New Thermal Sights for the USMC AAVP7
 

Couple new things on the USMC AAVP7.

1) Seems the AAV's are getting thermal sights
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/...ts-02639/#more

2) A mine clearing version (tho it's pretty much always been available) has been "officially" adopted.

"The mission of Mine Countermeasure (MCM) platoon is to provide breaching capability to the breach commander. The AA MCM platoon is composed of 24 AAVP7A1/RAM RSs with crews, with 12 MK154 LMC Mod O Kits organized into four sections. The MCM platoon is lead by the platoon commander who supports the breach commander."

Re: New Thermal Sights for the USMC AAVP7
 

Good to know. I had added AAVP7s with MICLICs to my OOB, feeling that it wasn't seriously inaccurate in terms of game function, since the charge generally isn't used for anything other than mine clearing, and in game mineclear vehicles can sit "50 meters" away in another hex while clearing mines.

Re: New Thermal Sights for the USMC AAVP7
 

While you're at it rename them AAVE7's.
AAVP7 = Armored Amphibious Vehicle Personnel
AAVE7 = Armored Amphibious Vehicle Engineer
AAVC7 = Armored Amphibious Vehicle Command

Re: New Thermal Sights for the USMC AAVP7
 

Is the AAVE7 designation actually used? From the info I've been getting at Amtrac.org, the LVTP7/AAVP7 series never had an official engineering vehicle, with the only subvariants being the Command and Recovery vehicles. The Mk 154 Mod 0 MICLICs I had been led to believe were mounted on standard LVTP/AAVP7s.

A good related question is when did the LVTE1s actually get retired and in terms of actual engineering work (versus just mine clearing with the MICLIC) was there anything that replaced them? I'm not familiar with a specific engineering variant of the EFV either, which makes me think the simple mounting of the Mk 154 "pallet" would be the plan in that case too.

Re: New Thermal Sights for the USMC AAVP7
 

Does anybody have any info on the EFV that doesn't come from Wikipedia ? I've seen http://www.efv.usmc.mil/ and "PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS " end around 2006. This thing seems stuck in the D&D stage so the 1/2008 start date we have would appear to be overly optimistic and perhaps 5 more years might be about right ?

Don

Re: New Thermal Sights for the USMC AAVP7
 

The globalsecurity.org page now incorporates relevant program history from the 2007 and 2008 GAO assessments. I can attest to them being verbatim from the reports since I copied, edited, and integrated them into the page myself. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...round/aaav.htm

Re: New Thermal Sights for the USMC AAVP7
 

Yes, I saw that page as well. Note it says in the first paragraph .."Until the new vehicle is fielded, planned for 2008,"

Later it says "The EFV was scheduled to have a second design review in September 2008, and projected initial capability was delayed by almost 5 years, to 2015"

So 2015 until it's delayed again.

Don

Re: New Thermal Sights for the USMC AAVP7
 

That was my job heh. To put everything in the past tense essentially. My uncle also works on the thing and has talked vaguely about a number of issues remaining on it, mostly centering on the reliability issues cited in the GAO report.

Re: New Thermal Sights for the USMC AAVP7
 

2015? Why do I suspect we'll see Starship Troopers sooner than EFV? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: New Thermal Sights for the USMC AAVP7
 

Heh, Don, at this rate would a WinSPMBT-Future with a timeline from 2020-? not be more appropriate http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: New Thermal Sights for the USMC AAVP7
 

I'm guessing 2015 myself.

As to the AAVE7, yeah it's just a matter of hanging a mine rake off the bow and sticking a line-charge in the back of any AAVP7 rather then a custom built variant.
But that's the whole point - not needing a custom built variant.

As to actual use, yeah we used them in Gulf War I when breaching the minefields.
I remember some Iraqi's on the other side watching us while they were waiting to surrender and a couple running over to see what we'd fired across the mine field when the engineers cut loose with the line-charge and it didn't go off immediately ... the engineers tried to wave them off but ...

Re: New Thermal Sights for the USMC AAVP7
 

Is there actually a mine plow for the AAVP series? I've never seen a picture of one with it fitted. Also a google search turns up these forums as the only hits for a the AAVE designation. It would appear that this is an informal designation applied to AAVPs with the MICLIC pallet.

Re: New Thermal Sights for the USMC AAVP7
 

I just looked thru my photo's from Gulf I, unfortunately I was a bit busy during the minefield breaching and didn't have time to take any pictures.

It's entirely possible, and in fact probable, the one I recall seeing (and as I recall there was only one with a rake) was a jury-rig.

Always remember, "Improvise, Adapt, Overcome" is the unofficial USMC Motto *chuckles*.

Re: New Thermal Sights for the USMC AAVP7
 

Well it would also seem extremely reasonable since that capability was essentially lost with the retirement of the LVTE1 (do you know when that happened?). Did it resemble the one on the LVTE1? That would seem like a logical choice in my mind, to simply strip them off older vehicles and apply them to new ones.

Re: New Thermal Sights for the USMC AAVP7
 

Same time the LVTP5 was retired, c.a. 1973.
I have no doubt they kept them around "just in case" for several years afterwards tho.
I doubt they could have stripped them off the P5's since they were actually built onto the vehicle. My bet would be it was probably off an Abrams MCBS or borrowed from a US Army M113 Engineer, M2A2 E-BFE, or M1132 ESV system. Or quite possibly something we got from Israel like the armor kits for the D-9 dozers we borrowed.

Re: New Thermal Sights for the USMC AAVP7
 

I'm gonna use this as an error report thread for the USMC OOB in order to not start a new thread just for this one thing.

Unit 099 Dragon Fire, weapon 3 (Weapon 008 M16 Rifle) has the same ammo loadout (48 HE and 12 AP) as the EFSS mortars. Looks like a typo error. I've switched it to 60 HE and 0 AP in my OOB.

Re: New Thermal Sights for the USMC AAVP7
 

Slightly off topic but what do higher ratings than 40 for thermal imagers represent? Also at 50 the color changes from yellow to green.

Re: New Thermal Sights for the USMC AAVP7
 

The numbers are defined in terms of "basics" for ground units in the Mobhack help file, but are flexible to a point. After 40 the system is treated as Thermal/IR, after 50 its treated as Ground Search Radar (GSR).