M41s still in use in Thailand

Did my eyes deceive me the other day on the news or is the Thai army still getting good service out of these? I knew they (and others) had been upgrading the design with new engines and weapons tech back in the 80s and

90s, but I half expected that they had moved on to something else at this late date. Is that the oldest tank design still in major service?

WmB

Reply to
WmB
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I guess so:

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Reply to
Wayne

Reply to
Ron Smith

Prevailing wisdom is that tanks aren't all that useful in jungle settings. In fact, till the U.S. Army brought in whole divisions of tanks to Vietnam, the South Vietnamese used to refer to tanks as "voting machines"--as the only time the ARVN ever used them was to throw coups in Saigon.

Stephen "FPilot" Bierce/IPMS #35922 {Sig Quotes Removed on Request}

Reply to
Stephen Bierce

Yep - definitely a different battlefield environment. Sometimes to good effect - the M5 Stuart from what I understand was a more viable weapons platform in the Pacific due to the terrain conditions and the nature of their armored opponents.

WmB

Reply to
WmB

Wow - M4 Shermans. I wonder if they're Israeli up-gunned types?

[lightning strikes and WmB fires up a Wiki on "Chile" and "Sherman" yielding:]

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They were in fact IDF postwar mods, and last saw service in 1989. That's still a helluva long time. Poking around on that site I see Mexico has or had some sort of vehicle (tank recovery) that utilizes a Sherman chassis as late as 1998.

Looking at the 105 on that IDF Sherman just makes ya wish our boys in WWII could have had IDF Shermans. In the meantime it looks like the M41 is the B-52 of light armor.

WmB

Reply to
WmB

There used to be T34-85 in the Balkans in the 90's. I don't know about now.

Jim

Reply to
Jim Williams

The basic T-54 design is slightly older than the M41, and the Soviets offered continual upgrades over the succeeding decades, with IR systems, laser rangefinders and reactive armor packages available. Since tank hulls and turrets can pretty much last forever, as long as parts for the mechanical systems remain available, it's pretty likely that 1950 vintage T-54 tanks are still tooling around in various Third World countries. Last I heard, Norway still has rebuilt M-24 tanks in service, and Brazil totally rebuilt their Stuart tanks to keep them functional. Gerald Owens

Reply to
Gerald Owens

When your primary need for a tank is against your own civilian population instead of defense against external forces, it makes sense to keep upgrading ancient tanks rather than buy modern tanks. But, if you notice, the Thai King's Guard uses more modern tanks than the rest of the Thai Army. Most likely to protect him from the Army turning on him:

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Reply to
RobG

I'm pretty sure that's merely an honorific title.

I doubt that would ever happen. The Thai king is deeply revered, even loved.

Reply to
Al Superczynski

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