What Are Those Squares on the M1 Abrams Turret? | Koala Explains: Combat Identification Panels
2020 ж. 23 Қар.
363 416 Рет қаралды
When looking at the turret of the M1 Abrams, you may notice two square panels, and wondered at their purpose... Well today, let's discuss how the US put an end to the issue of friendly fire with the adoption of simple Combat ID Panels.
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Huh, what a fun and interesting channel, I love this guy!
koala 😂
I agree! This guy knows a lot about military vehicles. He should create a gaming account where he posts videos of him playing a certain military vehicles themed game.
I agree!
Did you just comment on your own channel and pin it?🤣🤣
Sus.
Why do we even need these? Friendly tanks=green outline when hovered over, enemy tanks=red outline when hovered over. Basic stuff.
the problem is that if you hover over a friendly tank and an enemy looks at it at the same time, then which color should the tank pick its outline to be? confused
@@witoldschwenke9492 it’s fine the Colors are client sided
@@witoldschwenke9492 You obviously never play nor heard of strategy games
Better yet, just remove friendly fire alltogether
@@witoldschwenke9492 the tank doesn’t literally change color you donut
Abrams engineers: look we made these things to prevent friendly fire Abrams gunners: what if I do it anyway
*W A R C R I M E S*
And thats how you sabot your friends.
A-10: "Brrrrrrrrrrrrrashit"
TLDW: "Combat Identification Panels" - attachments designed to mitigate the risk of friendly fire. They show up distinctively when viewed through IR sights
Life saver.
While decrease friendly fire it also is a huge “shoot me” sign for enemy with IR equipment
@@the_jingo yes, "shoot the thickest part of the tank so I can see where you are and take you out in one shot due to superior training". Such a bad thing.....
@@the_jingo the actual shoot me part is the ENTIRE DAMN TANK; we are talking about thermals here
which he claimed in his opening wasnt the right answer. Hes a clickbaiter and will now be blacklisted
I have pretty old models of an Abrams and a Bradley, and as a kid I always wondered what those squares on the side with the angled panels were. Glad to finally know.
enemy with thermal viewer : Look, they provide us target to shoot
Koala Explains: The Thermal Dartboard
@@ArmorCast DoD after read this : Damn, thats comment is right. Tell the Armor Corps to remove that panel
If you let the enemy get that close without noticing them, you need to get shot at.
And the big gas turbine.
@@DAGO58 Driver : Sir, we out of gas TC : Dont worry, thats why we invaded this country
Hmm this would be so much simpler if everyone used their player card. . .
Nothing is more accurate than friendly fire. -Murphy
I feel like I've seen this already 🤔 Just a bit different Glad to see you picked up this channel
I love that you’re re-uploading the old topics but updated and tweaked. Gives a good reason to watch them again, best of luck with the channel!
The most deadly "weapon" against an Abrams or practically anything we use is friendly fire (Blue-on-Blue).
Great video and really enjoying this channel concept - cheers!
I heard saying cease fire in the enemies language usually is more effective than any warhead, artillery, or army to ever exist
"You may ask me for anything you like except time." - Napoleon Bonaparte
We don't just use the panels. We learn armor ID. We learn to recognize vehicles, both in regular optics and thermals. Engine placement, exhaust location, turret shape, number of road wheels, concentric, vs non concentric bore evacuator, or no bore evacuator. We also now have blue force trackers which are GPS enabled, and show the location of all units, and vehicles equiped with them, in real time.
ADVANCE INDIVIDUAL TRAINING ( AIT ) ARMOR SCHOOL : " VEHICLE IDENTIFICATION " FRIENDLY / POSSIBLE ENEMY , WHAT TO LOOK FOR , IDENTIFIED , FIRE , ON THE WAY .
Vehicle ID is part of GST (Gunnery skills test) and is mandatory to pass before being allowed to conduct live fire. You also must Qualify up to "the gates to live fire" in the AGTS. Failure to qualify up to the gates will result in no gunnery live fire. (did IO for crews at NTC, Benning and Stewart). But there are more than just AGTS and AFVID in order for you to shoot live rounds....
Yup, another koality video. The channel icon is amazing btw
Finally, an upload on the new channel!
Crew also train in identifying vehicles (friendly and enemy) for other heat signatures. Each tank around the world has different road wheels configs, thermal shrouds on their main gun, etc.
Just stumbled upon your post today, and i do enjoy military history, and gadgets, and what not. Interesting.
