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Originally Posted by jester
From my experience with burnt out Pact style vehicles, all of them were burnt out. Even the small penetrators when they send the penetrator rods through they send molten metal inside the compartment which starts things afire as well.
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Anecdotal experiences are the basis of statistical wisdom. The only thing I can say is that enough American fighting vehicle crews in the Gulf had somewhat different experiences such that the lack of catastrophic kills associated with the use of the silver bullet has been noteworthy in literature on the subject. My conversations with tankers from Operation Desert Storm support the idea that APSDFSDU rounds don't produce catastrophic kills as frequently as HEAT rounds.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jester
However, one question, often vehicles that are forced to be abandoned or about to be surrendered are usualy destroyed, it is quite common among most forces to destroy or disable equipment that has to be abandoned so it can not be of use to the enemy.
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I think every army makes destruction of abandoned equipment standard procedure. How often this happens is another question entirely. The Viet Minh defeated the French at DBP with the aid of American 105mm guns provided by the Chinese, who acquired them in Korea. Surely some abandoned vehicles will be destroyed in accordance with SOP. Surely others will not.
Good point about rollovers, jester. These will be increasingly common as fighting drags on and crew fatigue builds. Rollovers on the sides of East German roads may be one of the best sources of intact Pact vehicles.
Regarding concussion, I believe the Israelis pioneered the technique of using a Maverick with the warhead removed against Arab tanks. The concussion kills the crew and leaves the tank intact for retrieval later. Although I'm inclined to think that the USAF would consider itself above such piracy, the German government may ask its NATO allies that capture be maximized to provide the East German Army with a reserve of Pact equipment--a hedge against the possibility of ongoing war and shortages of materiel.
Jester, I think you're right about the difficulties of repairing Pact engines that aren't widely used within the Pact. NATO nations may avoid trying to salvage the oddballs. Common vehicles, like cargo trucks, BTR, and MTLB, probably will be amenable to cannibalization to address almost any breakdown. Alternatively, the engine could be replaced with a Western diesel power plant. This is what I have in mind for the BTR-80A2 in Nevada. Both the corporate bigwigs and the unions at Ford and GM will be delighted at the prospect of providing several hundred more big diesel engines for Pact vehicle refit.
This thread had gotten me thinking about the locations and size of depots housing Pact vehicles and equipment within CONUS, plus the fate of the numerous Pact soft-skinned vehicles. Imagine, for instance, that the DoD decides to consolidate all of the BTR or even just all of a single model of BTR at a location in Nevada. The climate promotes long-term storage, the federal government owns something like 85% of the land, there are remote bases in the state, and contractors can be shipped in to work on-post. As an added bonus, Las Vegas and Reno are within easy driving distance for weekends of frolicking. If the BTR park is located in Nevada, then the local warlord potentially has a large stockpile of parts available for cannibalization. It’s a possibility that bears further consideration.
Pact soft-skinned vehicles are another matter entirely. Despite the paucity of trucks in Pact divisions relative to the number of trucks in Western divisions, the number of trucks in motor rifle division is still quite large. Soft-skinned vehicles obviously are not nearly as durable as armored vehicles, so a lot more of them will be destroyed by air attack and artillery. (I believe this is the point of interdiction.) By the same token, though, crew fatalities are far more common. Flying objects kill crews in unarmored cabs pretty easily without necessarily destroying the vehicle. There might be a very large number of damaged and broken-down trucks lining the sides of East German roads come Christmas ’96. Of course, given the insatiable demand of mechanized formations for fuel and ammunition, intact and easily-repaired Pact trucks might be incorporated into the NATO armies. North America might receive very few trucks. It’s a matter for further consideration.
Webstral