U.S. sending tanks to hit harder at Taliban

Washington Post ^ | November 19, 2010 | Rajiv Chandrasekaran

[Sarajevo]

1) if the commander requests the wrong round, or the tank wasn’t loaded=out with HEP/HEsh, then we’ll be spending a lot of money making small holes in mud buildings.

Are HEP/HESH rounds still in the inventory? When I last crewed a tank (1987), they were all carrying anti-armor rounds. IIRC, they didn't even have the logarithms in the computer for the rainbow-like ballistics of the round.

Be safe and don't walk off the beaten path.

[Blueflag]

Checked it out. Looks like HESH left the inventory of US tanks when we went to smooth bore tubes in the M1. Brits kept it the longest per various sources.

I’ll admit I wasn’t aware of that round being in use, but you brought it up ;-). Seems only the basic HEAT-MP round seems to be (via public sources) in inventory right now.

Since you crewed a tank, you know a lot more firsthand about this than I.

It’d be good to know what a loader in Afghanistan can grab when needed.

[SunkenCiv]

heavily armored battle tanks to Afghanistan for the first time in the nine-year war... a further escalation in the aggressive tactics that have been employed by American forces this fall to attack the Taliban... The 68-ton tanks are propelled by a jet engine and equipped with a 120mm gun that can destroy a house more than a mile away.

That should disrupt a few wedding receptions and baby food factories. Thanks Pan_Yan.

[rmlew]

The M1A1 is well armored in the front, however 14.5 mm SLAT rounds have penetrated teh rear in the past. I hat to think of what will happen when RPG-7, or Russian supplied RPG-29 rockets or 9M133 Kornet missiles start hitting the tops and rears of our tanks. The Israeli Merkava 4 is bigger and more heavily armored than the M1A1 and Israel lost a few in Lebanon.