Quote:
Originally Posted by Raellus
I wonder how long it would take to make an irradiated/radiologically contaminated tank safe to operate again. I'm sure it could be done and the WWII Red Army wasn't averse to "asking" its soldiers to take great risks in defense of the Motherland.
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Rae,
An American robot is on the roof [cleaning up Chernobyl reactor debris] for five minutes, and then it breaks down. The Japanese robot is on the roof for five minutes, and then breaks down.The Russian robot is up there two hours! Then a command comes in over the loudspeaker: "Private Ivanov! In two hours, you're welcome to come down and have a cigarette break."
I think after the use of "Green Robotniki" (named after their uniforms) in the cleanup of Chernobyl, we can guess what they Soviets would think of as a "safe" level. Of course, conscript labour is a little different than trained and experienced tank crews.
To a large degree, I think tank crews will be contaminated by surface fallout while outside the tank or due to not using the CBW system for whatever reason, not actually irradiated (giving off secondary particles). For the most part the scenario I envision is a tank crew that unexpectedly succumbs to contamination or abandons their tank in a panic, leaving a vehicle that can be decontaminated (mostly).
Likewise, you can't live in bunny suits all the time, and nerve agents are a lot quicker acting than the chemical agents in the Great War. Not to mention in a mobile battlefield where used of chemical agents and nuclear weapons are released to low-level commands, things would be very unpredictable. A chemical attack in support of a local effort could come in completely out of the blue. Some nerve agents can persist for hours or days, making simple travel from one area to another very hazardous.
I agree that other tanks will take out disable tanks, when they can. From the example you posted, those tankers weren't really facing opposition by enemy armour and had an abundant supply chain to replace munitions. Hypothetically, if you have a situation where you had a precious APFSDS round loaded with the choice between a disabled friendly tank and an enemy T-64 in sight, which would you prioritise? Even using HEAT wouldn't be an easy choice, if you thought there was a chance of running into some BMPs in the near future.
That's not to say tanks would never deliberately destroy abandoned vehicles when they could, just that it doesn't always seem clear-cut. Much of the time I imagine they will have the time and munitions to do a proper job, just not all the time.
Tony