Egyptian M1A1 Production Line Starts Again

Profits for defnese companies hit a low in 1993, but have been climbing ever since. When I did a report on this last year 35% of the sales of U.S. defense companies was comming from sales to foreign governments.

There are two sides to this. It helps lower U.S. defense expenditures by allowing some foreign nations to provide for their own security, while keeping the U.S. defense industry dynamic and profitable in case we ever need them to go 24/7 production schedules during wartime.That is the good news.

The bad news is due to industry lobbying during the Clinton adminstration we live in a much more dangerous world. Check out a clean company like ATK, they have a list of all their foreign customers on their web site and in the annual report. They are hiding nothing and remain profitable. Others such as Bernard Schwartz should be tried and executed for treason.

"Egypt where Al Queda has many cells?"

Many Middle Eastern nations have vast expanses of desert where the government has little control and sometimes knowledge of what goes on. They need to control what goes on within their own borders, it is good for world security.

Who makes the special "high speed reverse overdrive" transmissions which are standard issue on all Eastern and Western block armor provided to Egypt and Syria?

I'm a little out of touch here. Have any advancements been made such as Manual Shift Foreward, Automatic Reverse Transmissions? or Engaging a Turbo-Charger When in Reverse?

Beats me. Tanker, you want to give this a shot?

"Beats me. Tanker, you want to give this a shot?" I don't have first hand knowledge of the trannies being installed in the Egyptian version of the Abrams. The only info I have is that the plant in Egypt is basically assembly only, putting together kits made by the US contractor comprising about 80% of the tank. I don't have any info that the trannies for the Egyptian version are different from the standard Detroit Diesel, but as I said I haven't seen the Egyptian version. I have no knowledge of any U.S. armor sales to Syria - so far as I know there is no clearance for that.

As I understand it the deal with Egypt is they take out of commission one old East Bloc tank for each Abrams they assemble, so the overall size of the armor force does not increase. The issue is the Abrams is so much better than the junk it's replacing in Egypt. The possiblility of a change of regime to a radical Islamic state is really troubling. The only comfort I take is that the Abrams is very maintenance intensive and cut off from U.S. support and supplies the Egyptian force would likely deteriorate quickly. Also, the Israeli Air Force would seize air superiority over Egypt in any conflict, leaving the Egyptian Abrams vulnerable to air attack. I know its cold comfort, but I'm as uneasy about this as many posters.

I concur this is a contractor-driven issue. The Army has discontinued Abrams purchases in favor of the "Future Combat Vehicle" that has not been designed. So, Middle Eastern sales are keeping the U.S. production lines open for now. I suppose it's also nice to know that a big chunk of our aid to Egypt is being recycled right back to U.S. companies and workers and not to Russian sales.

TADSLOS,

Perhaps my age is showing. An old joke about Egyptian and Syrian tanks is Moscow provided them with special transmissions having a 3:1 Reverse:Forward gear ratio. Meaning for each forward gear there were three reverse gears.

Perhaps my age is showing. An old joke about Egyptian and Syrian tanks is Moscow provided them with special transmissions having a 3:1 Reverse:Forward gear ratio. Meaning for each forward gear there were three reverse gears.

LOL!! Man, that one flew right past me...I shouldn't take things so seriously I guess.