Thread: KFS Refit
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Old 05-23-2014, 04:39 PM
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Originally Posted by Capt Gideon View Post
What electronics and transformers that aren't wiped out by EMP will be taken out by tin whiskers and similar traits that plague electronics. While the electronics in an Abrams might survive the nuclear exchange, they don't keep the spare parts and test equipment needed to maintain and repair the tank in hardened storage areas. And unlike the M48, M60, M103 tanks which could be operated without any electronics and even had manual operation for training the turret and elevating the gun, the M1 tank is nothing by an oversized paperweight without its electronics. The turret was said to be too heavy for manual operation and unlike the simple gasoline and diesel engines of earlier tanks, the gas turbine has a very sophisticated electronic fuel control and operating system. The M48, M60 & M103 all had optical sights in addition to the electronic and IR sights, not the Abrams, all the optics are electronic. The M1 is also a fuel hog. The gas turbine takes five times the fuel that the multi-fuel piston engine of the Leopard2A6. So where a Leopard2A6 would need one fuel truck to support it getting to an objective, the M1A2 would need 5 fuel trucks to reach the same objective. Not a big deal back in the 1970s when it was designed to fight a defensive war in Europe.
I think you will be rather surprised by how primitive the electronics in an M1 actually are. These are EMP hardened solid state electronics rooted in the 1970s. The DoD fully expected a nuclear battlefield and prepared the equipment for it. These will ride out a near miss and start right up. The newer digital electronic such as the Blue Force tracker and the SINCGARS radio could be affected if the antennas are not dismounted. If these are then their protected as the hull of the M1 and M2 act as a big faraday cage and conduct the EMP pulse to the earth.
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