Aircraft/Armor Surplus Storage

[Rainbow Six]

An allternative to the derailed train would be a ship sitting docked and slowly rusting away at some abandoned container port with who knows what sitting in its hold.

[kalos72]

Good idea...would EMP kill a container ship like it is supposed to a kill a car?

[dragoon500ly]

Surplus aircraft are not stored in Hardened Aircraft Shelters, for the most part, they are stored in hangers or mothballed in plastic covering with dehumidifer equipment to prevent corrison. This would only be done if the aircraft was still in service with the U.S. or allies.

Obsolete aircraft are stripped of any useful material and then go to the bone yards in prep for smelting down, sooner or later.

For the Army hardware, one of the biggest drawbacks is ammunition. Sadly, propellent does start to breakdown over time, even if properly stored and there comes a point when it is necessary to salvage or even destroy the rounds. This is one of the drawbacks of placing the M-551 back into service, for a very long time, there was only one battalion in active service (with the 82nd Abn), as the Vietnam-era ammo was used or salvaged, there was very little new production of the 152mm ammo, at most only some 500 rounds per year from 1980 onwards. With the decision to withdraw the Sheridan, production was stopped and the production machinery was scrapped in 1992-1993.

Even allowing for increasing tensions, I seriously doubt that the Sheridan would have been retained in service. The vehicles had simply been well-used for over twenty years. This was the reason that the Army pushed for the development of the M-8 AGS system, based on a currently in service chassis and using ammunition that the Army had adequate stocks and was still in production (at least for military assistance and foreign sales).

[kalos72]

Thats logical...agreed.

But still 10 Sheridans rolling down the street even just using its MG's would be more effective than being without the armor.

But remember, my point of view is more domestically then for front line units...so ANY armor is better then what most units back in the states have at this stage.

[dragoon500ly]

I agree that even a AFV armed with machine guns trumps civilian vehicles packed with rifle carrying maraders.

I just feel that it is more likely for the M-113s to be pulled from mothballs, and limited production of the V-series of armored cars is more likely.

Pulling the Sheridans back into service is a wonderful idea, but the source for maintenance spares is limited to a very limited selection in government warhouses or stripping mothballed Sheridans for engines and trannies. Its an obsolete system, that used a lot of non-standard parts. Even when the battalion was operational with the 82nd, they had to strip parts to keep the fire control and engines operational. The Army simply did not produce spare parts following the decision to remove the Sheridan from service in the
1980s.

So you are thrown back into a Catch-22 situation. You may have 1,500 Sheridans that have enjoyed minimal protection from the elements and have been stripped for parts for the last decade to support the operational battalion (and the NTC!). You may be very lucky to field more than a dozen machine gun armed vehicles, at least not without extensive modernization and resources would most likely by used on the front line equipment, at least until the Thanksgiving Day Massacre!


Still! It would be fun to see a 152mm Canister round going off!!!!

[Tegyrius]

Resurrecting the thread for another Foxtrot Alpha post:

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the...aga-1686588702

Relevant to discussions of bringing back old aircraft from boneyard stocks:

Even in Type 1000 storage, returning an aircraft to the air is no easy task. It took 70 days of constant work to get the Ghost Rider in a decent enough condition so that it could make its way to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana.

And that's just basic flying condition, not full combat readiness.

- C.

[Olefin]

With the expansion of the Army during the war I am betting that much of the stored equipment would have been used to help equip the 12 Light Infantry Divisions the Army created out of the training units.

That alone probably took care of most if not all the remaining older M113s' in storage. They would need armor too and that is where it makes sense to bring the Sheridan's out of the bone yard - but probably at the rate of getting one or two good ones for every 10-15 in storage after cannibalizing everything that still works.

And with the continuing tensions the Army might have kept them in service a lot longer and thus spares and ammo might have been a lot more plentiful -

And they made 88,000 Shillelagh missiles - so if the Sheridan stayed operational right up to the war start - which given the tensions is a good bet - then there might be a significant amount of them available

And remember a full ammo load for them is only 19 cannon rounds and ten missiles - so if you get, say 150 operational Sheridans out of what you have stored you very well could get enough ammo for at least one full ammo load per vehicle, possibly two