Upgrade to Army armour fleet

Australia has chosen the Abrams M1A1 Main Battle Tank as its replacement for the 30-year old The recent Defence Capability whole issue into focus. Leopard 1, which no longer has the firepower nor the force Review has endorsed in principle What direction should Australia be protection capability for modern land warfare. the provision of replacement tanks taking in provisioning the Army for the Army’s Leopard I fleet, the with armour over coming decades? replacement since publicly The key questions revolve around announced to be an M1 Abrams the style of combat and the type of variant. Since the campaign in Iraq, terrain on which the Army will armour has again become an issue have to fight. Will it be the open for land forces as, increasingly, terrain of Middle Eastern deserts or armies confront the realities of 21st Asian lowlands and steppes; will it Century urban combat. be the complex forested and jungle The long running and bitter terrain of the Asia-Pacific and argument in the US over the force northern Australia; or will it be structure for light and highly complex urban terrain found deployable army forces brings this globally?

2 DefenceTODAY magazine DefenceTODAY magazine 3 infantry assaults – remain the most frequent Changing role roles of the modern tank. Mobility and * High strategic mobility to permit rapid protection for infantry have seen armoured global and regional deployment by airlift personnel carriers dominate build numbers and regionally of armour in armoured vehicles since 1940. by sealift. Tanks and armoured vehicles remain the The Battle of Bulge set the trend for the This favours backbone of mechanised land manoeuvre latter half of the last century. With the types that are forces, even though helicopters have absence air power, the Panzer divisions lighter and compact supplanted armour in many roles. were highly effective but once the weather over heavier and Historically, armour hit its peak during the cleared they were massacred by allied air bulkier types. 1940s when Guderian blitzkrieged much of power. Iraq’s attempts at tank warfare in * High off-road ground Europe, the USSR and North Africa with 1991 and earlier this year resulted in turkey mobility over soft and M113A1 armoured personnel his force of Panzer II, Panzer III, Panzer IV shoots for coalition pilots dropping smart undeveloped terrain, carriers unload during an especially for use in regional exercise in Shoalwater Bay. Tenix tanks and Hanomag half tracks. This bombs. The evolution of nap-of-the-earth is currently modifying M113A1s blossoming of armoured manoeuvre tank killing helicopters with guided missiles contingencies. This strongly into the M113AS3 and AS4 warfare set the trend for armour - mobility, since the 1970s presents an armour-centric favours tracked vehicles. configurations, the latter a hull firepower and defensive armour following land force with the reality that survival is * High urban mobility in rubble and stretch not unlike the US M113A4 an ongoing path of incremental The Abrams M1A1 chosen by the Australian Army to replace its Leopard I battle tanks will provide barricade rich environments. This strongly MTVL and Canadian MAV. contingent upon having air superiority, or increased firepower and better force protection plus networked force capability. improvement to this day. unusually good terrain cover like dense favours tracked vehicles. forests, jungle or dense urban terrain. * Minimal fuel burn to reduce the size of the Experience in recent urban campaigns has need for high road mobility in this role. Does this threat invalidate the tank and supporting logistical train in-theatre. reaffirmed experience from the 1940s. Much has changed since then across the armoured infantry carrier as a vital land * Armour capable of resisting a wide range Armour must be heavy enough to protect region and globally, with the collapse of the warfare asset? Far from it, as was of armour piercing man portable weapons, the troops and drive through buildings, and Soviet Bloc, the emergence of Islamo- demonstrated in Iraq earlier this year. While guided and unguided, and guns of low and it must have the ability to scale barricades fascist terrorism, and ongoing widespread much has been said about the paucity of medium calibre. and obstacles. Having a gun that can kill an regional instability. Australia faces the tank vs tank engagements in OIF, the reality * A weapons package capable of defeating opposing main battle tank at three miles is prospect over coming decades of ongoing is that the 3 AD and 1 MEF tanks performed opposing armour, bunkers/fortifications, less important than being able to fight peace-enforcement and peacekeeping the critical role of an ‘anvil’ against which and infantry, and able to produce intensive effectively in close quarters day or night. missions, plus participation in coalition allied air power crushed Iraq’s Republican suppressive fire. Shorter barrelled main While wheeled armoured personnel carriers campaigns against rogue states or Islamo- Guard divisions. Without that anvil to force guns trade engagement range for mobility in remain a popular fad, urban combat favours fascist terrorist haven States. opposing land force to mass, Coalition complex terrain but may impose some tracked vehicles that can scale obstacles, Most of such opponents use dense forest, pilots would have had to spend many weeks limitations on usable munition types. pivot around corners at zero forward speed jungle or urban terrain to prepare hidden flushing out hidden tanks to hunt them * Ability to fight at night, using thermal and survive a barrage of RPG-7 and small defensive positions, which given limitations down, which is still a difficult task as imaging and image intensifying sights. arms fire at short range. Where the objective in current sensor technology can be observed in Kosovo four years ago. The * Effective air conditioning to improve crew is to sieze