Out of Mothballs: Obsolescent Weaponry on the T2k Battlefield

[raketenjagdpanzer]

I have over the last year or so gotten very addicted to auto recovery/restoration channels on Youtube. Vice Grip Garage, Thunderhead 289, Dylan McCool, and Junkyard Digs...and so many others. I'm not much of a gearhead but watching their channels now when they do a "drive it out of its grave" video, the basics that they go through, I can predict what the issue is that's stopping a given vehicle from starting and usually get it right, based on prior recoveries they've done.

The one that got me really hooked was Thunderhead, Dylan (for at least 1 episode, I think) and Junkyard recovered and got a Ford F150 truck that had been parked since 1989 or thereabouts, just sitting, not moving, on an abandoned farm. The truck itself was from the early 1970s. With about 8 hours of work, with a tool kit, some automatic transmission fluid, and a scavenged radiator, improvised radiator hose, and scavenged starter coil, they got it to drive out of its grave. It's utterly flat tires held air; they drove it a couple of miles (one up, one back) before calling it a victory. But it ran, idled, etc.

The point of all of this is that aside from the Abrams, AFVs generally use similar versions of the same engine you'll find in most heavy trucks/equipment. If a couple of guys can in the space of a day with limited tools get a vehicle moving, I would wager that a team of motivated mechanics with proper equipment could get long parked and "abandoned" AFVs working and running, no problem. Would they be factory perfect? Hell no! But, take the M113 for instance; the US has tens of thousands of them still in inventory. Their engine is the same as used in many buses and other "commercial" applications. I think the idea of "Hey can we get those M47s running again is really damn cool. It's why in my "Florida JMC" idea, the Joint Military Command has a single M60 pulled from a display in front of a VFW up in north Central Florida. Now, sure, the main gun breach is cut, but still, it's mobile armored firepower against enemies who don't have any.

Just wanted to share that.