| Every now and then, industry promises some new and amazing product, which is advertised to dramatically change the way things are done. Whether it's flying cars, a space elevator, or a personal nuclear reactor for your own home, we've ALL seen promises of products that seem to slowly vanish over time, as though they were chance shapes of vapor. Hence the industry term, "Vaporware". The quantity of Vaporware associated with a given product is also often a barometer of it's overall value. For example, do you remember the Nintendo Virtual Boy game system, and how few of the promises Nintendo made came true (eg, it's library of only about 10 games)? I'm sure you don't, because most of those few who paid any attention to it have long-since repressed those memories --- and usually on purpose. So, what does this have to do with the M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank, you ask? That should be obvious; lots and lots of M1-related Vaporware --- so much that this presentation had to be split into 4 parts. Part 1 deals with the weapons that were once promised for use on the M1. As with many other such presentations, much info was provided by VickersIndependent, and the script was edited for spelling and grammar by meaninter03. UPDATE: Here are sources to some of my claims. I don't remember where I learned the rest, though; Problems with, and cancellation of, the 120mm and 140mm XM291 --- and also a bit of background on the *imaginary* FST-1/2/3; z4.invisionfree.com The XM36/360 was part of ... |
