Surplus armor in T2K

[HorseSoldier]

Additionally, he has a machine shop capable of completely rebuilding tanks if need be.

That would be part of the trick. The bottlenecks I see for vintage or unusual AFVs would include:

1) Mechanical know how -- You've got to have someone who can keep the thing(s) running. In some cases this wouldn't be too tough, in some cases it would be a huge trick (i.e. the Patton Museum has all kinds of trouble in real life just getting their Panther to crank and drive around a bit; post-apocalypse it's not going to be spearheading MilGov's drive to recapture Memphis).

2) Automotive logistics -- Either a big stack of spare or #1 plus something like the machine shop mentioned in the quote above or else you're either going to have static pill boxes or be leaving a trail of broken down antiques in your wake behind you during movements.

3) Ammunition and associated logistics -- Again, this one can be an easy one or a hard one depending on the specific weapons and such. I could be completely wrong, but I don't think the US government has any stocks anywhere of 76mm ammo to support an operational M4A3E8 Sherman, for instance. Short of a group coming into possession of a forgotten 50s era emergency stockpile, main guns wouldn't be supportable for most of the vintage US stuff. (Such a stockpile could explain sustainable supplies of spare parts and maybe even the vehicles themselves, too . . .)

4) Local stability -- If marauders are killing off your mechanical know how and burning the barns containing your antique armor to the ground before you can get the stuff combat ready, it's a show stopper. Likewise if things are so desperate that your mechanics have to spend all their time trying to hunt rats for the collective stew pot just to survive, it's a show stopper as well.

For CONUS operations post-TDM, I think the vintage armor I'd really want to lay hands on would be some M42 Dusters -- 40mm ammo would still have been available (even without alternate historying it to have the Sgt York program successful and in service) and enough vehicles and parts would have been around to keep them running if you had access to them (I always wonder about wikipedia, but it says the last NG unit equipped with them didn't retire them until 1988.) And from accounts from Korea and Vietnam, those things were absolute murdering pieces against troops in the open.

[Adm.Lee]

I think a GM running anywhere in the States could get away with a town or city militia having at least one static ex-tank. The number of American Legion or VFW posts with Shermans out front on display makes that possible.

Surely they could turn up the horsepower to drag such a hulk somewhere useful (like overlooking a bridge?) and re-install a machine gun and a phone.

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by HorseSoldier

For CONUS operations post-TDM, I think the vintage armor I'd really want to lay hands on would be some M42 Dusters -- 40mm ammo would still have been available (even without alternate historying it to have the Sgt York program successful and in service) and enough vehicles and parts would have been around to keep them running if you had access to them (I always wonder about wikipedia, but it says the last NG unit equipped with them didn't retire them until 1988.) And from accounts from Korea and Vietnam, those things were absolute murdering pieces against troops in the open.

...or buildings. I'm reading a book about the battle of Hue and there are descriptions of Dusters collapsing entire masonry buildings with 40mm fire. For similar reasons, the Russians found their ZU-23-4 Shilka's to be their deadliest urban warfare weapon in Grozny.