Winnipeg Sun April 08, 2003
American, British tanks clobber Iraq's Soviet-era tank force
By Mark Perry
Saddam Hussein's dwindling fleet of tanks has proved no match for the American Abrams and British Challengers.
In tank-on-tank confrontations, it has generally been a one-shot, one-kill experience for the Third Mechanized Infantry Division, First Marine Division and British "Desert Rats" 7th Armoured Brigade.
As usual, Soviet-era equipment is the Iraqi standard. Before the invasion, the Iraqi army had about 5,500 main battle tanks, according to Globalsecurity.org. About 1,000 of these were the newer T-72 (the model number is the year of introduction), presumably equipping the best Republican Guard units. The bulk of the remainder were older T-55s or variants. There were even about 30 British Chieftain Mk3/4s and a score of American M-47 and M-60 "Pattons" in the Iraqi fleet.
Iraq's best tank is the T-72, with main armament a 125 mm smoothbore gun, said to capable of penetrating an Abrams hull at 1,000 metres -- when they get a chance to shoot. But even with its layered armour, it is no match for the newer 120-mm gun of the M1A1 Abrams, and certainly not the devastating firepower or A-10 Warthog aircraft or AH-64 Apache Longbow attack helicopters.
The T-72 also mounts a 12.7-mm heavy machine gun (counterpart to the American .50-calibre) and an infrared searchlight. A 780-hp V-12 diesel or multifuel engine drives the 45-ton tank.
Coalition commanders have told troops not to destroy any more abandoned tanks and armoured vehicles as they might be needed to equip Iraq's post-Saddam army.
Copyright © 2003 CANOE, a division of Netgraphe Inc.
