The M113 is finally being replaced with something "based" on the Bradley.
Twilight: 2000 had all manner of Brad variants in the US vehicle guide.
In 1987...
The US Army: 33 years behind GDW.
Worse/Better is the Brad based vehicles in T2K would have to have been developed and fielded before November 1997. The better is the Army is just 23 years behind T2K here. The worse is the vehicles in the Vehicle Guide are based on active proposals dating back to the M2's first fielding.
1981.
So it only took 39 years to get from the obvious concept to the troops hands.
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Hey Angus;
ReplyDeleteI don't know a whole lot about the Bradley while I was in, only saw them around, never drove them and they got pilloried by the media for transmission issues by the media who was looking to beat up on Reagan and the Army on spending since the democrats were wanting to spend more on social programs to buy more votes since they sucked up to the Russians anyways. But the Bradleys kicked ass During Desert Storm killing more Tanks and BMP's than the Abrams. I do know about the M113, I worked on them, drove them, was licensed on them and its derivative the M548(Was supposed to have been the M10105, but we had the Shah's of Iran's Nosale) because the platform we used in my first unit rode on the back of one. I thought it was a fun tracked vehicle to drive...at least to me :)
Gee. I remember when the Bradley was supposed to be the chassis, upon which everything else is added or subtracted, almost... modular (a phrase that makes military personnel shudder to hear.)
ReplyDeleteBasic vehicle was supposed to be an APC/IFV.
Then the M2 with the Turret.
Then the M3 scout variant.
Then the mortar carrier.
Then the command vehicle.
The med vehicle.
The engineering vehicle.
All supposed to be purchased as a package item.
After purchasing the base package, then the smoke screen vehicle, chem/bio warfare vehicle, air-defense vehicle, a version worked out to Marine standards (better water handling capabilities and so forth.)
Nothing moves fast in the military.
Looking up the wiki on the AMPV... The Bradley was supposed to be replaced by the GCV, which was... what the Bradley was supposed to be, only at 5 times the cost per unit. By the time GCV was near it's end=of-life, BAE re-introduced the Bradley chassis system. And then Congress and the Pentagon got involved and we get the military looking at an Abrams-based IFV, actually looking at the Israeli Namer IFV family, some kraut stuff, the MTVL version (lengthened and uparmored M113) and and and.
Finally. Well, hopefully the semi-Bradley will be worth it.