and hold terrain, rather than deny extremely difficult to locate using airborne three-dimensional manoeuvre campaign in endurance in hot/humid regional and desert its effective use with ‘persistent air power’, assets. Such defences may only be detected March this year clearly demonstrated that environments. ground forces are an unavoidable necessity, at tens of metres, and possibly only by synergistic use of armour, infantry and air * NBC filtering systems to protect the crew and their persistent exposure to fire puts a exposure through defending fire. This can power effects such dislocation and against radiological, biological and premium on the mobile cover afforded by exact significant losses in dismounted destruction that organised enemy resistance chemical agents on the battlefield. armour. infantry, observed in jungle combat against The Guderian model saw tanks as the collapses – and in this case in just three * Fire suppression systems to improve the Japanese, NVA/VC and urban combat ‘Scherpunkt’ or spearhead of a manoeuvre weeks. survivability when hit. with Chechen insurgents. force punching through a soft spot in Tanks have demonstrated increasing value * High supportability using Australia’s Such tactics are designed to produce a opposing defences and then driving deep since the 1940s as heavy infantry support Australia’s future industrial base. stream of politically damaging body bags into enemy terrain to cut lines of supply and vehicles, acting as shields and mobile gun * Ability to closely integrate with RAAF and add an important political dimension to encapsulate defending forces. Supported by platforms for infantry. As we see an and US air power using digital radio needs in armour the strategic play of such an opponent. mechanised infantry and special forces, and increasing number of opponents shift to datalinks and laser rangefinders/designators with then new wireless communications, the Empirical experience shows that armour to direct aerial firepower. urban combat and the implicit use of urban The Army today operates a mix of Wehrmacht and Waffen SS Panzer and produces an enormous reduction in infantry * Ability to integrate with RAAF and US terrain for ambushes – and as a source of obsolescent Leopard I medium tanks along Panzer-Grenadier divisions demolished casualties (Roman Legions used shielded ISR assets using digital radio datalinks to human shields to deny the use of with several hundred armoured personnel everything in their path. What is often ‘turtle’ formations to defend against download situational awareness data. overwhelming air power – the tank and carriers and reconnaissance vehicles, a mix forgotten about these archetypal land projectile fire 2000 years ago). While many of these capabilities are retrofit armoured personnel carrier have again of older M113 variants and smaller numbers manoeuvre campaigns is that these were in or upgrade items applicable to almost any proven their worth. of LAV-25 and ASLAV wheeled vehicles. modern terms ‘all arms joint campaigns’ What composition would be most suitable armoured vehicle, some such as size, weight Six decades ago tanks were seen as mobile The newest in the inventory are the 8x8 with Luftwaffe Ju-87 Stukas hammering for a future armoured fleet? Several test and tracks vs wheels are limiting firepower delivery platforms contributing a LAV family, derived from the MOWAG opposing strongpoints and supply columns, criteria can be applied to identify the issues: constraints. large fraction of the total fire on the Piranha 8x8 series. A good proportion of the and Waffen SS special forces teams An upgraded M113AS4 APC battlefield but the emergence of precision existing 1960s built M113A1 fleet are being penetrating deep to disrupt opposing prototype manufactured by Tenix bombs and missiles has seen strike aircraft rebuilt into the M113AS3 and M113AS4 Defence undergoing field trials. defences and secure key bridges – all under and helicopters steal much of this role from configurations, the latter including a hull the protective umbrella of watchful armour. However, the historically most stretch and an additional pair of road Messerschmitt Bf-109 air superiority important role of armour in supporting wheels. fighters. Air dominance created an infantry remains inviolate. A well dug-in Historically, Australia has used tanks to environment in which the combination of urban opponent must be flushed out house- support infantry and exploited armoured accurate bombers, Panzers, mechanised by-house, and even if 90 per cent of the personnel carriers for mobility and light infantry and special forces could not be firepower comes from above, the infantry infantry fire support. These roles are challenged. must be protected and provided with the consistent with the predominance of jungle The gargantuan Battle of Kursk in which immediate fire response that can only come fighting, characteristic of World War II in thousands of German Panzer IVs, Panthers from a gun 50 yards from the enemy. The the Pacific and the Vietnam era. The only and Tigers slugged it out with Soviet T-34s reality of future close air support will be a significant evolution since then has been the remains like the Battle of Jutland – more a bomber or stealth fighter orbiting overhead adoption of the LAV series and the much historical anomaly than the rule. Large tank at 30,000 ft capable of putting smart bombs delayed Bushranger, both introduced battles have been infrequent occurrences within inches of an aim-point in any around a need for land patrol and infantry since the beginning of tank warfare, but weather presents devastating firepower, but mobility in the far North of Australia deep thrusts by combined manoeuvre forces with at best 3 to 5 minutes to weapon defined in the Dibb era, and the perceived Force protection is critical to any future armoured fleet composition. – led by tanks and direct fire support for impact the delay could be critical.

