Child taken to first day of school in BMP-1

September 8, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Yahoo news has posted an amusing story about a father who took his son to his first day of school in a BMP-1 Infantry Fighting Vehicle.  The father and son live in the Donstsk in south-eastern Ukraine.  As might be guessed, the boy and his father were a big hit with the other school children, who clambered all over the vehicle for pictures.  Parent Vitaly Dolgorukova said: ‘It’s not unusual to see tanks around here but I’ve never seen one doing the school run before, I thought it was a really fun idea that took away the nerves of a lot of the new kids.’ The boy’s father, the tank commander, is believed to be a member of a Russian-backed separatist militia.

Pic shows: Kid arriving in thank at school in the first day. The first day at school proved particularly unforgettable for one Ukrainian lad after his dad took him there in a tank. The unnamed little boy had apparently been nervous about turning up for his first day at a new school in the city of Donetsk in south-eastern Ukraine. But all nerves vanished after his dad drove him there in style on a tank, in a stunt that instantly made him popular with all his new school friends. Pictures of kids clambering over the tank, rushing up to touch it and chatting to the tank commander, the boy's dad, were widely circulated and proved it was extremely popular. The dad is a soldier in the Ukraine and most likely one of the Russian-backed separatists who are carrying out the defence of Donetsk, a city which has seen frequent fighting despite a supposed ceasefire being in place. Parent Vitaly Dolgorukova said: "It's not unusual to see tanks around here but I've never seen one doing the school run before, I thought it was a really fun idea that took away the nerves of a lot of the new kids." (ends)

Pic shows: Kid arriving in thank at school in the first day. The first day at school proved particularly unforgettable for one Ukrainian lad after his dad took him there in a tank. The unnamed little boy had apparently been nervous about turning up for his first day at a new school in the city of Donetsk in south-eastern Ukraine. But all nerves vanished after his dad drove him there in style on a tank, in a stunt that instantly made him popular with all his new school friends. Pictures of kids clambering over the tank, rushing up to touch it and chatting to the tank commander, the boy's dad, were widely circulated and proved it was extremely popular. The dad is a soldier in the Ukraine and most likely one of the Russian-backed separatists who are carrying out the defence of Donetsk, a city which has seen frequent fighting despite a supposed ceasefire being in place. Parent Vitaly Dolgorukova said: "It's not unusual to see tanks around here but I've never seen one doing the school run before, I thought it was a really fun idea that took away the nerves of a lot of the new kids." (ends)

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Picture of the day: Tank meets Car

September 8, 2015 by Leave a Comment

This is what can happen if you run a red light.

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Inside the Chieftain’s Hatch: M53/M55

September 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment

A new episode of the “Inside the Hatch” series of videos starring World of Tanks Nicholas ‘The Chieftain” Moran has been posted.  This installment looks at the M53 and M55 self propelled guns.

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Book Alert: Conqueror Heavy Gun Tank

September 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment

ConquerorLater this month Tankograd Publishing will be releasing a new book on the Conqueror Heavy Gun Tank by Carl Schutze.  This will be a softcover book of 64 pages with 12 color and 94 b&w photos and 17 graphics.  Text is in both English and German.

Publisher’s Description:

The FV214 Conqueror heavy gun tank was developed and fielded by the British Army in the early years of the Cold War to counter the threat caused by Soviet heavy tanks such as the IS-3 and the T-10. If the Cold War had turned hot, the Conqueror would have served as a tank destroyer to knock out enemy armor at a range superior to that of the Centurion main battle tanks.

This publication describes the development history, the technology, variants and the only eight year long in-service life of the Conqueror heavy gun tank. Also covered is the Conqueror armored recovery vehicle.

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Slovak-Polish Diana Self-propelled Howitzer debuts at MSPO

September 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment

2382927_originalJane’s is reporting that at Poland’s MSPO defense exhibition in Kielce, the new 155mm Diana tracked SPH was unveiled.  Developed for a requirement by the Indian Army, the Diana SPH is a product of Konstrukta Defense and consists of a Slovakian autonomous 155mm L55 armed turret mounted on a Polish Bumar-Labedy UPG-NG tracked chassis.  This turret was originally developed for use on an 8×8 wheeled chassis.  According to the Jane’s article, the primary reason the Polish tracked chassis was selected was because it shares many common components with the T-72 main battle tank, a vehicle used by many of the potential customers for this artillery system.  The UPG-NG vehicle was initially designed for the Krab SPH, but was dropped in favor of the SOuth Korean K9 chassis.

Jane’s article here.

For those that would like more information on both the Polish Krab SPG and the Diana SPG, and are willing to use google translate, this Polish Language LiveJournal post may be of interest.  Here are the stats for the Diana SPG as provided in the LiveJournal post:

Diana (like Zuzana 2) using the automated loading system is capable of five shots in the first minute of opening fire, or 13 shots during the three minutes. Manual loading is possible if required. SAU Diana has a very impressive ammunition load of 80 rounds and 80 charges, out of which 40 projectiles and 40 charges placed in the automatic loader, and the other 40 projectiles and 40 charges – lie in the aft hull. The combat weight of Diana is 50 tons, length is 11, 8 m, width 3.5 m, height of the tower on the roof of 3.69 m. Engine S12U. The maximum road speed of 60 km / h on the highway cruising range to 650 km.

