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Jack you're way off base. Any armor expect, and I deal with a lot of them at
Ft. Knox every week, will tell you the Leopard I has always held its own very
well, and certainly better than ANY US tank save the M-1 series. The M-60 has
always been an outdated stopgap and the proof the the pounding the Israelis
have taken with them despite excellent training and tactics.
Today, few argue the Leopard 2 and improved versions, and the M-1A2, are the
best Eurpoeon theater tanks. The LeClerc is still undergoing teething as is
the Challenger II. The Cheiftain always suffered heavily from under power,
horrorable reliability, and over-complex design(imagine that; a Brit vehicle
too complicated). The excellent gun and armor are the only areas that gave it
a chance at all.
As for a specialized area MBT, there's nothing compared to the Merkava III.
Speed, fire control, flexibilty, reliability, firepower, and quickness of
repair, nothing is even close. Comparing the Merkava to a Patton is like
comparing an M-1 to a T-55. Come on, Jack.
Alan
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Apr 04 2000 - 21:57:27 PDT