الرابط الذي تتحدث عنه هو من عند أخونا مش مني .. ومع ذلك تحدثنا عنه وقلنا أنه يتحدث عن عمليات تطوير خاصة بإضافة دروع من اليورانيوم المستنزف وليس سلاح جديد لم تألفه الأطقم الأمريكية كما هو ذكر ، وعلشان أريحك وأريح بعض الأخوة ، سأعرض لك هذا المصدر الأخير ، وهو بلسان لواء بالجيش الأمريكي وشغل بالحرب منصب قائد الفرقة الأولى ، وعنوانها " التوربين المزعج " Troublesome Turbine يعني مش كلام وتأليف أنور الشراد .. ويتحدث فيها عن إسقاطات المحرك والفلاتر وغيرها .. ولكن أعتذر عن ترجمته لضيق الوقت وأترك لك هذه المهمة ، على الأقل لتحقيق قناعاتك الشخصية .
Troublesome Turbine
Major General Ronald H. Griffith
Commander, 1st Armored Division (Op. Cit.)
While Army after action reports speak favorably of the power offered by the M1’s turbine engine, they also complain of its weaknesses. These high-level Army reports speak extensively of fuel and reliability problems with the M1 tank. Indeed, due to these problems, M1 units had to stop for an hour, every three to five hours, to refuel and maintain their tanks. These deficiencies had a direct impact on the combat effectiveness of the M1:
“Armored force operations in Desert Storm confirmed our worst fears that the existing fuel-haul capacity [of] today’s M1A1-equipped heavy division is wholly inadequate. During a critical phase of the fight our tank-heavy units began to run critically low on fuel. The lack of a mobile bulk fuel transport capability cost the division at least 12-18 precious hours that may have subsequently allowed key Iraqi armored units to escape certain destruction.”
The Army is fond of characterizing fuel problems in M1 units as the fault of the refueling trucks, rather than the M1 itself. At the very least this seems implausible given that unlimited free fuel was available from Saudi Arabia, and refueling operations went on unhindered by enemy air or ground counter-attack. In addition, other, cheaper, modern tanks, such as the German Leopard II and the Israeli Merkava Mk.3, use half as much fuel as the M1A1.Marine units typically refuel their M60A1s only once per day, and are capable of going two or three days without refueling.
The M1’s turbine engine, which often caused the M1 to fail its reliability goals in peacetime, was also a maintenance liability in Desert Storm:
“Crews cleaned the V packs (turbine air filters) at all maintenance halts that would last 1 hour or more and 1 hour halts were planned every 3-5 hours. Commanders in the 1 CD commented that 30 kilometers [19 miles] were standard distance traveled before engine performance began to be degraded due to dirty V packs.”
Major Charles A. Jones, Armored Systems Modernization Material Fielding Team (Op. Cit.)
The M1 tank’s thirsty turbine engine requires much more filtered air than a diesel engine, and is fed by three large filters (V packs). If these filters become clogged, the engine quickly loses power, and beings to suffer serious damage if not shut down promptly. Changing the V packs is an emergency procedure, not normally performed by the crew, which required shutting off the engine, and locking the turret in place. Diesel engines do not normally require such extensive maintenance. Marine M60A1 units reportedly did not change their air filters during Desert Storm, and could accomplish their daily maintenance procedures with their tanks running. And while the M60A1’s engine is not as powerful as the M1’s turbine, diesel engines of equal power (1,500 hp) have long been available in less expensive tanks. One is installed in the German Leopard II, which boasts performance as good as M1A1’s