Egypt “cleansing” Sinai of jihadists
Fox News reports that the Egyptian Army is on a mission to “cleanse” the Sinai of jihadists;
In recent weeks, ferocious battles have been fought by the Egyptian military against Islamists in the vast desert region that separates Egypt and Israel. The territory is meant to be controlled by Egypt under the terms of the 1979 peace agreement between the two countries, but things in Sinai were already deteriorating during the final years of former President Hosni Mubarak’s rule. Then, during Morsi’s brief, 12-month tenure, things became significantly worse.
It’s nice to see a Bradley employed against the jihadists, even though it’s been turned into an assault gun by the little fellas riding air guard in the hatch. Does the gunner just depress the triggers while the driver turns the vehicle and gun towards the enemy? Or do they use the hatch over ride switch and decapitate the guys in the back?
Oh, well, that’s their war and I don’t see a downside unless the Army isn’t blocking the jihadists from escaping into Gaza.
Category: Terror War
I read somewhere that Egyptians feel they are Egyptian first, because their history is very important to them, and anything else is second.
Not a Brad, take a hard look at it, the cargo hatch is flat, the one on the Brad is not. It only has 5 road wheels, Brad has six.The troop door in the ramp takes up more than half the width too. I’m betting it’s one of those super upgraded 113s.
Both the Dutch and the Canadians (and others too, I’m sure) have developed and marketed super-upgrade kits to turn M113s into AFV/MICV-type fighting vehicles for countries that cannot afford true IFV/MICVs, so I think this vehicle is one of those up-armored M113 IFVs, as Andy stated above.
C’mon John, weren’t you an 11M like me?
You guys know more about the newer stuff than me, but it still looks like a Brad hull – more than a 113. And, Andy, I was one of the first 11Ms.
And I was one of the last 11Ms. Late 2001 they did a few keystrokes at DA and we all magically became 11Bs.
Egypt[edit source | editbeta]
EIFV – Features an enlarged chassis with improved armor, a more powerful engine, and the addition of M2 Bradley turrets. The vehicle carries a crew of three and six dismount soldiers.
Uparmored M113 (also known as SIFV) – Basically an M113 fitted with an armor upgrade kit produced in Egypt, allowing the M113 to withstand up to 23 mm armor-piercing rounds, without affecting the vehicle’s mobility or amphibious capability. The weight of the additional armor is about 950 kg and within the vehicle permissible load and equipped with the 25 mm KBA-B02 turret.[4] This armor upgrade can also be fitted to variants such as the AIFV or the above-mentioned EIFV.
Full disclosure: I bought 2 of the 548 variants a few years ago for firefighting duty. Endlessly customizable. These will be around for decades.
About time.
OK, I have a question about tanks in general. They weigh around 30,000 pounds, depending on what kind they are. They run on tracks, for the most part.
So I would like to know if it’s feasible that a tank moving at a normal land speed (not galloping and jumping ditches) could be stopped by a net made of dental floss.
I’m asking about this as research for a tank triathlon.
Dental floss (invented in 1819 by a dentist Levi Spear Parmly) is usually made of a monofilament of either nylon or PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) which is marketed as Teflar. PTFE is very difficult to break, but can easily be cut. It’s usually coated with a flavoring like mint and the kind I get has a sticky quality to it.
Using a spinner like a rope maker or a niddy-noddy, 3 strands of the fiber can be twisted together to form one twist, then 3 twists can be twisted together to form a string, and so on until you have a 45-foot long rope. And every Boatswain’s Mate is supposed to know how to use a rope maker, so this is germane to my research. Most fishing nets are monofilament cranked out by machines, but the best nets are rope-and-twine, constructed and repaired by hand.
Teflar, as I said, is extremely difficult to break. It will cut your skin. You could probably use it to cut very tough materials, although it’s easily cut in the little pack by that small metal flange.
Considering the strength of Teflar, and the additional strength provided by twisting strands together until you have a 1/2 thick rope, could a 45-foot long by 8 foot high net stretched between two very large trees be strong enough to stop a moving tank?
