--------------------------------------------
On Tue, 6/16/15, Bruce Johnson <xxxxxx@Pharmacy.Arizona.EDU> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [TML] Question
 To: "xxxxxx@simplelists.com" <xxxxxx@simplelists.com>
 Date: Tuesday, June 16, 2015, 10:18 AM

 >
 Another example is the Argentine Medium Tank (Tanque
 Argentino Mediano or TAM) The TAM was designed to mount what
 was then the  standard tank gun for the NATO alliance, and
 every effort was made to reduce the overall mass of the
 vehicle to allow it to use the existing civil transportation
 infrastructure.  While the TAM would have been effective
 against any possible South American opponent it was also
 helpless against any contemporary NATO standard tank such as
 the M60A1, Leopard I, and the Chieftain. 

 A tank you cannot transport to
 the battlefield because it’s too large/heavy to use your
 infrastructure is a lump of useless metal. Expensive useless
 metal that will likely cause your troops to get killed
 because you couldn’t afford the tanks that could be
 transported.

 -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes, there's always that trade-off. Mobility vs Protection.

The tanks that NATO had prepositioned necessarily were performing a different mission & I think it's reasonable to expect that a TAM wouldn't engage those tanks even if neighboring countries fielded them. They'd be restricted in deployment in any case. I would expect that they'd only be encountered in a location accessible by ocean-going transports.
I always admired the tank/armored car hybrid that France introduced in the '50's. It was an 8X8 heavy armored car with a 90mm tank gun in a turret. I've read that they were put to good use during that 'unpleasantness' in Algeria.
I've also always wondered why the Germans didn't build more heavy armored cars during WWII. I'd have thought that they would come in handy in Russia esp w/  beakthru exploitation & the like.
I few years ago I read that the germans actually did do a cost analysis & concluded that instead of 4 'Pumas' (a RAD8 heavy ac w/ a 50mm cannon) they could instead build a PzV 'Panther' & the single panzer was a better deal.

=================================================================================================