am i the only one that considers the biggest tank ever made a major threat?

Question

we all say iraq was not a majer threat but while in iraq we discovered they where working on a tank with twice the barrel langth of the averege tank and a faster firing speed maybe im crazy but u dont build that unless your planning a war

Answer 1

Sounds like a stupid rumor. Twice the barrel length will mean that the gun will be unable to hit anything. (A tank's gun barrel is a hollow tube that is only supported at one end. It will flex with the vibration of tha tank's engine, bend as one side is heated by the sun while the other side is shaded and of course, the enormous forces generated when firing.)

There is no technology in existence that can makes such a gun tube work under field conditions.

Answer 2

They were preparing for war, evidently. If not offensive, than for defense.

Take a look at Iran and all those bombs, torpedoes and missiles they're making - would you consider them a threat? Or North Korea? Or Australia's Metal Storm Grenade Launcher system? There's nothing wrong with developing new weapons. The US does it all the time.

It looks like you're trying to justify the invasion of Iraq, having seen the old WMDs argument go down the drain.

Answer 3

The largest tank ever made was the German Maus during the Second World War. The main gun was 150mm, with a secondary 75mm. The prototype was not finished before the end of the war and the Maus would have had limited value.

Saddam was known known to try to build "wonder" weapons, like the super gun (designed by Canadian Gerald Bull) to be used against Israel.

Answer 4

Bigger does not mean better. As stated before, thermal bending and gun tube droop (pull of gravity on the muzzle due to weight and length) would cause too many problems. You can only add so much length to a tube before friction from the projectile would cause it to slow down and cause excessive wear to the tube lining. The tank and gun tube are meaningless without a modern round. Unless the Iraqis made some incredible advancements in their ammunition I would expect them to continue to bounce off of our armor.

As far as faster loading speed goes, a good human loader can load the heaviest tank round on an M1 tank in 4 seconds versus the 6 to 8 seconds of a Soviet auto-loader.

Answer 5

So? Keep in mind that Iran and Iraq fought several wars in the 1980's and the development and construction time for a new piece of military hardware is in the range of 10-15 years.

Also, prior to Gulf War I, Saddam had the 5th largest army (and one of the best trained) in the world.

BTW: Got a link for your source?

Answer 6

Airpower make all tanks obsolete. The Army says an Apache helicopter has 20 times the firepower of a tank. Four of those could wipe out a battalion of armor in minutes.

Tanks are only useful when the other side cannot fend them off.

Answer 7

The United States developed the M-1 Abrams tank in peace time. Does this mean we were planning to start a war?

Answer 8

So post links about this wonder weapon!!!

How was it supposed to float over the desert sands??

They were also working on a super gun but that went nowhere as well.

Rotary Magazine feeds and auto loaders have been tried and discarded as impractical by many armies before now.

Answer 9

its possible you build it if you expect a war to come to you. Iraq has a right to defend its own territory just as every other country has including the usa

Answer 10

A tank? We have the largest stockpile of weapons, including nukes, in the world. What does that say about us?