Armor: March 18, 2003

Archives

When the Cold War ended in 1991, the United States had over 7,000 M-1 tanks (of various models). In the next ten years, the army shrunk by a third, and six of its ten divisions were disbanded. It had about twice as many M-1 tanks than it needed. Making the most of the situations, it kept most of those M-1 tanks in service by putting hundreds in storage overseas (along with other military equipment) so that only troops had to be flown in to form mechanized brigades. Even in the United States, armor battalions could afford to have two sets of tanks. One set would be used for training, they other stood ready to be shipped off to some far off battlefield. This saved time, as otherwise the tanks used regularly would require several days of preparation before they could be shipped. 

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close