KFS Refit

[Capt Gideon]

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.

But if you wanted to equipped your own army to be awakened 30 years after the war in a more tolerant age you would want simple rugged designs that are easy to repair and maintain, plus that can be put into production with much greater ease. So starting in the 1970s when the USSR starts selling off old hardware You start buying T-54 and later T-55 tanks. Over 20,000 T-55 were produced just for the export market by USSR, not including what China and Warsaw Pact countries. JS-2K, JS-3M and T-10M heavy tanks along with ISU-152K/M Assault/Anti-Tank Guns were also heavily sold off in the 70s & 80s after modernizations. The T-54/55 series saw the widest array of variants based on the hull, including ARV, CEV, flame thrower tanks, mine sweepers, etc. To equipped a mixed armored Infantry division with two armored Battalions, one armored infantry battalion and three mechanized infantry battalions, with three artillery Battalions (one self propelled), one anti-aircraft battalion and support battalions. You are talking 90 heavy tanks, 285 medium tanks, 70 assault guns, 20 flame thrower tanks, 416 APC, 167 armored cars, 2164 M35 Trucks, 1076 M151 Jeeps, 26 bridge layers, 8 mine clearing tanks, and various other support vehicles. Besides given the type of opposition they were expecting to face, the Rich-5 would not have needed a large force of super tanks, just a large force of average tanks would do quit well. Now they may have a secret force of a 40 super tanks just in case they might need to crush a rebellion in their own ranks, but that might be a special version of the Merkav-4 MBT with the 120mm L55 smoothbore Gun, internal 60mm mortar in the roof, one 12.7mm MG and two 7.62mm MG with a crew of 4 and up to 6 passengers with combat gear in rear (rear access hatch). Even if there standard heavy tanks are captured, they should have a way to deal with it, a Pretorian guard if you will with Tech Level A gear (2015 + 100 years), while their main military is 1950s/early 60s era gear. Effective but nothing special.

Most everything dependent on electronics after the war that isn't knocked out by EMP, will simply fail do to lack of parts and lack of maintenance. It takes electronics to trouble shoot electronics on all but the simplest level. I have three cars, a 2011, a 1952 and a 1946. I take the 2011 in for all its maintenance and work, I don't even try to do work on it. The 1946 is my long term project and the 1952 is my fun pickup. I try and do as much of the work as I can and have a garage full of tools to work with. I even have rebuilt multimeters from back in the 1960s that work great and I can repair. The new ones are designed to be thrown away because it would cost as much to fix them as it would to buy a new one. Equipment designed and made prior to 1972 (the year electronic ignitions became standard) would have a much easier time being repaired and maintained then those of more modern design (1980 onward).