From the Vault: French Super Light Tank

Here is a two page article from the Jan-Feb 1963 issue of ARMOR magazine that takes a look at the French ELC light tank project.  This vehicle never entered serial production and it does not appear that much information has been published about this odd little vehicle in English (the wikipedia page for this vehicle references mostly foriegn language sources.)  This vehilce is roughly comparable in time frame, role and mission to the US M56 Scorpion and M50 Ontos.  Click on the images below to view the article page.

 

New issue of ARMOR available

A new issue of ARMOR, the journal of the US Armor Branch is available for download at the eARMOR website.  Here is the table of contents for this issue.

armor spring 2017Protecting the Tail of the Tiger: Reshaping the Way We Train Logistics
by CPT Travis Michelena

Defeating the Battalion Tactical Group
by CPT Nic Fiore

Strength Punishes, Speed Kills: the Stryker Weapons Troop at National Training Center
by CPT Jared Wayne

2017-2018 Armor Training and Leader Development Strategy Released

Bringing the Future Back to Combat Systems: Recognizing the Need for a New Main Battle Tank
by MAJ Michael J. Trujillo

Army Design Methodology for the Regionally Allocated Battalion
by LTC Christopher S. Mahaffey, MAJ John W. Denney and 1LT Victoria C. Hulm

The Reconnaissance and Security Strike Group: A Multi-Domain Battle Enabler
by MAJ Nathan A. Jennings

Maneuver Leaders’ Role in Observation Planning
by LTC Jack D. Crabtree, LTC Jonathan A. Shine and CPT George L. Cass

Lessons for Today from Umayyad Invasion of Gaul
by CPT Thomas W. Doherty

Future Special Operations Forces and Conventional Forces Interdependence
by LTC Casey Galligan and CW5 Dennis Castellanos

Overtasking and Its Effect on Platoon and Company Tactical Proficiency: an Opposing Forces and Observer / Coach / Trainer Perspective
by CPT J. Scott Metz

Maneuver and Intelligence: Bridging the Gap for Unified Land Operations
by MAJ James A. Kolky and MAJ Michael J. Trujillo

New Issue of ARMOR available

armor winter 2017The Winter 2017 issue of ARMOR is available for download.  Features in this issue include:

Making Reconnaissance Guidance Say What You Think by CPT Luke Bowers

The Role of Reconnaissance Forces in the Counterattack  by LTC Scott Pence

Looking Toward the Future: the U.S. Cavalry’s Role in Multi-Domain Battle by MAJ Amos C. Fox

Trends in Defensive Operations by COL Esli Pitts

Tough Vehicles Require Tougher Crews: Why We Must Re-establish a ‘Gunnery Culture’ … and How to Do It by SSG David D. Lunebach and SSG Sean M. Leytham

The Battle of Debal’tseve: the Conventional Line of Effort In Russia’s Hybrid War in Ukraine by MAJ Amos C. Fox

TRADOC Big 6+1 Capabilities by LTC Corey B. Chasse

Enhancing Shared Understanding within the Brigade’s Operations Process by MAJ Rich Groen

Applied Combined-Arms Maneuver at Company Level by 1LT James Casey

Saving Future Gallons: Overview of New Field Manual 7-0 by James L. Young Jr.

From the Vault: Trunnions on the Move

Today we present an article from the January-February 1986 issue of ARMOR magazine titled “Trunnions on the Move” by Robin Fletcher.  Although thirty years old, this article is still relevant for those with an interest in tank layout design, particularly issues involved in turret design.  With the end of the Cold War, much of the impetus to produce new MBTs using some of the alternative turret ideas explored in this article was lost.   However, the introduction of the new Russian Armata will no doubt reignite interest in some of these turret and gun mounting concepts.  We have posted the pages of the article in a photo gallery below, or the entire issue can be downloaded as a PDF here.

April-June 2016 issue of eARMOR available

April-June_2016_CoverAfter a bit of a delay, the April-June 2016 issue of eARMOR is available for download.  This is the digital version of the long running ARMOR magazine.  While this current issue may be of interest to professional armor officers (which is its target audience after all), there is probably not much in this issue for the casual AFV buff, unless you really want to read articles such as “Decision-Support Planning and Tools: Planning to Support Decision-Making.”  Anyhow, download the issue here.

From the Vault: The Development of American Armor 1917-1940

Dummy training tankThis article originally was serialized in four parts in the 1969 run of ARMOR magazine.  Written by Timothy K. Nenninger, it  gives a good description of the development of American armor from 1917 to 1940.  We have provided links to the four parts below which can be downloaded in PDF form.

Part I World War 1 Experience

Part II The Tank Corps Reorganized

Part III The Experimental Mechanized Forces

Part IV A Revised Mechanization policy

From the Vault: the Secret Museum at Kubinka

This article by Jim Warford originally appeared in the Sept-Oct 2001 edition of ARMOR magazine and it takes a look at the captured US  made vehicles that found their way into the collection at the Kubinka tank museum outside of Moscow.  Of particular interest is the information on the Israeli Magach 4 tank which was captured by Syria in 1982.  It was recently announced that this vehicle will be returned by Russia to Israel.  We have also included in the gallery below a copy of a letter written by Steven Zaloga with appeared in the Nov-Dec 2001 issue of ARMOR in which he provides some additional information on the Museum as well as a response from Jim Warford  from the Jan-Feb 2002 issue.  To download PDF copies of the full ARMOR issues mentioned, just click on the hyperlinks in the text.

New issue of ARMOR available for download

armor oct-dec 2015The latest issue of ARMOR: The Professional Bulletin of the Armor Branch, is available for download.  The majority of articles in this issue seem to deal with either leadership principles or logistics issues.  Unlike cold war era issues of ARMOR, there is not much here that will be of much interest for AFV enthusiasts.

From the Vault: Ogorkiewicz on Swiss tanks

From the Jan-Feb 1967 issue of ARMOR is this article on Swiss armor by British tank expert Richard Ogorkiewicz.  A good deal of the article focuses on the Swiss Pz.61, a vehicle that was relatively new when the article was published.

 

From the Vault: Tank Armament

Today we present a two page article from the Nov-Dec 1946 issue of ARMOR written by the School of Tank Technology.  This piece describes some of the technical considerations regarding tank gun design in the immediate post war period.  In particular, the article discusses issues relating to mounting the gun in a tank turret and the role of recoil systems and muzzle breaks.