Pentagon to begin taking up option for armored personnel carriers
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is expected to announce a plan to take up the option of fielding an armored personnel transport vehicle on Friday, the Pentagon said.
The move would allow the service to use more of the Army’s M-60 tanks, which are deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The armored vehicles are a crucial component of the Marine Corps’ armored combat vehicle fleet, which includes a variety of other equipment, including MRAPs.
“This is a key piece of the armor and the vehicles that we are deploying to support our troops in the field,” Mattis told reporters in an interview with the New York Times on Friday.
“We’ve seen the capabilities that have been demonstrated in Iraq with the M-20s and the M3s, and we’ve seen them in Afghanistan with the T-90s.
We’ve seen a lot of the capabilities with these vehicles in Iraq.”
M-60s, MRAP and T-72M tanks are seen in a hangar at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California in this photo taken February 13, 2020.
AP/Mike Blake/File A Defense Department official said Mattis has been discussing the plan with defense officials and would unveil the proposal in a speech to the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Friday afternoon.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
The M-120 and M-124 armored vehicles have been in service since 1986.
“The Army is using the T4 [medium-caliber] guns for this, and they are good vehicles,” Mattis said of the T90s, which he has deployed in Afghanistan.
“But we are looking at how to take them forward.
We have had a number of M-6 and M8 tanks that are on our plates.
We are very interested in how to make sure that we’re putting a good vehicle on the field.”
Mattis has said the Army will use a mix of M60s and M60A2 tanks to fill in the gaps of the M60 program.
The M-90 armored personnel vehicle is seen in an armored vehicle storage area at Marine Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, U.S., in this undated handout image released by Marine Corps Central Command on April 19, 2021.
Marine Corps/Handout via REUTERS The Marine Corps is expected in 2019 to begin fielding the M6A1 and M6M1 tanks.
The first armored vehicle will be a T-54 tank, and the first M-1 Abrams will be fielded by the service in 2020.
The first two M-2 Abrams will come later in the decade.
The Army will continue using the M1A1 Abrams, but will be using the vehicle for “other operations” such as counterinsurgency and humanitarian missions.
The Army will also use a limited number of the vehicles to train its soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
The next tank will be the M2 Bradley, a medium-caliber vehicle that is being developed as a replacement for the aging M2 Abrams.
The T-1 tank, also called a T2 or T2A1, is a light infantry vehicle, capable of fighting against light vehicles.
The vehicle is expected by 2021 to be fully fielded.
The Marine Corps and Army are expected to field the M20 armored personnel transporter and the T20 medium-armor vehicle.
The Marines have a total of 11 T-60A1s and four T-62A1 vehicles in the inventory.
The tank’s crew is composed of three to five soldiers.
It has a crew capacity of 20 to 30.
The commander of the Marines is responsible for the protection of the crew, which is a “small group” that consists of two crew members, two command, communications and communications support personnel, and two operators.
The Marines have not yet fielded the T40 armored personnel car, but is expected that they will, the Marine said.
The T-70 tank is the most widely used of the tanks.