An armed and armored front-end loader?

[Sam]

Think of the logistical savings of not needing flatbeds for earth moving equipment. Think of the tactical advantage of having a ready-to-go backhoe arrive with the tanks in a position.

Instead how about we think of the logistical disadvantage of having to haul tire servicing gear for the thing. Tire wear will be tremendous and you are not going to bust tires on that by hand. Likewise jacking. You don't do that one with a 5 ton bottle jack.

The cab might be small arms resistant, but not proof. A decent MMG will eat that glass alive. Likewise the hydraulics are exposed. It would take a really unusual situation where that will be more productive and cost effective than hauling in a conventional loader.

I remember the HMMWV when it came out. Takes a tool set and half compared to it's predecessors and 40% more maintainance time, besides being lousey to ride with your gear on. Also needed 50-60% more airlift. Then we had the 900 series 5 tons with the electronic idiot box and CTIS. Solutions to problems that didn't exist that require lots more support and maintainance without significant improvement in hauling capability. Can you operate a 900 series without a battery? NO! Can you repair the tranny in the field? Can you work around a shot tranny on a 900? Not that we rebuilt a lot of M35 trannies in the field, we just took off the top cover and popped them into gear with a prybar and slapped the lid back on. Backed them onto railroad embankments to bump start when we gave up the battery to something more important, chained the inter-axle to the frame and drove them when some idjit bent them. Recovered an M49 that rolled 5 times down a 125 ft cliff with a full tank of avgas. Lost 21 gallons before we had it upright and running. When a HEMETT goes off a cliff teh tank comes OFF! What do you do with used oil on a 900? On a 35 you mixed it with gas and ran on it.
The new stuff looks pretty, has the call of modern and is unsupportable when things really gets tight.

Going backwards folks, going backwards.

Just my mechanical 50 cents worth.

Sam

 

[acdodd]

Pancake breakfast. That is bad, but funny.
AC

 

[Farnham]

Think of the tactical advantage of having a ready-to-go backhoe arrive with the tanks in a position.

We already got one...the ACE. Not a backhoe, but fully capable of digging positions and breaching.

It only goes 30 MPH, but according to your convoy ops, that's fast enough. It also doesn't bounce about thirty feet off the road and land on it's exquisitely armored turret when Lance Corporal Schmuckatelli hits a bump and oversteers.

Besides, the only piece of engineer equipment I ever thought we did right is the MCLC (Mine Clearing Line Charge), just cause it's so dam uber-cool, I'm biased.

S/F

Farnham

P.S. Check out some of the Soviet engineering equipment, they had some of the craziest gear you EVER saw. Rube Goldberg woulda been proud of most of it.

 

[rmgill]

The Israelis started this concept of armed and armoured bulldozers.

Not quite. It was the British. Percey Hobart's boffins actually.

Crocodiles (Churchills with flamer throwers), Vehicle Launched Bridges (AVLB), Ploughs, bobbin carriers, fascine carriers, Arks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobart's_Funnies

Flail Tanks, Churchill AVRE's, Armored Bulldozers,
http://www.members.shaw.ca/junobeach/juno-7.htm

Centaur Dozers
http://www.armouredengineer.force9.co.uk/dozerart.htm

 

[The_Antibubba]

Sorry, but I gotta call Bull.
















Dozer.

 

[RTFM]

Preacherman, your post reminded me of my good friend Kevin's email.
Kevin is in the United States Marine Corp serving us in Iraq.

Here is Kevins Email about bulldozers:

----------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 05:49:02 -0500

Hello everybody,
I just thought I'd go ahead and send everyone a little note to do a few
things:

1. Let you know I'm OK
2. Let you know what happened
3. Talk about a bulldozer (just wait and see)

1. I'm OK. Really, I'm doing fine. I've been returned to my unit, and
have a few weeks of Light Duty to get my arm/shoulder feeeling better
before I have to do any work. I almost have full mobility of my elbow
back, and I can do almost all the tasks that I'd need to if I had to go out
tomorrow, but I don't. So don't worry about me.

2. Ok, so there I was in an undisclosed location ( no not with Saddam)
outside of Fallujah, working on my Flak Jacket. We had been there for
several hours, and had not had any incoming or small arms fire or anything.
I had wanted to attach my gerber pliers pouch to my flack and so I ad it
off and was just about to put a cut in the pouch, when BOOM.
A 122mm rocket landed and exploded behind my vehicle off to the left
side. Unfortunately, that was my side. Now I was standing in my Vehicle
Commanders Station, so only a my upper body was exposed to the blast. uch.
I immediately dropped into my vehicle, and was cradling my injured arm.
Boy did it hurt. I took my hand away and called on the Radio "White one,
this is Gold Four, I'm Hit, I need Doc over here" Thats the genral gist of
the transmission, but its not an exact quote.
I also noticed I was leaking pretty good, however I stayed down at first
because I thought I had heard some small arms fire also. There was none,
but my hearing prolly wasn't the best after the big boom. A Marine came
over to the vehicle and helped me out of it. I was taken to one of the
other vehicles where they proceeded to cut my uniform off me. I think
they thought I was hit in more places, because my arm was leaking all over
my chest and legs. I knew that once I was in the hands of doc ( our Navy
Corpsman) that I'd be OK. I did think that my arm was broken, but later
xrays showed that wasn't true.
Once Doc had me stabilised and leaking less, we were loaded up into some
of the vehicles and taken to the Bravo Surgical Company. Those guys were
just awesome. From the immediate care I was given that evening, to the day
to day care I had while I was there, they did an impeccable job.

So anyhow.... Lets talk about Bulldozers. By the way Thanks Dad for
teaching me how to drive one.

3. Prior to me getting hit, we were up north a bit guarding two bridges.
We had requested a bulldozer, and Gunny was bringing it up the next day,
but just as he got close to us an IED went off and blew up near the tractor
trailer carrying the bulldozer. The two guys driving it were ok, but took
some cuts from the glass of the cab blowing in.
So that left a broken down Tractor trailer with a bulldozer on it in the
middle of a not so friendly town. What to do, what to do....
After I asked around and found that no-one ahd any bulldozer experience,
I said "I'll try" and I jumped up on the bulldozer and started to try to
get it started. I found the keys, and after I found the TM (technical
manual) I was able to get it started. I had already ungriped it from thr
trailer, and planned to ust drive it off the back of the trailer and then
drag the whole thing inside of friendly lines. Unfortunatley this dozer
had a ripper on the back that caught on the trailer when it came off. It
took me over a half an hour to finally free the dozer from the trailer, and
this included removing one of the ripper teeth. But at last I had it off
the trailer. I placed it in front of the broken truck, and used the tie
down chains to attach the buldozer to the truck and dragged it at about
1mph into the safer area. Now I lefta few things out, like how I tore part
of the bumper off, or broke one of the chains, but basically, thanks to my
dad letting me drive a bulldozer once, I was able to get the truck and the
bulldozer to safety.

Thanks Dad.

Oh, and if you want the full story...... See me in April with some beers.

Your wounded Marine,
Kevin

 

[Kharn]

Bah, I wish they hadn't canceled the Grizzly.

Its an M1 Abrams modified to be a combat engineer's favorite toy.

Kharn