Lets say you've been given a number of M48A3s and you have to use them in a modern war. What do you do with them?
For context, the M48A3 was the last variant to use the M41 90mm gun.
M48 Patton in a Modern War
Lets say you've been given a number of M48A3s and you have to use them in a modern war. What do you do with them?
For context, the M48A3 was the last variant to use the M41 90mm gun.
Scrap them, sell the scrap and buy a plane ticket to Canada. Fuck that dawg
What if the war is in canada?
Blowing the OP from the gun.
FIN.
add thermals
add aps
replace the 90mm with a nato 105mm
buy the most modern high performance APFSDS ammo we can get
upgrade the engine and transmission
slap some era on
I was asking how you use the shitbox as is.
As is? With no modifications you're fucked, the best bet is hull down defensive positions in ambush areas where you can't be outranged by thermals of more modern vehicles as much and even then you're still under threat from drones detecting you. You could also try and use them in urban environments as a infantry support tank but you're still really really worried about ATGMs.
Plenty of ways, use it as a light SPG, attach it to an infantry unit to add more fire support on top of their IFVs/APCs, dig them in defensive positions, use them for rear area security where they still represent a serious threat to enemy special forces teams, airborne units or navel landings. basically, you use them in a role where their now shit armor and poor sensors aren't automatic losses. For a few grand you can significantly improve them with a few COTS goodies like individual thermal and/or night vision devices, a ballistic calculator on a tablet, a satellite phone or starlink terminal and one or several civilian model camera drones. You can also add additional obsolete/surplus or salvaged weapons to them for even more fire support, use them as artillery tractors or stick on a blade and use them as a bulldozer. In short you would absolutely use them if you could get them in a war and had surplus manpower, but they probably aren't worth putting a lot of work into keeping maintained in peacetime.
>use it as a light SPG, attach it to an infantry unit to add more fire support on top of their IFVs/APCs, dig them in defensive positions
useless without adding thermal sights on it
otherwise it has to visually detect and identify targets
>use them for rear area security where they still represent a serious threat to enemy special forces teams
worse at this job than wheeled fast-reaction units like strykers
>basically, you use them in a role where their now shit armor and poor sensors aren't automatic losses
unless it has modern thermal sights, it isnt hitting crap
I don't know, ask the donbaweans with T-62s. They're living that experience right now.
T-62s are old news, haven't you seen the mobiks in their "lightly used" T-54s?
Can't wait for the T-10s to show up.
>modern war
Use them solely as infantry support and defensive vehicles, under no circumstances use them as breakthrough vehicles.
Remove turret, install remote missile launcher equipped with Switchblade 600. Use as long range anti-armor and ISR asset.
>What do you do with them?
Probably convert them into TOW/Javelin ATGM carriers with a replacement turret mounting a 25-40mm autocannon and all the modern optics and communication/networking I can shove into it. The Algerians did something similar with their T-62's, picrel.
If that is too far then rip the turret off and gut all the tank stuff and you can make all sorts of vehicles. Add a box with a towed howitzer and you have a heavily armored ghetto self propelled gun, maybe convert some more to carry artillery ammo. Or use them as a heavy APC like IDF Achzarit which is a conversion of a T-54/55. Maybe make them into armor recovery, command or engineering vehicles.
I guess baring all those modifications you can still use them in their base form as a fire support vehicle for the infantry to call up.
just use them for backline duty, even if you are some African warlord with not that many options I doubt they would be that useful simply due to how much cheap anti tank shit there is that can fucked them and any tank from that era over hard
You say that while individual T-55s have been the deciding factor in multiple battles in the current Somaliland war.
"modern" war? I scrap them or figure out a way to rip out the 90mms and make them into ghetto artillery for HE lobbing.
Plus modern war is a misnomer since because nearly all conflicts are still in shitholes like Africa where the M48 would still be a viable breakthrough vehicle due to the minimal amount of AT as we've seen in Somalialand/Somalia where the US had to demand the T-54s weren't used because it provided a one sided tactical advantage.
The rest of subsaharan Africa is unlikely to have a healthy supply of ATGMs unless they are being supplied by Russia/China/US glowies and in that case, you have to consider that the users of said systems will probably use them incorrectly and waste them like we've seen with ISIS where they were launching TOWs and Kornets at packed soil rather than saving them for AFVs.
>as we've seen in Somalialand/Somalia where the US had to demand the T-54s weren't used because it provided a one sided tactical advantage.
You got a credible source for that claim, or did you pull a random Twitter screenshot out of your ass? I bet it is the latter
I'd use them as infantry support
it does have better protection from landmines than later tanks like m60 and t72 due to thicker belly armor but it would need to upgrade the gun imho. or remove all of the armor and give it some sort of assisted loading system to up the rate of fire