Quote:
Originally Posted by 95th Rifleman
Not so sure about that, the UAE uses the Leclerc and they don't seem to have too much in the way of enviromental issues.
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Interesting, I'd wager that the UAE doesn't have as much hard ground surface as Lebanon though
Quote:
Originally Posted by dragoon500ly
When the M1 first came out, we had mostly rubber chevron tracks (1980s), life span in Europe was roughly 2,500 kilometers before replacement.
By the time of Desert Storm, the M1 had switched to mostly metal with rubber replacement pads. Estimated track life for the metal portion was 4,000 kilometers with the replacement pads having to be replaced roughly every 1,800 kilometers.
After the Merkava was introduced, an Israeli colonel on exchange duties claimed that the track was good for 5,000 kilometers. I would take that figure with a large bag of salt as the Israelis are famous for being "tight" with reliable info!
Now the figures I quoted are for European service! In rough, rocky terrain, track life is roughly halved.
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That was kind of my train of thought, the harder rocky terrain of Lebanon would probably chew through the tracks much quicker than if they were running on soil or sand.
As a point of interest, the Merkava originally made use of the tracks from the Centurion and I believe that later track types evolved along with the tank itself.
Not too surprising as the prototype for the Merkava was little more than a Centurion with the turret placed to the hull front and the whole vehicle turned around so that the engine was now the front!
Merkava prototype, Yad la-Shiryon Museum, Latrun, Israel