4 DefenceTODAY magazine DefenceTODAY magazine 5 The M8 Armoured Gun System was to Tank options replace the M551 Sheridan as a C-130 In the post Cold War era the world is awash were built for Germany, Holland, Austria, transportable and air drop capable fire with used tanks, be they of NATO or Denmark, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden support vehicle for the US 82nd and 101st SovBloc origin. Russian tanks even of very and Spain. A good number of later variant Airborne Divisions, essentially an Infantry Support Vehicle for airborne troops. The late vintage are available very cheaply. Not 2A4 and 2A5 hulls have been upgraded to design never entered full scale production, so cheap but with better maintenance the latest 2A6, 2A6 EX configurations. Late the role absorbed by the much criticised histories and more advanced are surplus US model Leopard 2A5 typically use a LAV III Mobile Gun System (US Army). and EU tanks. Public comments by Defence longwave thermal imaging sight and laser before the announcement indicated that the rangefinder, and a Northrop- two contenders for the Leopard 1 Grumman/LITEF GPS/inertial nav system. replacement were the German Kraus-Maffei Older Leopard 2s are armed with the Leopard 2A5, a defacto descendent of the Rheinmetall L44 ‘short’ 120 mm gun (later ‘big cat’ Panzer family evolved from the models the ‘long’ L55 gun) designed for the The new Bushmaster Infantry Mobility 1977 Leopard 2 series, and the US DM53 KE penetrator round, with a coaxial Vehicle manufactured by Australian M1A1/M1A2 Abrams series operated by 7.62 mm machine gun. Most Leopard 2s are Defence Industries undergoing field trials US Army and Marines. powered by variants of the 1,500 SHP MTU before entering low-rate production at As a fire support platform both types are an MB 873 diesel engine. ADI’s Bendigo facility. over-kill, as they have 120 mm main guns, Of the many Leopard 2 variants the most and both are in the main battle tank category interesting configuration is the Strv 122 designed primarily to kill other tanks at long variant of the 2A5, with a short barrel range using sabot rounds like the U-3/4Ti version of the 120 mm gun, improved alloy M829 series. Both weigh around 60 armour, and a comprehensive STN ATLAS tonnes and are impractical to airlift unless a Electronik command and control package whole C-17A or C-5B airlifter is committed permitting its use as a C3 node for an to a single tank, so sealift is the only real infantry assault force. option for deployment. The only recently The M1 / M1A1 / M1A2 Abrams is the best designed fire support vehicle that is airlift known of modern main battle tanks due to friendly is the M8 Armoured Gun System its extensive media exposure in Iraq since (AGS), the replacement for the troubled 1991. It is a contemporary of the Leopard 2 An M1A2 System Enhanced Program tank firing at M551 Sheridan. The M8 never made it into night. The SEP upgrade includes improved series, with early model Chrysler M1 processors, color high resolution displays, Soldier production but retains some very vocal Abrams entering production in 1978, armed Machine Interface and an open operating system to A contender for the Leopard advocates in the US. with a 105 mm M68A1 rifled gun common allow for future growth. Major improvements include 1 replacement was the While both tanks are very different designs, to the late M60 tank, with a coaxial M240 the integration of the Second Generation Forward Leopard 2A5, widely used by in cardinal specifications they both reflect 7.62 mm gun. Around 2,300 were built, Looking Infared sight, the Under Armor Auxiliary Power Unit and a Thermal Management System. NATO nations in a range of the same design aim of killing SovBloc superceded by the improved M1A1 in 1985, variants (KMW/Bundewehr). armour in the Fulda Gap. The biggest single armed with the Rheinmetall M256 120 mm distinction in smoothbore gun, of which 4798 were built Conclusions design concept by 1993. The current M1A2 is essentially a is the block upgrade, applied to M1 or M1A1. The The key issues for Australia’s armour in the powerplant, the M1A1D is a digital upgrade to the baseline nearer and longer terms will be suitability Leopard 2 being M1A1 systems. All variants are powered by Armoured for urban/jungle combat and strategic diesel and the the Lycoming Textron 1,500 SHP AGT- mobility. The reality of the Leopard 1 Abrams gas 1500 / L-100 gas turbine, with the new L- Personnel Carriers replacement will be a main battle tank turbine 100-5 planned as a retrofit. Weight is an simply because that is where the best as are its wheels; and it’s harder to airlift surplus deals are to