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I already made stats for the M48 getting its turret replaced with the Teledyne low profile turret for my GURPS: Twilight 2000 conversion.
There was a planned M60 version too!
Shaves 8.1 tons off the baseline M60A3 TTS+
Teledyne's 1994 literature says that the turret was amenable to being upgraded to 120mm.
Teledyne actually made a prototype based on a Centurion hull. Overall it saved 5.5 tons and had several upgrades to the hull protection. I'm about 1/3 done with the GURPS stats for the various versions of the Centurion, and this one will get added.
Even included the French and an AMX-30 upgrade.
The Soviet tanks aren't getting the upgrade in my T2K conversion.
It's not an Abrams, but it looks like an excellent upgrade to 10,000 existing M60s, and an awesome slick way to make the too-tall M60 amenable to a super sneaky hull-down firing position with nothing showing but that tiny turret. Looks like the gunner's sight system is to the left of the gun...?
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing we didn't do it because it wasn't new and shiny enough, and didn't bring in enough congressional district bux to somebody's campaign.
If you want to know more about the turret, it's the same as the one mounted to the M1128 Stryker MGS.
DeleteThe one which, as I think you noted elsewhere, we also didn't buy any of...?
DeleteLike the one we also didn't buy any of for the LAV.
I'm seeing a trend here. >Le sigh.<
The military would be so much better if we bought the things we need, instead of the things Congress wants.
We actually bought a few of the Stryker MGS. And quietly retired them. We bought a few of the M10 Booker's and are cancelling it.
DeleteThere's a parade of others that never made it past prototypes for the US. Some made it into service with other nations.
No less than three 105mm light tanks were competing to become the M8 Buford. The M8 made weight, by the way, it was as C-130 transportable and deliverable as the M551A1. Contrary to popular belief, the Sheridan CAN be dropped successfully. The problem was the success rate wasn't very impressive, LAPES was far easier on the vehicle.
Yeah, it was okay on paper, not so much IRL.
DeleteAFAIK, Baby Brother operated the only Sheridans of note, driving around as a VISMOD OPFOR TC at NTC.
He's got an Army Achievement certificate and medal on the wall for the day when he snuck up a wadi and wiped out an entire BCT single-handedly (including a tank vs. attack helo kill), all laagered up with no local security and confused as all the lights and smoke grenades started popping off, and their MILES harnesses all started going off. He said the defeated Bn CO actually shook his hand at the after-action.
Pity the computer replay isn't on YouTube or something; I'd have loved to see it.
I'm also pretty sure the MGS was killed because a whole lot of armor generals were worried about the grunts stealing their thunder, literally. Reports of the Bradley's 25mm effectiveness against Soviet tanks in Ukraine are keeping those fears alive. Conversely, I would figure the more things we have in the field that can kill tanks will also kill anything lesser, and generally be a good type of redundancy for when the armor units are otherwise engaged, but then I spent way too much arty time practicing to do arty direct fire on tank targets for the Marines (pretty much at least once every day or two every time we went to the field), and seeing how that worked out in practice (poorly, taking 3-6 tries to hit even a stationary vehicle target, as if tanks that had busted through to the rear were going to obligingly just sit there fat, dumb, and motionless under fire), my personal estimate was that anyone sent on such a last-ditch mission was pretty much going to be toast by the third volley, even against semi-blind African tribesmen in a T-55. A simple laminated range card detailing correct starting elevations per 100m out to 2km would have been a boon to accuracy for lobbing in direct fire with our howitzers, but no one had apparently ever thought of that, from Commandant down to platoon commanders. I'm betting no one has done that to the present day. "Not a priority."
We'd have been far better off sending a jeep or Humvee with 2-3 guys from the platoon HQ and half a dozen AT-4s or Javelins, or a footlocker full of LAW rockets, to do the same job, and they would have had a far higher chance of both success and actual survival. But nobody asked me. Or anyone else.