Allgemeines Kriegsdepartement, 7Abteilung, Verkehrswesen. "General War Department, 7th Unit, Transportation." (German.)
AA
Antiaircraft.
AAMG
Antiaircraft Machine Gun.
AAV RAM/RS
Assault Amphibian Vehicle Reliability, Availability, Maintainability/Rebuild to Standard. US program to install components from the M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle into the AAVP7A1.
AAVC
Assault Amphibian Vehicle, Command.
AAVP
Assault Amphibian Vehicle, Personnel.
Abrams, General Creighton Williams, Jr.
15 Sep 1914-4 Sep 1974. Tank battalion and combat command commander in World War II; 3rd Armored Division commander; commander of US Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, from 1968-72; and Chief of Staff of the US Army from 1972-4. M1.
Ateliers de Construction d'Issy-les-Moulineaux. ("Construction Workshops of Issy-les-Moulineaux." French.)
AOE
Army of Excellence. 1980s program to restructure US Army units.
AOS
Add-On Stabilization.
APBC
Armor-Piercing, Ballistic Capped. Armor-piercing projectile that has an aerodynamic ballistic cap on the nose.
APC
Armored Personnel Carrier. APCs, usually armed with machine guns, generally transport infantry to the battle and then the troops dismount to fight on their own.
APCBC
Armor-Piercing Capped, Ballistic Capped. Armor-piercing capped projectile that has an aerodynamic ballistic cap installed over the piercing cap since the latter were often blunt. The US did not nomenclaturally differentiate between APC and APCBC projectiles; e.g., the 75mm armor-piercing capped projectile M61 had a ballistic cap fitted as well.
Ad-hoc Group on Armament for Future Tanks or Similar Combat Vehicles. Late-1950s US Army tank program analysis.
Armor-piercing capped
Armor-piercing projectile that has a piercing cap installed over the projectile's nose to help prevent projectile break-up when encountering face-hardened armor.
Armor-piercing discarding sabot
Armor-piercing projectile that is smaller than the diameter of the gun's barrel. Sabots (French for "shoe") are placed around the projectile and fill the space between the projectile and barrel walls. Once the projectile clears the gun tube, the sabots fall away. APDS projectiles have a higher muzzle velocity than comparable full-bore projectiles.
Armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot
APDS projectile that is aerodynamically stabilized by fins rather than spinning.
As in BGM-71 TOW. B: Launch environment: Multiple. G: Basic mission: Surface attack. M: Vehicle type: Guided missile.
BITE
Built-In Test Equipment.
BMP
Boyevaya Mashina Pekhoty.
Bog
Bow Gunner.
Boyevaya Mashina Pekhoty
(Боевая Машина Пехоты.) "Infantry combat vehicle." (Russian.)
Bradley, General of the Army Omar Nelson
12 Feb 1893-8 Apr 1981. 12th Army Group commander in World War II, Chief of Staff of the US Army in 1948-9, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1949-53. M2. M3.
BT
Bystrokhodnyy Tank (Быстроходный Танк.) "Fast tank." (Russian.)
Caliber. The diameter of a gun, expressed in inches (e.g., a .30 caliber machine gun fires bullets .3" in diameter).
CBSS
Closed Breech Scavenging System. CBSS used compressed air to force any remaining smoldering pieces of combustible ammunition casing out of the 152mm gun-launcher on the M551 Sheridan and M60A2. CBSS was a safer system than the earlier open breech system, which allowed the flaming pieces to fly around the turret.
The suspension designed by J. Walter Christie in the 1920s involved independently springing a vehicle's road wheels on tall vertical helical springs. The wheels were attached to swing arms which then connected to the springs. The springs required a tall double-walled hull, and they were placed in between the two hull layers. Many vehicles with Christie's suspension could drive on or off of their tracks, wheeled motion usually being powered by chains running from the sprockets or final drives. Among vehicles using variants of Christie's suspension were many British World War II-era cruiser tanks, and the Soviet BT series and T-34.
High Explosive. Explosive material that detonates; i.e., the chemical decomposition shock wave travels at supersonic speeds.
HEAT
High Explosive Antitank. Shaped charge shell wherein explosive packed around a hollow cone-shaped metal liner causes the liner to collapse into a solid "jet" upon detonation. Armor penetration occurs via the pressure induced by the jet's leading tip, which reaches speeds of ~10km/s (~20,000mph).
HEAT-MP
High Explosive Antitank, Multipurpose. HEAT shell with sufficient blast and fragmentation to also enable it to be used against unarmored targets or troops.
HEAT-T
High Explosive Antitank, Tracer.
HEP
High Explosive Plastic. Thin-walled projectile filled with a plastic high explosive composition that, upon impact, spreads onto the target before being detonated by a base fuze. When used against armored targets, the shock wave imposed can cause spalling of the opposite face of the armor plate.
HEP-T
High Explosive Plastic, Tracer.
HERCULES
Heavy Equipment Recovery Combat Utility Lift and Evacuation System. M88A2.
HMC
Howitzer Motor Carriage.
HMMWV
High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle.
Horizontal volute spring suspension
This type of suspension involved springing the road wheels on a bogie against each other with a horizontally-oriented volute spring.
HRV
Heavy Recovery Vehicle.
HVAP
Hyper-velocity Armor-Piercing.