I was thinking the same about other enemy forces potentially targeting their own when they would have similar panels applied. However, the panels of course do give a clear indication to enemy tanks equipped with infrared vision that that tank is the enemy. So I suppose it “helps” the enemy to fire on you as well. But probably not to the same extend as it helps to avoid friendly fire.
Good chance by the time you see them you already have incoming
> Cover it in thermal tape. Bad guys: “…Why is there a tank-shaped cold spot over there?”
My knowledge of armor ends at 1990, but this sounds spot on. Thank you for the update and explanations.
I have long wondered about the blinds panels. Thanks.
Looking forward to more of these such videos with the new channel Koala!
Very good explanation.
As an Abrams Tank Commander, you got me cracking up. Subscribed!
Just wanna say your voice is so nice to listen to, keep up the amazing work!
My unit in Germany was the first to receive M1A1s. I trained on M60A3s. Early 1987.
I feel like an opposing side that coordinated to put the thermal siding on, field a few tanks for a quick operation, then take them off later. Rinse and intermittently repeat, would do a good job slowing the enemy down, giving them pause before firing or looking at away, effectively forcing them to keep good track of allied and enemy tanks both. This would cause confusion and perhaps grant friendly fire incidents in the smaller forces favor. Beyond that, it would also force development of better friendly tracking technologies which is a drain on their resources.
Easier said then done. Most famous attempt was operation Grief which failed and was later trialed as a war crime punishable by death.
The Blue Force Tracker to "identify friend or foe" IFF has come a long way from introduction. These panels are mostly a redundancy to the tracker now.
Great video Koala
I'm glad that closed-captioning is available here.
1:05 gave me some nostalgia there.
just been wondering, as you are from the island after all, koala... why is it not "Armour Cast"?
Majority of my viewers are American
@@ArmorCast :(
@@ArmorCast THE POWER OF THE MAJORITY
Ah yes the abrams iff/cip, very underrated part of the tank. Well done video Koala!
There are 5 total...2 on the front of the turret, 2 on the panels mounted on the side of the sponson boxed and 1 in the back of the bustle rack in a panel mount. When you turn them around it will be seen though the TIS (thermal imaging system)
Well done. 👏🏻
I have been asking what those squares are for a long time now but could not find the answers. Thanks for solving the question for me.
Those weird looking shades are used on most vehicles now. A lot of the HMMWV’s and MTV’s at my last unit had some of that stuff around it
The panels on the front of the Abrams tank are IFF ( Identify Friend/Foe) panels and when seen through forward looking infrared or 4 Gen night vision equipment tells Friendly units in the area were not a target/ enemy so don’t shoot.
In the infantry we used glint tape for the same purpose on our LBEs like 40 years ago.
the silver space blanket tank....welcome to the future!. if this was the 70-80s,it would have been a movie franchise.
Thermal tape? (3:56) Looks like the Velcro tape we used to attach the MILES gear for training.
Very interesting, I am going to stick that panel on my Fiat Punto.
It also is against the Geneva convention to wear a enemy uniform and I think that using the enemies way of determining if it’s a friendly or enemy tank as friendly it would fall under this category
That’s why the inverted V on the vehicles during desert storm.
And yet the genius US air force pilots still destroyed countless American and British units
@@tomsoki5738 war is chaos and I saw a video on friendly fire incident with pilot communications and that pilot was crushed after being told what just happened. I hate that there is no way to prevent these incidents yet. But this is also a part of war. Now even more so with the increased range of contact. May all rest in peace and my condolences to the families.
They also have these thermal identifiers on the ocp uniforms
Are some of the Video Materials from Europe? i Saw a "Wolf" ( 3:02 ) and Flecktarn ( 3:33 ) ?
if the enemy started to use them we would just use patterns of them and the pattern on each panel would get changed for that mission and each crew be it ground vehicle, aircraft, or infantry with ATGMs would have a briefing on what that day's pattern is. Given the tech level of imaging systems one could probably even have the pattern displayed in the imager. 4:12 you can somewhat see a pattern in it already so if one removed some tiles it would show differently. and you change that every mission.
suggestion: put this channel in the channels tab on your koala channel so more people check out this one
The fact that it took you 7 minutes to describe something that can be googled and answered in 1 minute
Live fire shots taken vicinity Alpha Bravo Pass into Echo Valley, the southern task force Live Fire sector at NTC. Many many hours spent there getting dirty and tired
1:00 Battle of 73 Easting looked exactly like that.