Nthing the not-a-brad. It’s an AIFV (or YPR-765 if you’re Dutch). It’s a super 113 with a new hull design with the very Bradesque cut outs on the back. Turret isn’t an M2 one either, it’s some one man thing. Was designed by FMC as part of the completion that led to the BFV. was not selected due to poor armor and mobility issues.
@10, sounds like a job for the Mythbusters.
Ex-PH2: Modern main battle tanks (MBTs) like the M1 Abrams weigh on the order of 60 to 65 tons; that’s more on the order of 120,000 to 130,000 lbs. I don’t know if that does anything to affect your calculations, but I thought you should know…
CH, Thanks! I will take that into account.
an M-1 would easily tear the trees out, so would be hard to test the theory. it would be more a test of what breaks first, the net or the trees
Thanks, Smitty. I also thought that the net might tangle in the tracks, bogging it down.
M1A1 Battle loaded = 72 tons. First we send Willie P into the floss, after that, no floss. Proceed to target. If that fails, the trees would be no problem. Momentum of an M1A1 travelling at 40 MPH would be around 8,448,000 ft.lbs./sec. Neither the trees nor the floss has a chance…
John:
As for the Egyptians letting the Jihadis run for the Gaza strip, apparently hell has frozen over and the Egyptians and Israelis are cooperating, although there seems to be a fair amount of “nudge, nudge, wink, wink” going on:
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/78728.aspx
Old Tanker, then a 1/2 inch thickness is not enough. Maybe a 3-inch thickness, or something the size of the towing cable on an ocean-going tug?
I’m interested in what it takes, (besides explosives which aren’t part of the experiment — too easy) to either disable a moving tank or at least slow it down. It’s part of a tank triathlon competition.
i was just an 11B, but i did get to see an M1A1 in action a few times way back when. i have full faith in their ability to break anything
Ex-PH2; I’m with old tanker on the dental floss cable. M1 will tear the trees out of the ground. I have seen in my days M113s and Bradleys get stopped by a wire obstacle (think it was triple strand, not the 10 row) – enough concertina wire can gum up the roadwheels. But the brad carried the stuff for like 400m before it finally wasn’t driveable. I’m sure the driver had a great time digging all that concertina out.
If my memory serves there’s a 10-row concertina wire obstacle that we were trained to use to block a roadway (essentially 10 or 11 rolls of concertina down the length of the roadway). I’m sure it would be fine for stopping a Bradley or 113, but tanks (and M1s in particular) are a whole different order of magnitude. Just about nothing you do, to include anti-tank ditches is going to completely stop a tank forever. This would be why we would always sight artillery targets or direct fire weapons on the obstacles. Obstacles aren’t there to STOP the enemy from going through, just there to slow them down long enough to get a good shot- or to convince them to go where you want them to go.
I’m interested in what it takes, (besides explosives which aren’t part of the experiment — too easy) to either disable a moving tank or at least slow it down. It’s part of a tank triathlon competition.
That’s easy…..nuthin’! 😉
Thanks for the info. The anti-tank net has to be portable, first and foremost, so a metal wire cable won’t do. Concertina wire will gum up just about anything, but nobody wants razor cuts. And dental floss is sticky, which means that dirt and leaves woud stick to it as camoflage, making it harder to see. I know I’ve seen movie footage of tanks taking down trees the way elephants do, too, so I’m taking that into consideration.
I think that maybe finding a way to drain the fuel tank might work, too. There are no rules in this triathlon, just whatever it takes to win, as if it were a for-real, live-fire exercise.
So you have the speed race around the deep muddy race track, with anti-tank ditches; the drive-and-target shoot part; and stop-the-rolling-tank part.
Last but not least, as a bonus for extra points, a tank jousting event. The one on top wins.
Thank you all for your help!
I hope their cleansing involves killing the sons of b1tches down to the last man.
Since they can’t leave and cross the ocean it would be in their best interest to wipe out their enemy.
That’s a lesson I hope is not lost on the United States forever, as it certainly seems as lost on the 4ss nuggets in charge at the moment as it was on the clowns immediately preceding them.