Com-Central.net

Hello,

I have a question I really hope someone out there can answer for me.

Specifically what was the level of protection of the crew area of the canceled M1 Grizzly armored engineer vehicle?

From the meager sources I have been able to find, the level of protection seemed to be quite high. A passage from an official Army source stated "Ballistic threats tested between April-July 1999 included small arms, rocket-propelled grenades, kinetic energy projectiles, anti-tank guided missiles, direct-fire high-explosive projectiles, mines, and fragmenting artillery shells." The question is are those "kinetic energy projectiles" cannon rounds or tank main gun rounds or both?

The other thing that is really queer about the design of the crew space becomes apparent if you look at the later development vehicles in side view. Why were the crew seated so far to the rear of the superstructure? This would not be ideal in any sense for a combat engineer tractor, where the operator would want a good view of the mine plow and excavating arm, especially when operating buttoned-up. So what was all that space under armor in front of the crew positions for exactly if not protection? The weird thing if that is true, is that the side armor cannot offer the same spaced armor solution because of the side by side crew seating arrangement. Also the plates at the weld seam don't look particularly thick. But then I don't know anything about welding.

Anyone out there with any ideas? I would greatly appreciate any thoughts.