Gents i'v serven in an infantry battalion in Australian reserves for 3 yrs, im contemplating transfering to Armoured to expand and learn something new.

I'v heard different opinions so i would your opinion, is the maintenance on tanks (countless hours) worth it>?




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I am currently serving in the armoured corps in the Canadian Army (Reserve)

Although we don't use tanks, I would still say go for it. I know a few Reg Force armoured guys who work on the Leopard and Cougar. They can attest to it. Firing the guns, and driving those beasts more than makes up for the hours spend cleaning and maintaining the vehicles.

Do you have a choice in the Aussie army though? Is there a light armoured division you can join? In reconnaissance, we drive the G-Wagon. The only maintenance we are really responsible for is cleaning the vehicle, and checking the fluids (with the occasional tire change should we need it)

Everything else is done by the mechanics.

Gents i'v serven in an infantry battalion in Australian reserves for 3 yrs, im contemplating transfering to Armoured to expand and learn something new.

I'v heard different opinions so i would your opinion, is the maintenance on tanks (countless hours) worth it?

Would you still stay reserve? If so, as I'm sure you know, almost all reserve Armoured units are having their M-113s replaced by Land Rovers or other softskin vehicles. The idea is to reduce the amount of training time wasted by having to maintain A-vehicles (ie, having to maintain the vehicles themselves, being restricted to limited training areas, having to be trained up on complicated turrets, etc). It will also save the Army a ton of money on a capability that will never be used operationally. The troops still get the experience in working in formations, using radios, vehicle hides etc, and would only need to be trained up in A-vehicles if going overseas (which is the easy part anyway). In other words, you wouldn't spend all your time maintaining the tanks, because you wouldn't have any.

If you are going reg, definently go Cav. They are getting that many gigs at the moment that you'd get a deployment almost immediately. A mate of mine from 2 Cav is on his third deployment to the middle east in three years. In fact, there's been only 6 weeks since 1999 that an element of 2 Cav hasn't been on deployment overseas. Although, 1 Armd Regt has been warned out for deployment in Feb 08, so you still might get a gig if you go tanks.

Either way, in my opinion armoured craps all over inf, simply due to the fact your weapon carries you around the battlefield and not the other way around. Transport by Mk1 Terra sucks. Give it a go I say.

I'm hoping to go Cav myself. I put my corp preference in in a week, and find out in about a month. Finger's crossed.

- Sarge