displayed. I saw tanks firing with a green flag up. In my day that meant the tank had a clear weapon system. All mg’s and main tube safety checked and no rounds chambered.
If a tank had a tube or mg loaded then a red flag was displayed that told everyone that the weapons were hot and that the tank was firing or ready to fire.
Has that system changed or were those youngsters just not following proper range procedure?