Canon Germany to RDF tank transfer

[Olefin]

Armor and the guns tubes would be the killer Webstral - armor on a tank only comes from certain specialized mills - like the one in Israel that I read got nuked to deny it to the Israelis. Ditto for gun tubes.

so while they might be able to make tracks or possibly engine parts, the armor and the main guns are goign to stop them cold.

Now saying that - it takes a lot less space to ship 35 gun tubes to Saudi Arabia than it does to ship 35 full tanks.

And keep in mind - you may be lookign at as many as 50 tanks due to replacing combat losses that occured from June 2000 to Jan 2001 to end up with a net increase of 35 tanks

[95th Rifleman]

Originally Posted by Olefin

Armor and the guns tubes would be the killer Webstral - armor on a tank only comes from certain specialized mills - like the one in Israel that I read got nuked to deny it to the Israelis. Ditto for gun tubes.

so while they might be able to make tracks or possibly engine parts, the armor and the main guns are goign to stop them cold.

Now saying that - it takes a lot less space to ship 35 gun tubes to Saudi Arabia than it does to ship 35 full tanks.

And keep in mind - you may be lookign at as many as 50 tanks due to replacing combat losses that occured from June 2000 to Jan 2001 to end up with a net increase of 35 tanks

Depends if you are willing to downgrade the armour. The chobham on an M1 or Chally is going to be impossible to produce. However it would be possible to produce more conventional armmour.

[Olefin]

and the tubes could have come from Saudi stocks depending on the tank - they didnt just buy tanks but a lot of stores as well

and if you arent shooting the tanks then you have a lot of gun tubes that could be used for at least some of the tanks - I dont think they are all repairs

but keep in mind even if they did come from Europe they probably needed repairs anyway

see the raketenjagdpanzer earlier post about the state of tanks in Europe

[95th Rifleman]

Originally Posted by Olefin

and the tubes could have come from Saudi stocks depending on the tank - they didnt just buy tanks but a lot of stores as well

and if you arent shooting the tanks then you have a lot of gun tubes that could be used for at least some of the tanks - I dont think they are all repairs

but keep in mind even if they did come from Europe they probably needed repairs anyway

see the raketenjagdpanzer earlier post about the state of tanks in Europe

Chieftns used the 120mm rifled L11A5, the Americans used the 120mm smoothbore.

Now I'm not techie, but I think it's feasible to replace the Amrican guns with the Chieftens and getting ammo won't be a huge problem as the chieften is such a common tank in the middle east.

[Sanjuro]

a sort of inspirational spark for what the Iranians can do when motivated

I've been a passenger in Tehran traffic... and I have seen Iranians jaywalk in it. If that keeps up, in 200 years evolution is going to make the survivors' descendants like Superman!

[Panther Al]

You know, saying the Saudi's slipped some parts (And yes, they have a mountain of parts from road wheels, engines and trannies, to breeches and tubes sitting in warehouses spread out all over the middle of nowhere) and the occasional full up track would make a lot of sense in how it seems that with all the heavy fighting in the Middle East, so much stuff is still in great shape. With the intel saying a new push is in the card in the summer of 2001, it would be in the interests of the Saudi's to make sure that the RDF gets a 'accidental' resupply that fills all the dreams of the poor old S4's trying to make due with 2x4's and #8 wire. If in the buildup to the war they purchase the M1 series, and they bought spares and ammo on the scale they did in the real world, the amount of stuff that is technically available - and unnuked - is insane.

[James1978]

Originally Posted by Panther Al

If in the buildup to the war they purchase the M1 series, and they bought spares and ammo on the scale they did in the real world, the amount of stuff that is technically available - and unnuked - is insane.

If the tech reps who maintained all the equipment stuck around and survived, CENTCOM could probably man a decent armored vehicle overhaul/repair depot back in Saudi. It's not Anniston, but it's something.

[Webstral]

Originally Posted by Olefin

Armor and the guns tubes would be the killer Webstral - armor on a tank only comes from certain specialized mills - like the one in Israel that I read got nuked to deny it to the Israelis. Ditto for gun tubes.

so while they might be able to make tracks or possibly engine parts, the armor and the main guns are goign to stop them cold.

Absolutely agreed. This may be why one only sees 35 tanks added to the rosters. The most-easily fixed tracks are the first ones to go back to the line. Mobility kills and breakdowns will be among them. The catastrophic kills won't be worth much, except as spare parts. It's possible that the maintenance units already were fabbing as many of the bottleneck parts as possible in 1998 and 1999, but they just couldn't keep up with the demand. Only with the hypothetical opening of a semi-proper facility could supply grow enough to pull a few tracks out of the salvage depots and put them back into line units.

RJ Panzer, your point about the Iranians is well-taken. I wonder, though, if they wouldn't turn their abilities to supporting vehicles already in use in-country.

[raketenjagdpanzer]

Originally Posted by Webstral

RJ Panzer, your point about the Iranians is well-taken. I wonder, though, if they wouldn't turn their abilities to supporting vehicles already in use in-country.

Oh that was meant more as a "as the 00s wear on" kind of thing; as the front stabilizes and US forces more-or-less hold the Soviets at bay across the greater Southwest Asia front (at least in Iran), they'd go to something like that. While the war was still hot though in 2000/2001, yeah, it'd be all support what's in the field, innovate much later...

But it does show that there are some pretty smart cookies in the jar over there, and in terms of keeping the Iranian and "guest" US Armed forces up and running they'd probably become experts at parts production - at least the lightweight stuff...