Monday, November 17, 2014
1st Tanks conducts Mechanized Assault Course...Photos by Lance Cpl. John Baker
Sidenote: I wonder how many more years tanks has as a dedicated part of the USMC. I have no crystal ball but everything points to the Marine Corps giving up tanks in the next 10 years...they'll call it "enhancing" the Corps expeditionary capability. The reality will be something different. The US Army is currently operating the M1A2 TUSK (Tank Urban Survivability Kit) and they're supposedly looking to upgrade those tanks to the M1A3 standard soon. Meanwhile the Corps still uses M1A1 Abrams. The choice will be stark. Either pay extra to keep a legacy vehicle going that is less and less compatible with the US Army standard OR dip into the budget to upgrade to the M1A2 Tusk..and later M1A3, while buying F-35's, MV-22's, CH-53K's, JLTV's, replacement MTVR's AND some type of ACV/MPC/AAV replacement. Marine Tanks are already dead. They just haven't been told.
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Marines are better off with M1A1 over SEP V2. The biggest maintenance problem with sep v2 is them not being used. They break down more just sitting in the motor pool. You have to run the tank for like six hours just to get a full charge on the batteries. If you don't run the tank for at least 45 minutes a day along with the electronics they will take a shit. In the winter none of them start. You might get lucky if one starts so you can slave the rest one by one. The batteries also freeze and die. If you lose power everything in the tank goes black. The M1A1 you could lose power to several components and still shoot because they don't run off one power source. A new APU will be installed in the sep v3 replacing 6 of the 12 batteries. New ammo like AMP/M829A4 will be integrated along with upgraded electronics, 3rd gen flir and low profile crows. Should see these mods next year. No point of going with v2, will be waste of money. V3 is the way to go.
ReplyDeleteI disagree that marine tanks will be dead in the next 10 years. Purchases of the MV-22 should be drawing down in the next couple years as they finish the delivery of the 360 the marines say they needed so that won't be a budget constraint. Next the marines are continuing to scale down their order of JLTVs so far from 5500 to 5000. If that pace is kept up the JLTV will be only a minimum budget constraint. Now lets be honest the MPC/ACV isn't going to happen anytime soon. So far as I understand it there aren't even any proposed designs in the works for the current phase of the program. So with that not happening for a while there is even less constraint on the budget. The only other reason I don't think the Marines would get rid of their tanks is because I don't think the marines would want to rely on the Army for anything especially armored support. The have a feeling that if the Marines can't afford to upgrade their M1A1s then they won't and will use them for another 30 years and if it comes to upgrade or retire they will cut one of the less essential programs like the JLTV, MPC/ACV or even maybe and this would be very desperate the MV-22 as they demonstrated they were willing to do back in 2013 when they cancelled the MPC project the first time.
ReplyDeletei think you're wrong on too many levels. first lets talk ACV/AAV. that program is a much higher priority than the M1A1. additionally you're not looking at the procurement mess properly. even if the JLTV goes to zero then you still have to fund the CH-53K (which begins flights in Dec), the F-35 is at least a 5 year buy if they push it to the gills and that leaves you with nothing left. Tanks has already been cut and there is no other slack in the force. if more internal cuts have to come then they're on the outside looking in. additionally the USMC HAS RELIED on the US Army for tank support. have you forgotten Gulf War 1? We had the boys with the indian head patch supporting us in the push into Iraq. so the ground work for US Army providing tanks to support our ops has history.
DeleteTrue. However with the US Army having cuts to its budget and forces there is no certainty that the Army could support the Marines in the same capacity as they have in the past. I do not think the Marines would potentially limit their capabilities in such a way. Most likely I think they will just not upgrade the M1A1s I do not think they will completely get rid of tanks it would remove too much hitting power from the ground forces.
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