Posted on 10/17/2015 4:02:55 PM PDT by dynachrome
Earlier this month, Shia militiamen in Iraq dropped off an American-supplied Abrams tank at a US-supported repair facility where workers were surprised to find an attached Russian machine gun plus Iranian ammo, Defense News has learned.
The MIA1 main battle tank — one of 146 frontline tanks the US sold to Baghdad — was transported through the Green Zone to a US-supported Iraqi service facility at al-Muthanna that was established as part of the Pentagon’s Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.
The tank was equipped with a Russian .50-caliber machine gun and Iranian-stamped 12.75-mm ammunition, according to a source at the facility.
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
Is that compatible?
Once again: conflating US with the government. I’m not shocked. You shocked?
Probably a DShK,a pretty formidable weapon.The caliber matches that gun.
Should be. Considering that .50 BMG is a tried and true round that has stood the test of time. John Browning got it right, more often than not. Both the ammo round and the machine gun that uses it.
12.75mm = 0.501968 inches.
Thanks. i knew the russkies made a 12.7mm, but didn’t know if US .50 caliber would work in it or was that a special made one to use US ammo?
Improvising.
Iraqi Forces Add Russian Guns to US Tanks for ISIL Fight
The Russian round will not interchange with the Browning .50 round.The Russian round is slightly longer.
Farmer, you are correct: DShK heavy machine gun fires a 12.7 round often called “.51” caliber. The US .50 cal round is NOT compatible with the DShK .51 cal hmg.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12.7x108mm
They mounted their own gun on the 50 cal mount. They took it off of one their Toyoda’s technicals.
yeah. couldn’t post it direct. Defense News claims copy right crap.
Flexibility!!!
“Toyoda”
Actually a correct spelling as in WW2 it was the “Toyoda Loom” company and became Toyota later, after WW2, IIRC.
It is probably a Russian 12.7mm machinegun (might actually be a Russian designed machinegun manufactured under license in Iran) and Iranian 12.7mm ammunition. Very compatible.
I wouldn’t get too excited about the coaxial machinegun and the ammunition. Sounds like a case of practical logistics. US M2HB .50 caliber ammunition might be harder for the Shia militia to get than the 12.7mm ammunition. So, dismount the M2, build an adaptor plate to mount the 12.7mm machinegun in the coaxial cradle (or just swap out the cradles entirely) and get back to work.
I would be concerned about the other technologies in the tank(ballistic computer, laser, turbine engine, etc.) but those horses are long since out of the barn. Happened the moment the Iraqis allowed the Shia militias (along with their Iranian advisors) access to the vehicles. There are probably a couple of the tanks already in Tehran being gone over by Iranian engineers.
From what I understand, the FMS version of these tanks does not have the US “green metal” armor package so that bit of technology may still be safe.
But with the Obama administration, who knows?
Russian 12.7mm machinegun and Iranian 12.7mm ammunition.
Yeah, makes sense. Just put on the Abrams mount.
Iran can try and reverse engineer an M1A1 it doesn’t mean they could build a replica that’s worth a damn.
They’d have to get Russian help just to get some sort of bastardized composite armor up and running.
Is that why they had to bring it in for 'maintenance'?
The Russian MG is a good one and has been in use for many years, if the unit was failure with it and had more ammo for they might switch or they could have just wanted to switch to consolidate type of ammo carried with other vehicles.
Lots of reasons for pintel weapons to be switched
oops that was meant to say “more familiar”
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