FYI: This story is continuing to
"track" as I've posted from
USMC sources and my others. I had myself projected
DEC 2021 as the end cate for what should be the
M1A1 FEP.
The
USMC is saying they'll be turned over by
SEP 2021 (
The end of the 2021 Fiscal Year.) which from a budgetary point of view makes
absolute sense as they'll be free of any financial burden associated with those tanks.
Of
about the 130 tanks that remain most are in forward deployed storage or onboard maritime prepositioning ships. From Ref. 2...
"At the time of the
initial overhaul announcement, the Corps had
452 tanks at its disposal. By
December 2020, 323 had been transferred to the Army. (As I reported last year.) The *remaining tanks
were scheduled for
transfer by 2023 (Which obviously isn't the case anymore.), which included tanks in overseas storage and aboard maritime prepositioning ships, according to Marine Corps Systems Command."
Don't let anyone "
get their panties in a wad" except again, these are the newest I've seen thus far this year. And again without deviation, are still tracking by date as
reported in 2020 from all sources.
It'll take a "
miracle" to save them at this point. We'll know by this
spring/summer when the Defense Authorization Bill is readied for
FY22. Ref. 1 The date. Ref. 2 A post-mortem, the CORPS w/o tanks...
https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/new...e-corps-tanks/
https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/new...ing-its-armor/
I know how people feel about this,
so don't shoot the messenger! 
TRACKING
By-The-By,
Turkey to begin field trials of the
ALTAY later this month
with a couple of PROTOTYPES. So
April should be 0 month on their projected 18 month clock to production.
That's providing
their engine/transmission and power pack can hold up.
Regards,
Pat
