Super-Gavin

This is coolbert:

Go here to see an excellent web site that describes how the M113 Super-Gavins are being armed for the Iraq conflict.

Of course, keep in mind that this site is pro-Gavin and anti-Stryker!!

This extract is most interesting: [as usual, my comments in bold!!]

* RPG pre-det bird cage all around but yet not so wide so Super Gavin can still roll-on/off USAF aircraft for 3D maneuver warfare capabilities, you can't do this in a Stryker truck!

That slat armor does not necessarily make the M113 less maneuverable!!

* High Hard Steel belts on sides, front, rear to increase roadside bomb and bullet protection to beyond 14.5mm HMG protection

Protection against the 14.5 mm machine gun is a must. Where have we heard that before??!!

* Underbelly armor to defeat land mines

Landmines are of course a big item in counter-insurgency warfare. Conventional warfare of course too.

* Extra spall liner inside

Spall liner on the inside protects against metallic fragments from a penetrating armor piercing hit from circulating at high speed around the interior of the track.

* TAGS see-thru gunshields to protect and see enemy first to shoot & kill him

This of course allows the track commander [TC] to stand up and fire the fifty caliber [.50] and not needlessly expose himself to enemy counterfire. Valuable lesson from Vietnam.

* Ability to stow troop gear, sandbags on outside beneath hull and bird cage to increase ballistic protection levels

Gear from the troops inside the track can be suspended outside the hull and allows for further protection against a variety of enemy fire. Sherman tank crews in World War Two hung sandbags on the OUTSIDE of their vehicles to act as a defense against the shaped charge of the Panzerfaust.

* Rolls on tracks that are cross-country mobile and do not puncture and burn like Stryker truck tires

A LOT of thought has been given into improvements to the Super-Gavin to make it more resistant to the type of weapons being encountered in Iraq.

MUCH of this is of course the result of good and bad experiences encountered originally in Vietnam. Lessons learned forty years ago are still applicable NOW!! The learning curve here is a lot easier than it was in Vietnam.

Amazing!!

Go here too if you want to see some outstanding military cartoons. The BEST!!

coolbert.