be found. powered. issue for the later model Abrams, sharing a The rebuilds currently being performed by than the M113 series. Australia needs a cohesive long term During the late common engine. With combat weights Tenix on a large fraction of the M113A1 The AMS group strongly favours variants of ‘roadmap’ for its armour fleet. The Cold War around 70 tonnes for the M1A2, the 21.6 fleet bring these vehicles up to a the M113 series, especially the late relatively sedate rate of technology around 3,200 hp/ton power/weight ratio is well below the configuration very similar to the US Army production stretched M113A4 subtype, evolution in this area facilitates longer term Leopard 2 tanks first generation 60 tonne M1. The M1 series M113A3 and stretched M113A4. The new which is still actively advertised as a new planning of upgrades and support. The uses a stabilised main gun aiming system, DaimlerChrysler-MTU 6V 199 TE V6 build vehicle, rather than the larger and reality is that the armoured vehicles we will a laser rangefinder, and subject to variant a diesel engine and ZF LSG 1000 R heavier LAV-III and M2/M3 Bradley see built in 2020 are likely to differ from range of thermal imager configurations. transmission is a major improvement over Fighting Vehicles. current designs mostly in systems. Since the With a wide range of variants and the old M113A1, and the new suspension There are pragmatic reasons why surplus collapse of the tank-obsessed Soviets, there subtypes, a multiplicity of upgrade will also be liked by operators. The LAV-25 late build M113A2 should be explored have been no new players in the game of packages, and the varying conditions of and ASLAV fleet is quite new and will last carefully for any expansion of Australian building thousands of tanks and pushing out different inventories of surplus vehicles another 2-3 decades in service. fleet numbers. This is because the domestic new designs once a decade. there is no simple answer as to which tank The big question longer term is how to industry base is well positioned to perform It is perhaps one of the great paradoxes of was technically more suitable. The replace the oldest M113A1 hulls, and if the extensive upgrades, the vehicle offers better our time that airpower has brought about a pragmatic reality is that the perception that need arises, what type of vehicle would be survivability in urban combat, better offroad rennaissance for armour - by driving the M1 is easier to support in coalition best used to expand fleet numbers. mobility in undeveloped parts of the region, opponents off open battlefields and into operations was likely to have been the The US Army’s new LAV-III has become and it is easier to deploy. complex terrain such as urban areas and decisive factor. embroiled in intense controversy in the US. The cost of surplus M113A2s is likely to be jungles. In terms of numbers, two factors come into It has been the target of vigorous criticism quite low compared to new build vehicles. Evolution always seems to have its way. play. With much longer ranging main guns by the Air-Mech-Strike study group led by The maturity of the M113, of which around the Leopard 2 and M1A1 / M1A2 can retired Generals De Czege and Grange. The 80,000 were built, results in a vast range of The author is indebted to cover a much larger footprint than the AMS group are the radicals in the US Army available upgrades. Of particular interest are The M8 Armoured Gun System was to replace the M551 Sheridan as a C-130 Leopard 1 in open country, permitting doctrinal community, arguing for high Brigadier Brian Cooper transportable and air drop capable fire support vehicle for the US 82nd and the Delco 25 mm gun turret common to the (ret) for his insightful 101st Airborne Divisions, essentially an Infantry Support Vehicle for airborne replacement with smaller numbers. This strategic mobility of US Army LAV-25 and the Bradley Fighting Vehicle troops. The design never entered full scale production, the role absorbed by runs contrary to a need for minimal expeditionary forces. Criticisms of the LAV- advice and comments turret with a 25 mm gun. Turret options on this article. the much criticised LAV III Mobile Gun System (US Army). ‘critical mass’ force numbers to have III are many: its wheeled configuration is include 30 mm guns, and the 40 mm Bofors enough units in enough places at once, and cumbersome for urban combat; it bogs off- used on the CV 9040 is worth exploring. the reality that in urban and jungle combat road in soft terrain; its lower half flank main gun range is not a factor. armour is too light and vulnerable to RPGs,

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