Posted on 12/07/2011 10:09:10 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Greece examining ‘free’ US tank offer
ATHENS — Cash-strapped Greece is considering a free offer of hundreds of redundant M1A1 Abrams tanks extended by the US government, the Greek army said on Wednesday.
“This is a free offer,” army spokesman Yiannis Sifakis told AFP.
“A delegation of officers has travelled to the United States to examine tanks in storage; we are departing on the premise of picking 400 of them,” he said.
“The only cost will be that of transport, which is estimated in the region of eight million euros ($11 million),” the spokesman added.
Ta Nea daily reported that the tanks, stored in Nevada, saw action in the 1990-1991 Gulf War and were first offered by the US government a year ago.
The state council on foreign policy and defence will have the final say on whether the offer is taken up, Sifakis said.
Greece is in the grip of a debt crisis that has forced the government to freeze procurement orders for tanks, frigates and fighter jets.
The country has traditionally been one of the world’s heaviest defence spenders per capita owing to decades of rivalry with neighbouring Turkey.
Greece has in the past bought tanks from Germany and there have been reports that Berlin has recently tried to sell updated versions of its Leopard model.
(Excerpt) Read more at khaleejtimes.com ...
Maybe they’ll sell a few of them on ebay. I’ve always wanted an Abrams tank, and since our .gov won’t sell me one, perhaps the Greeks will! ;p
Damn!
I’ll take a redundant M1A1!
Just in time for their communist revolution.
These Tanks were bought with OUR tax dollars.
We should be allowed the right of first refusal on taking possession!
I worked for GD on the tank. The Army (not the politicians) think the tank has been overcome by air technology. The logistics of maintaining the tanks is too cumbersome and expensive and they are becoming more target than asset.
The tanks we’re talking about are worn out. But with 400 of them Greece should be able to cobble together 150 working units with spares for 10 years.
What makes them redundant?
I’ll take a few off their hands.
Do they have some redundant M1028 120 mm anti-personnel canister cartridges to go with them?
Redundant only because of 0bummer’s scaled-down military. Not redundant if needed in the future.
Please take our redundant Usurper-in-Chief!
Who’s air technology? Besides, any tank is aircraft fodder if you don’t have air superiority. Any army unit is toast if there is no air superiority.
Why didn’t they ask us Americans first? Who wouldn’t want a ‘redundant’ M1A1 tank??!?!!!
I, personally, can not afford too much gas, but damn, does it come equiped with all them tank rounds?
They are waiting the Free Shipping offer.
US Gov will use postal service.
1. Why are they “redundant”?
2. Why can’t they be used for any good parts or backups or for other future yet-known needs?
3. Why “free”?
Almost like dropping off planes off the aircraft carriers coming home from Japan. “We’ll never need them again.”
Me too. I haven’t driven one since 95 (NG after Navy) but I bet I can still handle it.
“Whose air technology?”
Our air technology. An Army commander told me (paraphrased); “If I have to kill a target worthy of a tank I illuminate it, call it in, and it’s gone in seconds. I don’t know if it was killed by the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines or an RPV. I don’t care. But the tank simply can’t go anywhere in Afghanistan without being attacked. There are only 160 miles of roads. The engagements are mostly at 50 yards with machine guns. Tanks are useless.”
The tank was designed to fight over tanks. The back of the tank is lightly armored and comparitivly easy to kill if you can get behind it. The old paradigm where tanks fought in a battle line are long gone. The battle is now wherever you are. There are no lines. The enemy doesn’t wear a uniform and they disappear after they’ve fired their round.
In addition, the battlefield is evolving with ever more sophisticated self-guided weapons. When you add in the logistics of getting a tank to the battle and then maintaining it and defending it and feeding it fuel the costs start to mount in comparison to competing systems. The tank has been comparatively useless in actual battle in Afghanistan. The Army much prefers the new 2-ton truck based weapons and took GD’s tank spares and upgrade money to buy those trucks. (This is why I got laid off in March.) The trucks can go places the tanks can’t. The trucks are specialized for the close-in machine gun engagements the Army is experiencing where the tank is comparatively helpless at short ranges. (Yes, I know it has a machine gun. But the tank is never where the enemy is attacking unless it is the focus of the attack.)
Available for sale soon at a local Cartel south of the border. Just have to drive them home.
I’m not worried about our air power killing our tanks. You are right about Afghanistan and other areas of the world that are still in the 7th century. MBTs still have a role to play against other modern militaries.
We should sell a few to Taiwan. A few hundred Abrams would greatly complicate any contemplated amphibious assault by China. (Which is why Obama would never do that).
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