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Video from Russian Military Festival

September 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Today we present some videos posted a couple weeks ago from the Military Festival outside of Moscow on August 9, 2015.  Several WW2 era vehicles in running condition are shown in these videos.  As far as we can discern, some of these vehicles are genuine, some are replica’s using some original parts. These videos are from the Russian language youtube channel belonging to “yolkhere.”

Light tanks T-60 & T-70

Valentine Mk III & M3 Stuart

T-34 Model 1943

SU-76 SPG

10.5cm sFH18 (Sf) auf Geschutzwagen Lorraine Schlepper (f)

PzKpfw II tank replica

PzKpfw VI “Tiger“ tank replica

IS-2 heavy tank & ISU-152 self-propelled gun

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From the Vault: Newspaper articles on US Korean War tanks

September 5, 2015 by Leave a Comment

It’s been said that newspapers represent the “first draft of history.”  We were reminded of that quote when a reader recently sent us a link to a newspaper article concerning UN tanks in the Korean War.  The reader figured we would be interested since the article makes mention of the term “Ronson” to describe the Sherman tank, a topic we have looked at in previous posts.  Reading the article got us curious as to what other newspaper coverage there was of US armor in the Korean war and how they represented US armor.  We found a number of articles, fourteen of which we have included in a gallery in this post.  Many are from the first year of the war when UN forces found themselves having issues dealing with North Korean T-34/85 tanks.  These articles tend to focus on the new line of tanks the US has coming out (M41, M47) while also generally praising Soviet tank design.  It is interesting that many of these articles mention the IS-3 in quite glowing terms, stating that the US has nothing in it’s arsenal comparable.  As we know now, no IS-3 or any other Soviet heavy tank was used in the Korean war.  The articles from later in the war tend to focus on the new US tanks entering service.  It’s interesting to note that these articles regularly describe the new US vehicles as more maneuverable than the older WW2 era Sherman tanks in service.  This is not a view shared by some veterans who drove these vehicles and found the Sherman more suited to the very rough and mountainous terrain of Korea.

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Crain’s Business article on M1 Abrams tank

September 5, 2015 by Leave a Comment

t1larg.tank.plant.cnnCrain’s Detroit Business recently posted an article about the past and future of the M1 Abrams tank.  As can be expected, the article focuses primarily on the business end of things, giving a brief history of M1 production and discussing challenges faced by the Lima Army Tank Plant in the era of sequestration.  Also mentioned are the M1 tanks sold or given as aid to foreign countries.

Article excerpt:

The former Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant in Warren, which had produced the M1 Abrams since its early days, discontinued new tank assembly in late 1991 and closed down completely in late 1996. Since then, General Dynamics Land Systems has housed all Abrams production and equipment upgrades for the Abrams at the government-owned Lima Army Tank Plant.

That plant, which was refurbishing about 2 1/2 tanks per day in early 2009, is handling a small fraction of that volume today. At issue at least since sequestration began affecting defense budgets in 2012 is whether the Lima plant can remain operational on a mix of foreign military sales and some limited production orders until M1A3 production begins in two years.

“The Army’s notion was they could mothball the plant and reopen in three years, but as GDLS can attest, you can mothball equipment but not people,” said Loren Thompson, a defense industry analyst and COO of the Arlington, Va.-based Lexington Institute.

Full article here.

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From the Vault: Thoughts on Future Tank Design 1968

September 3, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Today we present an article from the 1968 July-August issue of ARMOR by Richard Ogorkiewicz titled “Thoughts on Future Tank Designs.”  This article gives a pretty good summary of the state of the art in tank design in the late 60’s, illustrating the issues and thoughts that would go into the designs produced in the 1970’s.  Also of interest is the picture on the first page, an artist’s interpretation of an overhead gun system.  Page 2 states that the picture is courtesy of Continental Motors, who would later go on to develop the overhead gun system for the Teledyne Armored Gun System in the 1980’s.

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US tanks go back to green

September 3, 2015 by Leave a Comment

2BE961CA00000578-3219907-image-a-29_1441215460957Stars and Stripes is reporting that as focus shifts away from the middle east and toward Russia, US tanks in Europe are being repainted to woodland green rather than desert tan. According to the article, US vehicles in Europe are being repainted in forest colors to more closely match the European terrain and NATO allies. The article also mentions other issues concerning US AFV logistics in Europe, noting that:

The fighting vehicles stored here are a key part of USAREUR’s rotation of troops and vehicles into the Baltics and eastern Europe.

At Coleman, military officials discussed ways to improve the flow of equipment to the region, much of which moves by rail. For the Army, large-scale gear and troop movements around Europe have demanded that the Army relearn old logistical skills not exercised during the war years in Iraq and Afghanistan, officials said.

“We need to rebuild competency on several levels,” said Maj. Gen. Duane A. Gamble, commander of the 21st Theater Sustainment Command.

Full Article here.

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