LAV-75; Stingray; M8 AGS

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

I see only say 1 in 4-5 units eligible to receive the vehicle actually getting them. If upgrading began later in the war, I'd think very few of the 75mm guns would have been replaced - shipping them back to the production facilities, regunning them and shipping them across to Europe again, all during a period of a shortage of armour, any armour, seems a bit much too swallow. Any "field modifications" would be few and far between due to the difficulty of essentially rebuilding the top half of the vehicle in a combat zone without adequate machinery, also contributing to the low numbers of 105mm armed machines.

This is where a little tweaking of v1.0 canon is required. In our backstory for the LAV-75A1/M20 Ridgway, the decision to upgrade the existing LAV-75 fleet is taken before the U.S. enters the war. At that time, the LAV-75 was still a very new system. Furthermore, most of the units equipped with the LAV-75 hadn't been deployed yet. Refitting the existing American LAV-75 fleet would indeed delay its combat deployment, but this would be seen as an acceptable trade-off to deploying a weapon system that had already proven (in China) to have inadequate performance against most Soviet armor. Many of the M20s making their way overseas would be new production vehicles, anyway.

There's an intriguing bit of canon that could justify our little project. On page 40 of the v1.0 U.S. Army Vehicle Guide, in the plate description for a 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) LAV-75, it states,

"As it happened, the LAV-75 proved admirably suited to the 3-73rd's [of the 82nd Airborne Division] mission and, with a few alterations, was adopted [emphasis added]."

I'd like to propose that those "few alterations" included a new, 105mm-armed turret, side skirts, and lugs for ERA.

Egads, Chalkline! What is that? It's pretty neat looking. I'd guess it's some sort of cavalry scout vehicle.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Originally Posted by Raellus

Egads, Chalkline! What is that? It's pretty neat looking. I'd guess it's some sort of cavalry scout vehicle.

XM800 Project to provide an Armored Reconnaissance Scout Vehicle - XM800W (Wheeled) from Lockheed & XM800T (Tracked) from FMC (makers of the M113)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XM800_A..._Scout_Vehicle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qitsOkEsMlU video of XM800T
http://www.flickr.com/photos/us_army...7614123484556/ more pics of XM800T
http://www.warwheels.net/X800WarsvINDEX.html XM800W

It looks as though Lockheed used what it learnt from the the XM800W to make the XM808 Twister
http://www.warwheels.net/XM808TwisterINDEX.html

[Legbreaker]

Looks a bit like a Sheridan body and a LAV-25 turrent.

[pmulcahy11b]

I've decided to do the LAV-75 and its variants as a combined entry. This means that the LAV-75A1 got bumped to LAV-75A4 (so far -- I'm doing research on the fly).

[ChalkLine]

Originally Posted by Raellus

Egads, Chalkline! What is that? It's pretty neat looking. I'd guess it's some sort of cavalry scout vehicle.

It was supposed to be the companion vehicle to the M2/3 precursor. It went a lot further than the LAV-75 in design, and it's one of my personal favourites.

[Raellus]

Once again, in order to reconcile our M20 Ridgway with established T2K canon...

Originally Posted by Raellus

There's an intriguing bit of canon that could justify our little project. On page 40 of the v1.0 U.S. Army Vehicle Guide, in the plate description for a 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) LAV-75, it states,

"As it happened, the LAV-75 proved admirably suited to the 3-73rd's [of the 82nd Airborne Division] mission and, with a few alterations, was adopted [emphasis added]."

I'd like to propose that those "few alterations" included a new, 105mm-armed turret, side skirts, and lugs for ERA.

Said "alterations" would then have been retrofitted to existing vehicles and incorporated into new production.

[Legbreaker]

It appears to me (and I could well be missing something obvious) that the LAV-75 (and M8) were passed over in favour of M1s, M2s and M3s as well as a number of other less widespread vehicles. Therefore, it's hard to say definatively which units may have received the LAV-75/M20.

Of course we do have the Sheridan as a precursor, but as it was phased out a little too early in our presumed timeline, and was only assigned to the 82nd Div anyway (I think)....

Perhaps new subunits (company size - battalion seems a bit big for my liking) are needed to fit the M20 (or M8) into the unit structure? :S

Ideas anyone?

[ChalkLine]

With a halt to MBT construction, it's likely that other divisions would have heavy and light armour units as more divisions were raised.

[Jason Weiser]

Here's another item to support Rae's hypothesis. The M20 is going to be going into engagements, even with the 105mm, where it will be routinely outgunned by enemy MBTs..yeah, I know, the M20 has no business taking on MBT as a matter of course, but like the TDs of WWII, since when does one always have a choice in this matter? Frontally speaking, a 105mm is going to knacker anything less than a T-72, anything more modern than that, that's where it might get a bit squirrly. So, a second or third round from said 105mm as a quick followup against Mr. T-80 is a damn good thing IMHO.

[pmulcahy11b]

For better or worse, here it is:

http://www.pmulcahy.com/best_stuff_t...never_were.htm

I await your comments and corrections.

[Targan]

Excellent Paul. Great work.