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Originally Posted by Matt Wiser
Any comments, thoughts, etc, fellows?
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Semi-pertinent one WRT to your M1 family write up.
I don't think Uncle Sugar would have dropped the dime for a M1 based heavy recovery vehicle- not when the 88A2 was significantly cheaper. Sometimes a 80% solution that can be delivered sooner and cheaper will win a contract. Interestingly enough, Teledyne Continental have cranked out 1500 hp version of the AVDS 1790 and that's fairly impressive with an air cooled V12 (although power going to the crank's gonna be a lot less since being air cooled you need a lot of power to run those cooling fans and those fans generally have to sit on top of the block). A good fit for the 88 let alone the M60 series which Uncle Sugar would need to retain because at some point numbers count; the US may have enough tanks for a Barbarossa or even two Kursk but what if we need to invade the Soviet hinterland twice and if we need to fight three or four epic battles and/or campaigns?
The Assault Breacher came about b/c of Big Army's failure of the Grizzly. Admittedly, a bucket arm would be pretty damn useful in reducing/neutralizing embankments/trenches and razor wire obstacles, etc. Still an argument can be made that combat engineers need both- a platform to launch line charges under armor and follow on to both plow through and wreck physical obstacles w/ the Garden Trowel of Doom (tm).
Third, building an ADA unit on a tank means one less tank. All things being equal- building tanks generally takes more resources than building an IFV/APC and there was already the LOS-F(H) ADATS (aka the original Bradley Linebacker). In fact a Twilight 2Kesque would have been a Bradley ADATS and a Bradley Blazer w/ two quad Stinger pods plus the GAU-12 w/ wide
FOV thermal, laser rangefinder/designator, and video/optical automatic tracking/lead; would have answered the ADA mantra of 3MI- mass, mix, mobility and integration and probably would have relegated the fiber optic FOG-M to either field arty or maneuver forces where it belonged.
I don't think anybody knows what a M1A3 would have been or will be since tank service lives tends to be extended w/ the new technologies driving doctrine or vice versa.