US Mechanized Firepower Today (Tanks Illustrated No. 26)

Tanks and armoured infantry vehicles are probably the best known of modern AFVs, but beyond these is a bewildering array of other equipment used to defend tanks from air attack, to provide fire support for tank and infantry attacks, to support engineer operations and to recover and repair other armoured vehicles. The aim of this volume is to show the wide range of vehicles designed for these many roles and currently in use with, or being developed by, the US Armv.

The self-propelled artillery of the US Army has changed little in the past two decades, the M109 155mm and M110 8in self-propelled howitzers, developed in the late 1950s, having proved to be effective, reliable weapons, and field artillery modernization programmes have been aimed at improving these basic systems and their ammunition and fire control equipment. With the advent of laser-guided anti-tank artillery projectiles like the 155mm M712 Copperhead, however, the need arose for a fire support team designation and targeting vehicle, which entered service in 1985 as the M981 FIST. US Army studies concluded that the main limitation in fire support was not so much a shortage of guns but inadequate availability of ammunition on the battlefield, and as a result the M992 FAASV was developed to replace trucks in supplying self-propelled artillery with ammunition. The US Army is the first to adopt this type of vehicle in significant numbers. New versions of the M109 and Ml 10 continue to appear, and replacements for these systems are unlikely to appear for at least another decade. The most novel vehicle on the US field artillery inventory is the new M270 MLRS multiple rocket launcher.

The situation with US Army air defence is far more complicated and chaotic. In the 1960s the very sophisticated and ambitious Mauler air defence missile and Vigilante air defence gun programmes failed as a result of technical shortcomings and high costs. The M163 VADS air defence gun vehicle and M48 Chaparral air defence missile vehicle were adopted as interim solutions, but the US Army had hoped to replace these with, respectively, the M247 Sergeant York DIVAD and XM975 Roland. The Roland was a victim of its high costs, and only a handful were ever fielded, whilst the DIVAD programme suffered from high costs, technical problems and a changing threat —by the mid-1980s Soviet helicopters firing anti-tank missiles from long, stand-off ranges had become a greater threat than jet attack aircraft and, unfortunately, DIVAD was not entirely capable of adapting to this new problem. As a result, the US Army is still saddled with the completely inadequate M163A1 VADS. The M48A2 Chaparral has adapted somewhat better to the changing air defence environment, thanks to substantial technological advances in infra-red missile seeker technology; however, although Chaparral is very effective against jet attack aircraft it is less suitable for the anti-helicopter role, and the US Army is currently looking for a new system as part of the FAADS programme. Some of the many candidates are illustrated in this book.

There is a wide variety of combat vehicles in service with the US Army, including armoured recovery vehicles like the M88 and M578 and combat engineer vehicles such as the M728 CEV, M60 AVLB and M9 ACE. These play an essential role in modern mechanized warfare by keeping the rest of the Army's vehicles moving.