Something I've been doing the past days

[HERMAN BIX]

Detain & sedate that man

[ALPHA]

Detain & sedate that man

YEAH...That ATC is Dangerous

ALPHA

[greengiant]

Extra bustle rack or the crow?

[ALPHA]

Extra bustle rack or the crow?

GUP tanks don't need that stuff

ALPHA

[greengiant]

Yea but those huge banners look like something that could be broken off pretty easy

[atcttge]

Extra bustle rack or the crow?

The extended bustle rack has proven to be sturdier than thought. It will only become more solid with the addition of stowage.

Some hull stuff were damaged. The fenders are resilient and have not been damaged. One of the eyelets on the front underside of the hull which I replaced with wire inside the plastic to reinforce it was damaged, revealing the reinforcing wire. Milliputt will fix that one. The battery cover holders on the left rear, one of those broke away because of my hand. The hull has some scratches from all the rough running around, showing off the base desert colour, which looks like mud streaks so it's more of a positive than negative there.

Seems I should really remove the airsoft unit and go IR eventually as the airsoft unit impedes full elevation of the gun barrel and has some clearance issues with the battery and turret roof when elevating or depressing the main gun. I'm looking to get the Vampire IR unit for that and the Leo2.

As I'm waiting for parts, right now I'm focused on making the Leo2 a runner once again.

Alpha: That's an awesome looking Leo2 hehehehe

[atcttge]

OBTW, GDLS has recently unveiled the M1A2 SEP v3 to the public. The v3 has a few external differences such as:

- "hairy" rear fenders (yes, hairy )
- UAAPU (replacing the Hawker battery system)
- attachments for add-on armour for the turret

The v3 shown in the exhibit still has the CROWS-2, but the v3 is supposed to replace the CROWS-2 with a low profile RWS which is expected to be mounted on top of the doghouse but not as tall as the CROWS-2.

There are 9 prototypes, 7 with the US Army, and 2 with GDLS for further testing.

You can see it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L94E8DGLmjw

Looks like I can easily update my v2 to a v3 once the final version is out in service by 2017.

[ALPHA]

Alpha: That's an awesome looking Leo2 hehehehe

Not as cool as this Merkava...not mine...but what inspired it lol



ALPHA

[ALPHA]

Yea but those huge banners look like something that could be broken off pretty easy

LOL....It was the short coming of the Stug



ALPHA

[greengiant]

The video is interesting and the guy sounds like its a done deal. My guess would be that Government will test it and rather then buy it as a new model may allow some of the thousands of Abrams that were not upgraded to V2 and still sit in storage to receive some of the upgrades that they feel are worth adding. The guy didn't mention anything about weight increases with the improved armor package and unless the armor is lighter in weight and they go with fiber optic instead of metal computer cables (that would remove around a ton of weight from the turret) the current suspension which was already upgraded to handle 70 tons will be a .

They went back to the SEP type UAAPU but it looks like the air intake for it is no longer on the outside of the rear sponsoon and the exhaust for it has been enlarged.
The "hairy" things are probably just an addition to the current metal scrapers to try to keep a dust rooster tail more under control.

Will be interesting to see what really ends up happening as I doubt the Army wants new tanks built which is what the guy seems to be suggesting rather then just upgrades.