Awesome video my friend 👍👍
Why doesn't the enemy use CIPs? I knew a guy who fought in Korea. It was damn cold, so cold he decided to take the coat off of a dead Chinese soldier and wear it to stay warm (or at least be less cold.) He almost got shot by his own fellow troops.
How about IFF transponders like all military aircraft have ?
FYI you aim for the turret ring or take out the treads to disable it But it’s a lot easier to just lay down explosives and take it out from the bottom without having to actually engage the enemy visually
I've seen these before and finally I know
What are those upside down V on some tanks and vehicles
I thought the sunlight in the desert is so bright, even the tank need sunglasses.
those squared is showing that crew watching on full screen xD
If you were to actually cover a tank (or any asset) with 100% IR invisibility panels aka thermal insulation, it would get even hotter and burn the whole thing. That's if you were able to stick enough of it, but as you say some parts would still be uncovered for a tank. The invisible plate thing can only make the rest of the asset more visible.
The US army also put a small, but still visible patch on the sleeves of combat uniforms. For a while we even had whole American Flags made of the stuff that a Soldier could put on their arm to discourage friendly fire. I assume that they still do this, but I've been out for 8 years and have no idea what they're working with now.
Great. Thanks
Take a hint from games. Have some sort of gear that makes friendlies show up on screen with a green name over their heads and if a target has been identified and you have support nearby that can keep a laser on it, have a little red triangle over the target. Shouldn't be too hard. Have an infrared laser that can measure the exact location, have that info sent to their nearby friendlies (you). Maybe have a sentry of some kind that can keep a laser on a target so it stays highlighted. And if everybody loses sight, it marks a white dot over the last place the target was seen. Be like science. Take inspiration from fiction.
Yeah it works, sure. But what if the enemy also needs a way to distinguish friend from foe and comes up with the same idea?
Then they wipe themselves out thinking their own tanks are abrams.
i reached the friendly fire part , then i thought , not when ur in a merkava , then everyone's an enemy LMFAO
I had these on my tanks for years and was like “wtf are these stupid annoying squares on here?” Oh well, dibs on the southwest chicken n black beans MRE
As far as monetizing your videos, you can always place commission-based affiliate links in your descriptions.
M48 Patton has a headlight on the cannon? What is the spotlight for.
I think that is for active IR.
Well ol tali got some night vision now.
becoming the enemy in a battle field is the stupidest thing ever thought of
So that's why they dont use the star with a ring around it
Why don't we just like decide on team colors before the fight and if you use the wrong team colors you're disqualified from the war
That’s so stupid it’s almost genius. Too bad we determined that didn’t work well about 200 years ago.
today each MBT also has FF Identifiers that are linked via sat ..
the way you explained it as I anticipated would be, is like telling others to not fight wars, is that what your true wishes are?
Wdym
What the fuck is that supposed to me
I prefer this over you playing war thunder because it reminds me about how painful the game is.
Are you called Koala because your a protected species? Great commentary and well presented doco thanks 👍
Why would their own (opposing) forces fire on them when you said they don't have thermal imaging.
Enemies: Let's use then too so we don't get shot at!
So essentially modern invasion stripes used in WWII
They do have the blue force trackers
Friendly fire not tolerated
Sheppad is rolling in his grave.
DO wonder if tanks are in lines or rows, how would the more backwards lines see these front panels?!
Tanks in an open battlefield will be 500 meters or more apart, when you're that far apart, whether in a wedge, or row you will clearly see friendlies panels
1:00 "undershtand"
Does T90 has such identification tools too ?
Enemy after watching that video: hmmmmm...
oh great, a reupload
20% of casualties will probably be friendly fire in a major conflict, apparently.
In Israel we don't use CIPs because the front engine on Israeli MBTs makes such a different thermal image than anything else out there, such that there's no confusion possible.
Thanks for telling the enemy that genius
imagine if people use hard kill system on jet
But what do the arrows mean?
Abram, challenger and t90 are my favorite why only legend know that.
I’m sure I’ve seen this somewhere before...
I was honored to be involved with second cavalry ghost troop the tank is indestructible in my opinion
such a shame that these aren't streamed by spacex on youtube anymore.
That's why the Abrams has gotten sevaral operational tachical systems upgrades over time.
All overall thermal signature reduction isn't so far fetched, much more advanced concepts are being explored: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptiv