Russian Tankers Demand Better Sewage Disposal Systems
From the article:
It’s hard to wage war when nature calls, so Russia is installing toilets in its troubled third-generation T-14 main battle tanks, Russian state media revealed Thursday.
https://taskandpurpose.com/russia-t14-armata-tank-toilets
The days of relieving themselves in fuel and ammo cans or hopping out to dig single-use latrines are apparently over for Russia’s tank crews, at least those manning the T-14 Armata tanks, Ilya Baranov, a senior official at the Ural Design Bureau of Transport Machine-Building in Yekaterinburg, told TASS News Agency.
There’s a nice photo of a couple of T14s at the link.
Well, this IS news. I thought tankers just went in their shorts or used a bucket. I’ve never had the privilege of spending even a brief moment of my time with a tank crew, but this does possibly offer a facility that might be the envy of American tank crews. The fact that originally, the order for, and intent was to produce, 2,300 Armatas by the year 2025 before it was properly tested may have something to do with the demand for an onboard head (latrine). However, according to the article, so far, a bare 100 Armatas were ordered instead of 2,300, and only about 24 have become available for use and testing.
This does make a difference. Perhaps adding a small loo in the unmanned turret would acceptable. Just compress the defecatory byproduct into bricks, load ’em up, and lob them at The Enemy.
And I do understand the deprivations that tank crews have to accept, such as no hot lunches unless they put their MRE cans on the carburetor, no cold water or beer unless they tie down a cooler outside on the rear armor plates, and no real place to take a nap while they’re hiding in an ambush spot. But they do have that big gun, plus a bunch of smaller bang-bangers, which makes up for a lot of deficiencies in a tanker’s life.
You could almost live in a tank if you had to, so – well, the idea of a bathroom, with maybe an attached shower hose included, would help the Russian tank crews feel better abut themselves. Perhaps a small kitchenette with a fireplace and some comfy chairs could be included, too. In fact, the possibilities are endless. I can totally see the Armata’s latest showroom model with a cubby for the laptop, Wi-Fi connections everywhere, and a direct uplink to RT News, in addition to the vodka dispenser and the magazines with naughty bits.
Category: "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves", Foreign Policy, Russia
I thought that’s what a tank’s floor hatch is for.
Tanks havent had floor hatches for 40 years
Ah. Now I know that.
As an infantryman, I never spent any time in tanks, but I never thought tanks were like RV’s and need to have toilets. Although, I can see how having to have a crewman disembark to do number two when you are on the move would be an issue. Maybe all they need is one of those folding porta-potties rather than re-engineering a combat vehicle so it is more like an RV. What will the Ruskies want next, showers in their tanks?
Tankers I know use the gun tube as a grip and hang over the side for the perfect position to drop a load.
Tankers, real tankers, never want to leave the tank.
*****
“The days of relieving themselves in fuel and ammo cans or hopping out to dig single-use latrines are apparently over for Russia’s tank crews…”
Is this poop or…?
In the old days, with the open crew seats, many a firefighter in California pissed off the back of an engine en route to or from a fire. Now everyone sits inside the cab, so we keep spare Gatorade bottles for such emergencies.
MRE bag if you can’t get out (toss it out the hatch when mission complete).
If you can get out, rotate the turret, hang off the bustle rack, drop the flap on your CVC (tanker suit, has a flap like the old union suit) do your thing, climb back in and move out.
Empty water/gatorade bottles for everything else.
I wonder how much of this is to enable them to operate in NBC contaminated areas? If they have air filtration systems (which, why wouldn’t they?), then they’d be able to stay buttoned up until they ran out of food, fuel, water, or ammo in a hot zone.
In other toilet news, I recently got to see the U-boat at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago (an absolute must visit if you’re ever in the area), and can attest to the lack of adequate toilet facilities (and no shower). Here’s a story about that:
Great channel; I’ve been subscribed for a year or so. That incident truly deserves to be remembered.
I read somewhere that U-boat crews would run up on deck naked with soap when they hit a rain squall. Some say that U-boats ran the risk of being detected just by the nigh-lethal stench of unwashed ass (probably an exaggeration, but you get the picture). USN fleet boats, being roughly twice as big as a Type-VII, had a shower, but just one for 65 guys meant submariners still had to get creative when it came to hygiene.
Some of the Boats had toilet bowl seats mounted on the deck rails which I am Sewer of it. Had a pic of one with a sailor sitting on it in one of my U Boat books I had before I retired and moved.
What a coincidence, I just read about that incident on Quora. Someone in the answer even wrote a limerick for it.
There once was a captain called Schlitt,
Who had to go for a shit,
But after his crap
He flushed the wrong tap
So Schlitt’s ship took a dip for a shit.
Hey, Russia, here’s a little hint that’ll solve the problem of your Tankers having nowhere to do #1 or #2:
Just order up NSN 4510-01-485-0760, which gets you a Case (100 each) of Individual Wag Bags.
You can thank me later./smile
Seems I recall from somewhere that the FIRST thing our Tankers missed from the M60 to the M1 Abrams was the hatch in the floor.
I’m with Mason on this, the Ruskies wanted an indoor pottie for when they may find themselves in an inhospitable NBC/Bio/Nuc atmosphere.
If the concern is an NBC environment I have to ask just who they think they are going to fight with armored forces….
It’s a short list. Only the western world would be totally against using chemical weapons, and indeed have eliminated them from their arsenals.
Yes, the M-1 hulls don’t have a floor hatch due to how the armor is composited.
We used to just hang off the sides of the M-60’s and hold onto the turret rail.
Was a sight to see on a Battalion sized road march, only one who couldn’t go on the move was the driver unless he could just whizz into an MRE bag.
The star of this post is not the Russian tank, the M-1 Abrams, the U-Boats, or even the run of the mill RV…
It is Ex-PH2 and her floral description of the obvious skunk in the room !!!
Anyone that’s ever been in an RV with an overfull black water tank will sympathize with the tankers, even if they are commies !!!
They at least admit the fact that they want world domination unlike the clowns we have in the DSA,
(d-rat socialists of America)… Or from my twisted way of thinking, dip shits anonymous…
Which fits better anyway…
Don’t get me started on RVs. My first job in high school was maintenance at a campground, which unfortunately included a honey wagon service. One particularly bad day when I was 17, I was proned out beneath a Winnebago trying to unfuck a valve. The damn thing suddenly busted open and dumped the black water tank. The open discharge was right above me. I was immersed from the neck down in human waste a Christ knows what else that I never cared to contemplate.
Could have been worse, though. At least I didn’t get hep from it.
I had an instructor at my Engineer course who had been assigned to 1st Armored Division as a Lieutenant. He went on an epic rant about the personal hygiene habits of Tankers that I use whenever I run into Tankers or Cavalrymen.
Mustang,
Having been a tanker assigned to Armored Cavalry Regiments, I gotta hear that description. 🙂 I always love knowing how badly we managed to ummmm upset some of our fellow soldiers.
I was a 19E, that’s an M48-M60 crewman. Never been in an M48. Did my time on M60A1’s and A3’s. The escape hatch was great for when you had to hose out the bilge, but a pain in the ass to put back on.
So, please post to the best of your memory what the good Engineer had to say about DATs and Scouts.
Thanks Much!
In RVN our old M 48 A’3s had only one escape hatch. Located directly below the driver. Don’t remember ANY of us having to stop for any crew member needing to take a crap or even a leak. But in those younger years we did not have to go as often as we do since we have aged. Through the jungle and rice paddys we always stopped every so often just to give the grunts a well-deserved break from humping all day long. No chicks around (at least I don’t remember any called Ex-PH2) so we’d just hang it out in public. At least some of us dug shallow holes & crapped in them before covering them (in most cases) back up. Had we had holding tanks I still would have told any crew member to hold it until we stop. Any self-respecting old tanker like myself these days would probably wear Tanker Depends. Which brings to mind, I wonder whether we or the commies had the worst smelling turds? On the other hand, I don;t even remember any crew member farting & causing the rest of us to vacate for a while. To tell the truth, I don’t think any of us old tankers ever thought our own crap stunk. And still don’t!
I was cleaning stalls in the barn, once upon a long ago time, and got hit by that urgent need to “do something!”. So I did.
The look I got from the horse who occupied that stall was “MUST YOU????? I live here!!!” Things happen, can’t be helped. But I have always been truly grateful to McD’s for having the forethought to include restrooms in their building plans.
Well it makes sense. I’m surprised it’s not a standard thing yet considering the perpetual operational tempo and NBC stuff of ay. Who want to shit in a metal hot box with other men? Even the infantry is more cultured than that.
Russkies are getting spoiled.
During the Cold War:
https://mostlycajun.com/wordpress/?p=141
Had a 2nd lieutenant who went in his steel helmet to save a trip out into the cold. Had a mutiny on his hands when he tried to get a crewman to empty it.
Russians are getting soft. Why can’t they just keep a stool and a roll of TP in the tank commander’s sponson box like I did? Every morning, as soon as stand to was complete, you can bet I was ripping that box open, grabbing my stuff and jumping down to dash into the wood line. The flap in the back of the nomex uniform was critical. MOPP gear was a whole different issue.