Thread: Ask An Expert- LAND Forces.

Originally Posted by Doktor

French design?

Actually the (French-designed) postwar Hotchkiss TT6 was the worst vehicle ever if you wanted to tactically withdraw. In rear gear it could be overtaken by a jogging soldier. It was comparable to the Scorpion and Scimitar in size (8-9 tons), the 90mm armed version was cancelled in 1962.

Scorpions were withdrawn from Service thanks to the RAF Regiment complaining about cordite in the Turret (Health and Safety at Work), how said is that?

Originally Posted by kato

Actually the (French-designed) postwar Hotchkiss TT6 was the worst vehicle ever if you wanted to tactically withdraw. In rear gear it could be overtaken by a jogging soldier. It was comparable to the Scorpion and Scimitar in size (8-9 tons), the 90mm armed version was cancelled in 1962.

Originally Posted by Doktor

French design?

Actually, the ultimate "shoot-and-run" AFV was probably the Archer tank destroyer of WWII; it was designed with the 17-pdr gun pointed to the rear, so that they could literally "shoot and scoot".

Originally Posted by Kernow

Scorpions were withdrawn from Service thanks to the RAF Regiment complaining about cordite in the Turret (Health and Safety at Work), how said is that?

Haha , yea I remember range days on cents , after work in the naafi everyone stunk of cordite farts

Originally Posted by Doktor

French design?

What the ">", "<", "^" marks on the battle tank side mean/stand for?

Sometimes it's a combination the symbols and the number, and sometimes the tank has both symbols, something like <3 ^

I don't know what the <3 is, it's probably a unit designation of some sort. The < > ^ are what we call Combat V's. A quick glance at the Combat V's will tell you what battalion/brigade the forces belong to for easy battlefield identification. There are also white rings painted on the circumference of the barrel, a specific number per unit, also for battlefield ID

At least, that's how it is in the IDF

In the US its similiar.

The model you show has the Coalition Forces "^" from the Gulf War which was on all vehicles (to include news crews). The <3 means 3rd Platoon, Charlie Company; 1< would be 1st Platton B Comapny, 2 ^ is 2d Alpha Company; 3 |> is 3rd Platoon Delta Company and || meant HHC. We also had |0| for HHC mortars and |S| for the Scout Platoon. These are pretty standard with some local mods.

The only thing I ever saw on tank gun barrels were the vehicles nickname and kill rings.

Thanks to both.

I assumed it has something to do with to whom that vehicle belongs, but it was so confusing to have only 4 marks (Left, Top, Right, Down).

Are there cup holders in tanks? They should be easy to implement and a good morale booster.

Originally Posted by gunnut

Are there cup holders in tanks? They should be easy to implement and a good morale booster.

No, because we don't use cups as a general rule. That being said, there are so many different ways in which we fabricate things inside the tank that we definitely could have cup holders if we wanted to. Hell, I once rewired the intercom system to play music from my mp3 player

Originally Posted by gunnut

Are there cup holders in tanks? They should be easy to implement and a good morale booster.

There are tons of places to prop up cups, etc. I used to keep a canteen cup behind the 800 round machine gun ready box in my Bradley turret and had a few window cup holders screwed into the brackets in the back. Of course, I also had a 30 cup coffee pot mounted in my Company Commander's Bradley. Most of the holders were for spit cups, though. And you had to use a cover.

We would modify all of our vehicles in little ways.

Originally Posted by Albany Rifles

There are tons of places to prop up cups, etc. I used to keep a canteen cup behind the 800 round machine gun ready box in my Bradley turret and had a few window cup holders screwed into the brackets in the back. Of course, I also had a 30 cup coffee pot mounted in my Company Commander's Bradley. Most of the holders were for spit cups, though. And you had to use a cover.

We would modify all of our vehicles in little ways.

Nice, I was thinking a cup holders for cans of soda and maybe even 2L bottles of coke...

For example, one of the criteria for me in a car is to have a cup holder big enough for at least a 32 oz. cup. Anything less is uncivilized.

Current German armored vehicles come with freaking toilets and running hot and cold water (no shower though - yet).