Marines Arm JLTV With Tank-Killing Weapons for Fast, Lethal Attack

Video Above: Northrop Grumman & Eastern Shipbuilding Group Build New Coast Guard OffShore Patrol Cutter With New Weapons

By Kris Osborn – Warrior Maven

(Washington D.C.) The Marine Corps is architecting a highly lethal lightweight tactical vehicle armed with armor-destroying weapons that can reach enemy targets as 15 to 20 time the range of an Abrams tank. The thinking is to potentially create a lighter, faster, more agile Marine Corps able to find and destroy enemy armored vehicles such as tanks, without having to deploy heavy tanks themselves.

“We can kill armor formations at longer ranges using additional and other resources without incurring a 74-ton challenge trying to get that to a shore, or to get it from the United States into the fight,” Lt. Gen. Eric Smith, deputy commandant for combat development and integration, said in a USNI report. “You simply can’t be there in time.”

Part of the concept includes the use of “lightweight mounted fires” on fast-moving tactical vehicles, a scenario which could involve arming the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle with anti-tank missiles or other precision anti-armor weapons. This makes a lot of sense, given longstanding concerns about tank mobility and deployability. While the tried and tested Abrams tank is combat proven and not likely to disappear anytime soon, it does operate with certain limitations such as an inability to cross certain bridges, slower speeds, logistical challenges with high fuel consumption and, perhaps most of all, an inability to conduct rapid-deployment expeditionary warfare.

Should an expeditionary, fast-moving force moving with faster, tactical vehicles operate with substantial anti-tank and anti-heavy armor fire-power, the Corps could embrace new combat tactics and strategies.

Such a prospect, which could it seems including firing Javelins, TOW missiles, Stingers or even HELLFIRE missiles from tactical vehicles on the move attacking enemy tanks at much longer ranges than tank rounds or standard vehicle cannons and guns can reach. The Stryker is already doing this with the SHORAD, or Short Range Air Defense, program which now arms the vehicle’s with HELLFIRES, Javelins and Stingers to take out enemy drones, helicopters and air threats.