Saturday, August 23, 2014

Are we about to see Iranian M60 MBT's battling ISIS M1 Abrams?

Thanks to USS Helm for the link!


via uskowioniran.com
Claimed movement of Iranian NEZAJA M60 type main battle tanks aboard tank trasporters at Iraqi Diyala / Iranian Kermanshah border (originally tweeted by @mehdilashkari), during Peshmerga offensive operations to capture Jalawla from Islamic State fighters.
Jalawa located approximately 30 km from the Iranian border.
Reportedly, American tactical airpower conducting CAS missions in support of Kurdish Peshmerga operation.
This should be interesting.

IF ISIS has even a basic understanding of how to operate M1 Abrams MBT's....and IF the Iranians are actually going to cross the border to bolster the Iraqi govt (we shouldn't be surprised...they've had advisers in country for more than a minute now..)...

Then we could be looking at a terrorist organization fighting a state sponsor of terrorism (nothing new, its happened before but its always amusing)!

Pass the fucking popcorn.  It never gets better than an enemy killing an enemy! 

19 comments :

  1. My opinion of that would be no. The logistical and operating requirements can't be done by monkey-see/monkey-do as with some other equipment. The first of many powerpack, or other day-to-day chores that (require training and reading) and they will get parked. It is not an easy tank to keep going even if you were trained, could read and had all the money in the world.

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    1. What if those monkey's had the training? What if some of those monkey's are from Iraq Army? I would not be so sure that they can't muster some of tanks in to full operational ready status.

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    2. M1A2 is in use in the Saudi army. Don't discount the possibility of trained Saudi crews joining Isis. With or without government approval.

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    3. M1 power pack precludes its use by non state actors,for them its just a piece of junk(its beyond me how m1 is supposed to be used in long term counterinsurgency work turbine powerpacks can not be throtled more than about 20% so idling which tanks do most of the time when not in blitzkrieg mode consumes huge amounts of fuel. ,even Russians realised that for monkey see monkey do operators with no real logistical support T55 is king ,t64,t72 are already too complex.

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    4. Wait did ISIS capture some M1s ? I helped train the Iraqi's in a place called Taji 04-05 I knew the training was a joke and I had no real power to fire the goof balls and keep the guys that had fighting spirit., when I voiced my opinion it got squashed like most common sense arguments back then.

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  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_XGIy77lZQ&index=31&list=UU5bytSjxUNOBW4FAfSCWLpA

    Here is a good comparison between the M1A2Sep vs M60A3. Who will win but technically it is all up to the crew and their training.

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    1. are you kidding? the M60 has armor that is prehistoric. even the detuned Iraqi M1's should easily shrug off hits from that tanks 105mm gun.

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    2. I wouldn't bet that M1 without chobham is any more armored than old M60 ,but still it has much better fire control and optics ,but you need a good monkey to use that

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    3. Like you said pass the fucking popcorn. If these to tanks meet it is all up to crew training and tactics. The Abrams needs an army to support it. Its main weakness is that gas guzzling jet engine. The ackbar head choppers will just use them for pillboxes if they don't have the gas. If the M60 gets a side shot or from behind the M1 is toast. My country(The worst country in the world due to the wild life.) had 59 of these tanks and they have been a logistical nightmare compared to our older Leopard1 tanks. Wiki won't tell you this but we are down to 40 due to the need for spare parts and 4 tanks engines catching fire. We have had communication problems it has no infantry phone ect. Its the little things if you look at this video again.
      The guy who maid this video was in the first gulf war and has a great knowledge of the Abrams tank and all its flaws you should check it out. I to could not believe I thought the Abrams was invincible. One example The Abrams has no HE shells and during the 2nd Gulf war some tankers noticed that their MG's when out of range using HEAT rounds did fuck all. Their are things that need to be fixed. My country is also buying the F35 flying truck that could be picked up by WW2 radar when we could be saving billions and buy the Rafeal instead and better armour for our troops. If China comes rolling in we won't stand a chance.

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    4. Yep and its buying US lookalike cruisers for a gazillion bucks that have as many VLS stations as cheaper frigates, and last I hear that cruiser is going to not even have the SPY radar system, which is already obsolete due to AMDR. Great work.

      Politicians trying as hard as possible to ensure that Australia has a nonfunctional military, whilst still retaining the illusion, all those useless Steyrs for instance.

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    5. Without gas M1 is not even a decent pillbox ,you go hand cranking turret and gun around.

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    6. Australia should go shopping for some Leopard2A4's (like Canada) from the Netherlands if they are still available.

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  3. If Iran announces an end to its nuclear program and agrees to fight ISIS, 3 birds one stone.
    1. Somebody fighting ISIS
    2. Iran may smooth things over with the west
    3. No Iranian nuclear program.

    Good thing all round if they go in.

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  4. State sponsor of terrorism that is a good one ,name one county in middle east that you couldn't label like that ,just too throw in some spice unlike Iran US has been found guilty of supporting terrorism in International Court of Justice(ICJ) (USA vs .Salvador)

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  5. I'm not ready for popcorn just yet.

    If the Kurds are fighting ISIS in Iraq and Iran crosses the order to fight ISIS in Iraq and we are providing airstrikes to support the Kurds could our airstrikes end up supporting Iranian forces???

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    1. Why not? No doubt we're better off supporting the Iranian military which has a better understanding of the turf than we do. GO IRAN & \USA

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  6. We hate Syria and Iran because it has a nuke program, we hate Iran because it supports Syria and Hezbollah, now we hate ISIS so we turn a blind eye to Iran now that it hates ISIS and supports the Iraq that we invaded so we could install a pro-iWestern gov't that in turn is allied with Iran and Syria (and indirectly Hezbollah) which we hate because they are a threat to Israel. And we support Saudi Arabia, because it hates Iran, but it supports ant-Assad Islamists such as ISIS. Now Saudia Arabia wants to make peace with Israel so they can both join in a de facto alliance against Iran which might threaten SA and the Gulf if they get nukes but not before Iran joins in the fight against ISIS.

    He who sows the wind shall reap the whirlwind

    If you tried to explain this back in 2003 prior to our invasion of Iraq of what might happen a decade later, you'd have been laughed at.

    We literally have thousands of old M60s we could be supplying to Iraq and the Kurds. Some spaced armor, reactive armor and improved thermal sights could make these really effective in relation to the armor threats in the region. i-Lux/ that said, we'd be better off buying 1000 Toyota Hi-Lux (Tacomas in the US) and equipping them HMGs and giving them to the Peshmerga rather than M60s.

    Why Australia bought the M1 as it I'll never know. That turbine is the biggest logistical piece of junk and should have been replaced with a decent German diesel powerpack years ago.

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    1. The reason why Australia got Abrams is because we are sick and tired of the strings involved when operating the Leos. If Australia should send Leos for overseas operation and the Germans don't agree with that policy, the Germans will impose an arms embargo. So this means no spare parts. Same goes with the diesel engines for M1. Too many strings attached by the German government. The only time you can use the Leo and make the Germans happy is only for expo or shows. You can't even use them for defence.

      The choice boils down to M1 or British Challengers. M1 won because of the amount of units. The Challies were known to be maintenance hogs and scarce spare parts available. M1 won this plus the USMC was willing to train Australian Defense Force on how to use the M1.

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  7. Off topic
    Now, apparently, people are shooting at the police in Ferguson.

    http://youtu.be/r42Ca5IvN2A

    BTW, sorry for another off topic post

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