Army activity East Clare area today 25/03?

ablelocks

anyone know what the army are up to in East Clare (Killaloe, Ogonnelloe, Tuamgraney, Scariff) today?

came into Two Mile Gate this evening to see a (small) tank pointing at me! There were also couple of humvee type trucks and 3 of what looked like apc's parked and then further up the road 2 more apc's driving on the road.

kids said they were around all day, parking at various points and driving up and down the Killaloe, Scariff road.

nothing on military.ie or the fb page about it.

I am assuming they were our own army...

Negative_G

ablelocks wrote: »

anyone know what the army are up to in East Clare (Killaloe, Ogonnelloe, Tuamgraney, Scariff) today?

came into Two Mile Gate this evening to see a (small) tank pointing at me! There were also couple of humvee type trucks and 3 of what looked like apc's parked and then further up the road 2 more apc's driving on the road.

kids said they were around all day, parking at various points and driving up and down the Killaloe, Scariff road.

nothing on military.ie or the fb page about it.

I am assuming they were our own army...

It would be reasonable to assume what you saw was an exercise of some description.

Señor Fancy Pants

Don't worry about it, just routine training.

ohnonotgmail

ablelocks wrote: »

anyone know what the army are up to in East Clare (Killaloe, Ogonnelloe, Tuamgraney, Scariff) today?

came into Two Mile Gate this evening to see a (small) tank pointing at me! There were also couple of humvee type trucks and 3 of what looked like apc's parked and then further up the road 2 more apc's driving on the road.

kids said they were around all day, parking at various points and driving up and down the Killaloe, Scariff road.

nothing on military.ie or the fb page about it.

I am assuming they were our own army...

One of these? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FV101_Scorpion

Not a tank. We haven't had tanks since we got rid of the Comets in the 70's.

riffmongous

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

One of these? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FV101_Scorpion

Not a tank. We haven't had tanks since we got rid of the Comets in the 70's.

Out of interest, is there no such thing as light tanks anymore? Like what's the differences between the Scorpion and say a pt-76, or a Sheridan or Bulldog etc?

ohnonotgmail

riffmongous wrote: »

Out of interest, is there no such thing as light tanks anymore? Like what's the differences between the Scorpion and say a pt-76, or a Sheridan or Bulldog etc?

The main differences between a scorpion and the others you mentioned are size and role. the others are at least twice the size. The scorpion is strictly for recon only. There are others with far more knowledge than me (Manic Moran is a tankie i believe)that can answer the question on whether light tanks exist any more. The chinese might have some Type 64's knocking about. IFV's like the Bradley could be considered to be light tanks. The US did look to produce a successor to the sheridan but it was never put into service.

tac foley

None at all. Except that compared with any of your examples the Scorpion is a teeny thing - one of my fellow gun-club pals has one of his own.

And a Scimitar.

tac

tac foley

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

The main differences between a scorpion and the others you mentioned are size and role. the others are at least twice the size. The scorpion is strictly for recon only. There are others with far more knowledge than me (Manic Moran is a tankie i believe)that can answer the question on whether light tanks exist any more. The chinese might have some Type 64's knocking about. IFV's like the Bradley could be considered to be light tanks. The US did look to produce a successor to the sheridan but it was never put into service.

The role of a light tank, as you suggest, is that of armed recce. The role of the MICV, like the Bradley, is that of transporting infantry to the front-line, under fire and with a good chance of doing something unpleasant to the opposition by using either the 25mm cannon or the on-board TOW launcher. However, there is no way that any MICV could be described as a any kind of a tank.

Tanks take on other tanks - no MICV on the planet could survive a hit from a tank gun, especially one that shoots at it from three miles away.

tac

ohnonotgmail

tac foley wrote: »

The role of a light tank, as you suggest, is that of armed recce. The role of the MICV, like the Bradley, is that of transporting infantry to the front-line, under fire and with a good chance of doing something unpleasant to the opposition by using either the 25mm cannon or the on-board TOW launcher. However, there is no way that any MICV could be described as a any kind of a tank.

Tanks take on other tanks - no MICV on the planet could survive a hit from a tank gun, especially one that shoots at it from three miles away.

tac

well i did say could.

cppilot98

tac I thought you were gone?

I remember when I worked in Airmotive Ireland back in the day. The army had an exercise in and around Baldonnel. They used our plant as a base. It was funny to have an army sentry at our gate and military all over our grounds including a couple of Scorpions.

Great fun.

Odd to think that the Scorpions are still around over 25 years later.

Shannon757

ablelocks wrote: »

anyone know what the army are up to in East Clare (Killaloe, Ogonnelloe, Tuamgraney, Scariff) today?

came into Two Mile Gate this evening to see a (small) tank pointing at me! There were also couple of humvee type trucks and 3 of what looked like apc's parked and then further up the road 2 more apc's driving on the road.

kids said they were around all day, parking at various points and driving up and down the Killaloe, Scariff road.

nothing on military.ie or the fb page about it.

I am assuming they were our own army...

To answer the original question it was just training exercises. They were around Newport as well because they were climbing keeper . They had 2 scorpions with them. Great sight to see them all in Centra:D