HVSS
Horizontal Volute Spring Suspension.
Hydropneumatic suspension
This suspension transmits pressure from the road wheel arm to compress a volume of gas via hydraulic fluid from which the gas is separated by a piston. By pumping or draining fluid into the suspension, the road wheel can also be raised or lowered.
Hyper-velocity armor-piercing
Armor-piercing projectile that has a dense tungsten core surrounded by a lightweight, aerodynamic metal body. The light weight of the projectile imparts a higher muzzle velocity, and this, along with the relatively small diameter of the piercing core, yields greater penetration compared to conventional projectiles, especially at shorter ranges since the lighter HVAP projectile will bleed off speed more quickly than a heavier conventional projectile.
Medical Communications for Combat Casualty Care. System to digitally capture medical treatment data in operational environments, leading to a comprehensive lifelong electronic medical record for personnel.
"Armor fright." (German.) German World War II handheld antitank weapon.
Patton, General George Smith, Jr.
11 Nov 1885-21 Dec 1945. US Army general in World War II, commands included 2nd Armored Division, I Armored Corps, Seventh Army, and Third Army. In World War I he helped create the American Expeditionary Force's Tank Corps and commanded the AEF's 1st Tank Brigade. M46. M47. M48.
Pershing, General of the Armies of the United States John Joseph
13 Sep 1860-15 Jul 1948. Commander of the American Expeditionary Force in World War I, he helped create the AEF's Tank Corps. M26.
PIAT
Projector, Infantry, Antitank. British World War II handheld antitank weapon.
Pitch
Distance from the centers of the front and rear track pins on a single shoe.
Return of Forces to Germany. REFORGER exercises, lasting from 1969 to 1993, were used to test and train the United States' ability to quickly reinforce troops in Europe with troops stationed in the US.
RISE
Reliability Improvements for Selected Equipment. RISE was a US program to increase the reliability of certain AFV powertrains.
ROAD
Reorganization Objective Army Division. 1960s program to restructure US Army units.
RSTA
Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Target Acquisition.
Semi-Active [also Semi-Automatic] Command to Line-Of-Sight. A system of missile guidance where the operator needs to simply keep the crosshairs on target for the missile to hit. The control equipment senses the deviation between where the operator is aiming and where the missile is flying, and automatically adjusts so that the missile's flight coincides with its aiming point.
SADARM
Sense And Destroy Armor. SADARM is an artillery-delivered anti-armor submunition that uses millimetric-wave radar and infrared sensors to detect targets.
Smart Target-Activated Fire and Forget. 120mm XM943 tank round that was intended to overfly a target and attack downward using an explosively-formed penetrator once the target had been acquired by its onboard millimeter-wave radar. The project was terminated.
Stryker, Specialist Fourth Class Robert Francis
9 Nov 1944-7 Nov 1967. US Army grenadier who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for actions performed on 7 November 1967 near Loc Ninh, Republic of Vietnam.
Stryker, Private First Class Stuart S.
30 Oct 1924-24 Mar 1945. US Army platoon runner who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for actions performed on 24 March 1945 near Wesel, Germany.
Stuart, Major General James Ewell Brown
6 Feb 1833-12 May 1864. Confederate cavalry general in the US Civil War. M3. M5.
This suspension used wheels attached to a suspension arm which was sprung with a rubber spring. Used, for example, on many US LVTs, the rubber springs possessed the obvious advantage of being immune to corrosion, a great benefit on amphibious vehicles.
Torsion bar suspension
This suspension type predominates among modern tracked vehicles. The road wheels are independently sprung, and attached by swing arms to the torsion bars, which are made from specially-treated steel and which run from the road wheel swing arm to an anchor on the other side of the hull. The torsion bars twist in response to wheel movement and provide a large amount of wheel travel. Vehicles with torsion bar suspension usually have their opposite road wheels slightly offset from each other since most torsion bars run the width of the hull.
Torsion tube over bar suspension
A torsion tube operates on the same principle as a torsion bar. When placed over a torsion bar, a torsion tube will twist once the bar has reached its limit and therefore allow more wheel travel than a torsion bar alone.
TOW
Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided missile. TOW is an American series of SACLOS antitank missiles able to be mounted on vehicles, helicopters, or ground mounts.
TRADOC
Training and Doctrine Command.
Tread
Distance between the centerlines of a vehicle's tracks or wheels.
This suspension involved mounting the road wheels to a bogie in pairs on arms and pivoting them against a vertically mounted volute spring, which was typically protected from damage by the bogie frame.
As in M4A1(76)W Sherman. Wet ammunition stowage. In tanks with wet ammunition stowage, main gun ammunition was stored in double-walled boxes. In between the walls of the ammunition boxes was a mixture of water, antifreeze, and an anticorrosive agent. When the boxes were penetrated, the water delayed or eliminated the resulting ammunition fire, giving crews valuable time to escape. More importantly, the ammunition was moved from the tanks' sponsons to under the turret, a much safer place for ammunition storage.
Walker, Lieutenant General Walton Harris
3 Dec 1889-23 Dec 1950. US 3rd Armored Division and XX Corps commander during World War II, and Eighth Army commander in the Korean War. M41.
WP
White Phosphorus. Pyrophoric compound often used as filler in smoke projectiles.
