DVIDS has posted a press release about the US Marine Corps AIDATS system (Abrams integrated display and targeting System.) We have posted half of the article below. To read the full article, click here.
Marine Corps Systems Command is modernizing the tank commander’s weapon station on the M1A1 tank by developing a suite of systems that give tank commanders and their gunners a hunter-killer edge over their enemies.
The new Abrams Integrated Display and Targeting System, Tank Commander Single Handle and slew-to-cue capability make up the modernized trifecta that cuts time to enemy engagement by half while increasing accuracy, range and lethality on the battlefield.
ABRAMS INTEGRATED DISPLAY AND TARGETING SYSTEM
Responding to feedback from Marines, the Abrams Integrated Display and Targeting System, or AIDATS, upgrades the thermal and day sights on the stabilized commander’s weapon station through a state-of-the-art, high-definition camera and permanently mounted color display.
“The most significant benefit—the main reason why AIDATS was started—is the color display,” said Michael Kreiner, AIDATS project officer in MCSC’s Armor and Fire Support Systems. “Users didn’t like the black and white camera that was in the tank before, because they have a hard time distinguishing between different color trucks.”
In battle, situational awareness is key for tank commanders. Kreiner and his team are leveraging technology currently available in the marketplace to provide a thermal sight that can be used around the clock and provide a color day camera with a color display.
“The thermal sight can be used for 24 hours,” said James Shaffer, systems engineer in AFSS. “It has low light capabilities, can see through obscurants, and works in the diverse environments under adverse weather conditions.”
The display for both upgraded thermal and day sights will be hard mounted in front of the tank commander, allowing him to minimize extra movement and focus on the action. Better optics enable commanders to increase identification and detection range while in the tank, which will improve situational awareness.
With AIDATS, tank commanders will have double the identification range with thermal sight and triple the identification range for the day sight, said Gunnery Sgt. Dennis Downes, M1A1 project officer in AFSS.
“AIDATS also has an azimuth indicator that will allow the tank commander to identify where his weapon is in relation to the vehicle at that moment,” said Downes. “On the legacy system, the tank commander had no situational awareness of where the weapon system is in relationship to the turret.”
Lately we have noticed a number of older public domain publications being listed for sale as Kindle books on Amazon. We would suggest that before people spend money on these items, do a quick Google search. In many cases, you can find a free PDF of the same document. One example of this is Spearhead in the West 1941-1945. This book, written in 1945, documents the history of the US 3rd Armored Division during the Second World War. The book can be 
. For those that prefer a physical hard copy, it appears that this 
, new copies of this reprint are going for around $35 on Amazon currently.
General Dynamics’ (NYSE:GD) Lima, Ohio-based tank-building factory is back from the dead (the rest of General D was already doing just fine). But it’s still a complicated situation — so let me explain. Last quarter, General Dynamics reported a 3% decline in sales across its four major divisions. Combat systems, the division that builds Abrams main battle tanks, LAV light tanks, and Stryker armored personnel carriers took it on the chin, with sales down 7% year over year. This obviously was not great news for the company’s Lima plant, which builds both the Abrams and the Stryker, and where the payroll has been slashed from a high of 1,200 employees 10 years ago, to about 400 today. But there’s better news rumbling down the pike.
Governor Pat McCrory spent time Saturday at the North Carolina National Guard’s 2016 Leaders Workshop honoring a tank crew. The four-member crew is based in Southern Pines and won the 2016 Sullivan Cup at Fort Benning, Georgia back in May during a six-day competition against 15 other teams from across the country. Gov. McCrory presented each team member with a Governor’s Coin. The team is made up of: crew commander, First Lieutenant John Dupre of New Bern; crew gunner, Sergeant Curtis Bowen of Winston-Salem; crew loader, Specialist Brandon Sinor of Morehead City; and crew driver, Specialist Phillip Hill of Greensboro. The Governor also recognized Lieutenant Colonel Miriam Martinez, who served at the governor’s Office of Federal Relations in Washington, D.C. from 2014 to May of 2016. Martinez will be promoted to Colonel in October.
For sale: tanks, good condition, some used during D-Day. The Normandy Tank Museum is selling its entire collection at auction next month before closing its doors because it failed to attract enough visitors. The sale includes tanks, military vehicles, trucks, aircraft and motorcycles, many of which have been restored to working order. More than 40 armored vehicles, along with thousands of military items used during World War II and dozens of mannequins in full battle dress, will be sold on September 18 by Artcurial, a Paris-based luxury auction house. The sale will be held in Catz, a town a few kilometers from Normandy’s Utah beach, where the Allies landed to liberate German-occupied northwestern Europe in June 1944.
Russia’s Tractor Plants Concern is developing a new amphibious tracked armoured personnel carrier (APC) called the BT-3F, a defence industry source told IHS Jane’s . The new APC is intended for the use by naval infantry/marine units. “The Tractor Plants Concern is finishing the designing of the BT-3F APC in order to exhibit its demonstrator at the Army 2016 military-technical forum outside Moscow in September 2016. The vehicle may partially replace the BTR-80 APC of Russia’s Naval Infantry. We suppose that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) will take a close look on the new vehicle at the forum,” the source said.
The Minotor-Service Enterprise of Belarus has developed an upgrade suite for the Russian BTR-50PK amphibious armoured personnel carrier (APC). Called the BTR-50PKM, Minotor-Service states that the package is also applicable to other members of the BTR-50 family of tracked armoured fighting vehicles (AFV) including the BTR-50P, BTR-50PU, the Czech OT-62 Topaz APC (which is their equivalent of the BTR-50PK) as well as the Russian PT-76 light amphibious tank. The upgrade enhances the BTR-50PK APC by reducing its fuel consumption, improving its maintainability and reliability, as well as extend its operational life.
by Christopher Foss and Peter McKenzie.
On August 25, Osprey books will be releasing their latest offering in the long running New Vanguard book series. 
In 1957, the Swedish army initiated a study of the future of warfare, in order to determine what weapons technology it should pursue during the 1960’s – as well as many other things. One of the sub-committees of this study was tasked with studying direct-fire infantry support weapon systems, such as tanks, anti-tank weapons, direct-fire crew-served weapons, etc. The central question that the sub-committee was tasked with answering was: “How should our system for direct fire (both anti-tank and anti-personnel fire) work around 1970 and in the time immediately thereafter?”
On August 25, a new book on 
Tank and AFV News 