Army Buying Its New Tank
canada goose outlet florida WASHINGTON With a speed that even an armadillo might find a little lumbering, the United States Army, after 13 years of looking and spending hundreds of millions of dollars is about to settle on a new main battle tank for the next quarter century. canada goose outlet florida
canada goose jacket outlet sale This week, the choice Canada Goose Jackets between competing tank models developed by the General Motors Corporation and the Chrysler Corporation is expected to be made. The decision will be momentous, both in cost and in terms of a continuing Army commitment to the tank as its queen of combat: The plan is to buy 3,300 of the 58ton heavily cladded monsters of the battlefield, at a total outlay, including development, of $4.5 billion. canada goose jacket outlet sale
canada www.canadagooseoutletjackets.com goose outlet houston In what is undoubtedly the most protracted weapons development program in recent history, the Army has been attempting to develop and produce a new main battle tank since 1963. cheap Canada Goose But since 1963, there has been a considerable advance in antitank technology as relatively inexpensive, highly effective missilei have been developed for the defending ground forces. They have not, canada goose coats however, deterred the army, for whom the tank is as much a status symbol as the aircraft carrier is for the Navy and the manned strategic bomber is for the Air canada goose black friday sale Force. canada goose outlet houston
canada goose outlet in canada The future may demonstrate that the heavy tank, like the armadillo is an atavistic creature, outdated by technology. What the new main battle tank will more surely provide is another illustration of how major weapons programs acquire an irreversible momentum of their own, driven by institutional traditions and political pressures. canada goose outlet in canada
canada goose jacket outlet store Not unlike Canada Goose Outlet the proverbial American consumer who starts thinking of a new car before payments are completed on the old one, the Army began dreaming of a new tank within a few years after its present tank the M60, which is still being built went into production canada goose clearance sale in 1960. The underlying if unstated reason was the Pentagon realization that with the M60 it had bought a lemon. The M60 was underpowered, so heavy that it has little mobility, was unreliable mechanically, and had a towering silhouette that made it vulnerable to enemy canada goose clearance fire. canada goose jacket outlet store
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canada goose clothing uk The search for a new and better tank the MBT70 that was to join the forces in the 1970’s began as a joint effort with West Germany, a partnership that was imposed upon the Army by former Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara. It seemed logical. The Germans have always excelled in tank technology and, ever since its monsters of World War II had been going in the direction of lighter, more agile tanks. Joint development presumably would reduce the costs and contribute to the longstanding but elusive goal of standardizing weapons canada goose uk outlet within Canada Goose Coats On Sale the North Atlantic alliance. canada goose clothing uk
canada goose outlet seattle As less sanguine observers of international defense cooperation probably could have forecast, it proved to be an Canada Goose online abortive effort. For its prestige weapons, the Army was not about to adopt a tank that it had not developed itself: the Germans shared similar prejudices. Between nationalistic jealousies, technological canada goose uk shop difficulties and rising costs, the joint project was finally cancelled in 1970. Not even a prototype model had been fielded. canada goose outlet seattle
canada goose outlet paypal The Army then set off on its own to develop the XM803. Now the cheap canada goose uk slippages were designed to meet the threat of the the 1970’s and early 1980’s, and by now the total investment including that in the joint project, came to Canada Goose sale $500 million. The program was cancelled in buy canada goose jacket cheap 1971 after a House appropriations committee complained that XM803 was “unnecessarily complex, excessively sophisticated and too expensive.” The Army was directed to lower its sights to less sophisticated, less expensive tank. canada goose outlet paypal
canada goose outlet store calgary Thus emerged the XM1, to be known after it joins the troops as the Abrams, after the late Gen. Creighton W. Abrams, a World War II armor officer who as Chief of Staff rebuilt the Army after the Vietnam war. The name itself is almost enough to guarantee the future of canada goose factory sale the XM1, since the army would be loath to cancel a weapon named after a general so widely revered in Army ranks. canada goose outlet store calgary
canada goose jacket outlet uk For the last year the Army has spent much of its time protecting the XM1 against the potential competition of the Leopard II, developed by the Germans after the joint effort collapsed. In 1973, former Defense Secretary James R. Schlesinger had entered into an agreement with the West German Defense Ministry that the two tanks should be uk canada goose outlet competitively evaluated so the two canada goose store allies could standardize with the winning model. Last year Gen. Fred C. Weyand, Army Chief of Staff, personally pleaded with Mr. Schlesinger canada goose coats on sale against delaying engineering development of the XM1 until evaluation of the Leopard. Earlier this month, the Army and its contractors succeeded in stalling a plan to standardize components. canada goose jacket outlet uk
canada goose outlet in chicago As a development project alone, the XM1 has proven to be an unsual success story for the Pentagon. The original goal was to produce www.canadagooseoutletjackets.com a tank that would cost around $500,000 in 1972 dollars, and it seems likely the Army will come close to that cost objective, though in 1980’s dollars, each tank is expected to cost around $1.3 million. And the XM1 has a far lower silhouette and thus is less vulnerable than the M60 it will replace and it is faster and more agile. canada goose outlet in chicago
canada goose outlet jackets There is still some question, however, whether the XM1’s engineering sophistication has made it unreliable. The Army expects, according to General Accounting Office specialists, that 50 percent of the tanks will break down after traveling 200 miles. canada goose outlet jackets
canada goose discount uk More important, however, is whether the battlefield may not have been radically changed by technology by the time the XM1 reaches the forces in the 1980’s. In gestation or already born is a whole new family of antitank weapons, and in the opinion of some defense analysts, the advent canada goose uk black friday of antitank weaponry, from “smart” bombs that can be launched by airplanes to infantrylaunched guided missiles, uk canada goose is shifting the tactical advantage back to the defense against the long dominant offensive power of the tank. In its recent critical report on the XM1 program, the General Accounting Office raised the question of whether instead of relying upon heavy, costly tanks to meet a Canada Goose Online Soviet threat, the Army should not turn to a different kind canada goose of force that would also include large number of antitank weapons and lightly armored, relatively inexpensive “tank destroyers.” In the Soviet military literature, there are indications that the same question is being raised within the Soviet Union. canada goose discount uk
canada goose outlet black friday sale Nevertheless, Army generals, reared on the glorles of armored warfare in World War II, remain convinced that the tank remains the principal weapon of land warfare. Not only is the institutional pride and prejudice of the Army at work, but in the ways of the militaryindustrialCongressional complex, the program is beginning to be enveloped in vested interests. AVCO’s Lycoming division, Canada Goose Parka for example, recently issued a press release proclaiming that if its tank engine were adopted, “approximately $60 million more a year In new business would be canadian goose jacket pumped into the Connecticut economy.” With that kind of blandishment, Congress buy canada goose jacket presumably will not be inclined to pursue the question of whether a new main battle tank is really needed canada goose outlet black friday sale.
