John Kettler Posted May 17, 2013 Share Posted May 17, 2013 Most of us have seen the shows with the major M1 Abrams tank upgrades and rebuilds, but never in my life did I expect to see these crystal clear color pics of one the Russian facilities. Treadheads will love it, and mods and modelers may require restraints. http://englishrussia.com/2013/05/15/the-place-where-tanks-are-still-repaired/ Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LUCASWILLEN05 Posted May 17, 2013 Share Posted May 17, 2013 And then they get sent up against an M1A2 or a Challenger II for dis-assembly 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nidan1 Posted May 17, 2013 Share Posted May 17, 2013 Did the photographer take all the pictures at 2am? Doesn't seem to be a lot of activity, looks more like a museum than an operating repair facility. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted May 17, 2013 Author Share Posted May 17, 2013 LUCASWILLEN05, Ha! Ha! Nidan1, A distinct possibility. During the Cold War, the sky would've been the limit for pictures like those. Penetration of a place like that would've been a huge intelligence coup. We had a U.S. Army major shot to death in East Germany while nosing about the Group of Soviet Forces Germany tank storage sheds, in which were T-80s. I believe he'd already swiped a manual from one and was going back on another trip for something else. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nidan1 Posted May 18, 2013 Share Posted May 18, 2013 LUCASWILLEN05, Ha! Ha! Nidan1, A distinct possibility. During the Cold War, the sky would've been the limit for pictures like those. Penetration of a place like that would've been a huge intelligence coup. We had a U.S. Army major shot to death in East Germany while nosing about the Group of Soviet Forces Germany tank storage sheds, in which were T-80s. I believe he'd already swiped a manual from one and was going back on another trip for something else. Regards, John Kettler Interesting stuff John, wasn't the T-80 the first Soviet tank with a gas turbine engine? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted May 30, 2013 Author Share Posted May 30, 2013 Nidan1, It was, but later Ukrainian produced versions went to multi-fuel diesel. Seems the fuel consumption for the turbine was scary. This is scary by T-55 standards, whose fuel consumption is around a gallon per mile! The Soviets, later Russians, got to learn the same brutal logistics reality of operating turbine powered tanks. They go through fuel at unprecedented rates. This has direct impact on keeping the tanks moving and creates a nasty vulnerability in the form of lots more POL needed forward (more pipelines and dumps) and POL tanker trucks to target. I strongly suspect the turbine was, relatively speaking, a maintenance nightmare for them. Our Abrams tanks have highly sophisticated oil analysis done periodically, from which they can tell, based on the metals and compounds detected in the oil sample, which specific component is nearing failure and needs to be replaced. Am pretty sure nothing like this was or is available to the Red Army tankers. Nor for a nation far less mechanized than ours is it easy to keep a complex and persnickety turbine running efficiently. Recall ours nearly died in the Gulf for want of good sand filters. Sand and turbines do not mix. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agusto Posted May 30, 2013 Share Posted May 30, 2013 Our Abrams tanks have highly sophisticated oil analysis done periodically, from which they can tell, based on the metals and compounds detected in the oil sample, which specific component is nearing failure and needs to be replaced. Wow, i didnt even know that something like that was possible. How does it work? Are the mechanical parts around wich the oil "flows" made up of several layers of different materials and when one layer is attrited, they can find traces of of another one in the oil and thus conclude the degree of damage of the engine part in question? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted June 8, 2013 Author Share Posted June 8, 2013 agusto, This isn't the article I saw on Abrams tank oil analysis, but it does give an overview of what I was talking about. http://www.army.mil/article/80643 Now, if you REALLY want to learn some cool stuff, may I present the then-new Army maintenance approach called Prognostics? This gets into the transition from old school "fix it when it breaks" to "What's it doing, and what does that mean in terms of what'll need doing and when?" This is where the Army's going, for prognostics is a high leverage (11:1 in one case) approach enabling huge cost savings. http://www.pnnl.gov/redipro/pdf/autotestconpaper076.pdf Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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