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...or the pilot miscalculates. I believe that was the cause of the LAPES crash that killed everybody ~1986 when the C-130 broke it's back dropping an M551.

Done by the book, what is the prep time to unwrap a parachute-delivered M551, assemble the crew and the ammo and get underway ready to shoot?

Apart from Vietnam, I've never served in a "Regular Army" line unit like one in Germany or CONUS. And VN was an experience unlike anything later. There was no applicable "readiness" or "deadline" in the usual sense or every one of our vehicles would have been deadlined (three years of continuous...

I was referring to the strength represented by 10 M551's (one-two platoons worth, depending on the time frame, theater, OOB). And this was, as has been pointed out, a "special operation", not a standing line unit with a certain number of deadlined vehicles & other readiness stats. When the force...

Could well be the case. As the commander of an operation like this the precise nature of the failure is irrelevant. Real world, the expectation of "all singing, all dancing" airdrop & swimable unique & complex weapon platform still means "I'm two vehicles down without a shot being fired" owing...

An "80% success rate" is pretty abysmal and in a rational world, even as uncertain a one as airborne operations, should be enough to dismiss the concept in all but the most desperate of efforts. Ironically, the success rate for most SWIMEX's would be lucky to be 90%. A commander just cannot...

At one time I lived just West of Palomar Airport and at the time "Cinema Air" had a hangar there with ~15 warbirds quietly housed in a hangar there. Various private owners who maintained flyable examples. From time to time I'd hear them coming or already overhead. Sometimes a contact mechanic...

I was working peripherally in an area of aerospace when this was all the rage briefly in Aviation Week, with Yeager shilling hard for the system. It's a hard sell, upgrading existing designs when new platforms with attendant profitability opportunities are on the horizon. New sells. Upgrades...

One of my favorite "loadout" photos from our next door neighbor, Lima Co. Rangers (LRRP). From the collection of friend the late Randy White and his LCoRanger website (sadly gone). Lima and "Dirty Delta" (D/2/17th Cav, 101st Abn.) were Division assets. I especially like this combination because...

This is consistent with the picture I'm getting of TTS (on Sheridan, not M60A3) only being installed on vehicles in the 82nd, the 37AR, IIRC. The majority of them elsewhere (and maybe all of them) were not so equipped.

Interesting that you should used the word "fates". In the official records of submarine losses, more than a few are recorded as "fate unknown". This is different than having, say, a rifle company annihilated down to the last man. It's always known where a unit was engaged and usually with...

How about a 6.4 Hemi with 6sp. Less than 6,000 miles on an always garaged 13 year old car? Every conceivable option. Peripheral neuropathy is beginning to affect my pedal feel.

P-38's had twin Allison's as standard equipment. Different design than the Merlin.

The escape hatch was rendered non-functional with the VN mineplate kit. Most drivers who survived a mine strike reported being blown out of the regular hatch. The gap in the central piece of the schematic was just to clear the hatch. The main plate covered it. If you enjoyed your M551A1 (with...

There is an old video from in cockpit of one cruising about the English countryside. The Merlins were well synch'ed and could be heard moving in and out of phase in the video, which was quite long. This one I photographed at the fateful Oct. 1988 show at Harlingen, TX. She is apparently no...

More particularly, 1969 was a watershed year and some elements wanted the vehicle standardized regardless of the requirements it failed to meet because "without it our defensive posture in 'Urp would lack credibility, blah, blah..." The addition of the mine plate meant yet another requirement...

This interesting document further reveals the cavalier nature of AMC’s attitude with regard to crew protection in the M551 Sheridan. On request, an add-on mineplate kit had been developed for the M551 as deployed in Vietnam. The kit added 1400 lbs and it was concluded based upon empirical...

A .45 ACP with a still considerable 185g bullet can easily be loaded safely to 1,100 fps or ~200 fps of a comparable 10mm. I find 1,050 to be a little more reasonable but that's still 200 fps faster than hardball. With that kind of performance there is just not enough incentive to take on the 10...

There is an excellent article on the Battle of Aachen free from the online archives of Armor Magazine. Don't recall the issue but it's also described in Doubler's "Closing With The Enemy". When the M12 was sent for to reduce the formidable stone theater complex and force their surrender, the...

It gets a lot worse than that. D/2/17th Cav, 101st Abn at Camp Eagle