i found these images of a tank graveyard. Looking very weird.

link

Nothing weird about it. It is a tank graveyard from Afghanistan. After 25 years of war there will be some destroyed armour. The pics might be from Pol E Sharki just outside Kabul, which also is a storage site for armour turned in in accordance with the DDR project led by the UN. Storage sites like this is a rather common sight in Afghanistan

Erik

but can't they recycle some stuff?

Ehhhh, we are talking about Afghanistan... It is a bit different from Europe. However, recycling tanks and armour in general is a bit tricky since the steel is so hard that you need specialized industry to deal with it. Afghanistan has nothing like that. (or anything else...)

Erik

The only technology you would need to wade into that pile is an acetylene torch. Steel is pretty much the same as it has been for the last one hundred years. Quality control and manufacturing techniques have improved but steel is still, well, steel.

Now, if you had an Abrams or two sitting in there dealing with the Chobbam armor would be a different animal.

Shaun

You are so right Shaun. My point is that in a country where local workers are deeply impressed by a everyday powertool it is very difficult to get rid of hundreds of armoured vehicles in an effective way.

Erik

Interesting pics of tank wrecks. Thanks for posting them, Paul.

Greetz,

Alpen

The Boneyard was located behind the Kabul Military Training Center, between Kabul and Pol e Charki. In the first pic, Mount Gar can be seen to the north.
There were indeed workshops north of the boneyard, and a few very diminutive Afghan men cobbling some of the armor back together. At the time it was for warlords-one for sure was engineer Wazil located in Pol e Charki. Some of his very interestingly painted tanks are here:
http://photos.yahoo.com/eighteenbravo2003

You would be surprised what Afghans can do in their mud huts. We had to replace our AK sight adjustment tools, and for five bucks each, got several that were machined from stainless steel, and better than the originals. They'll do a full body lift on a Hilux in no time flat, using scrap.
When the Gallery photos work again I'll post a picture of one of my favorite acquisitions-a stool made from a motorcycle sprocket. Aside from being cool, it has a good story behind it.
You can also find things going back much further than 25 years. My two nineteenth century muzzle loading cannons came from there, as well as two FT-17 tanks one of our Majors found in his abundant spare time.
I've also got a garage full of sights, data plates, and other oddities off of a lot of the tanks there.
There's a webite with more pics, and recently one of our Danish ISAF friends has been posting pics of Afghan equipment right here.

Cool pics. Nice weathering reference!

Looks like about the only thing they've "recycled" is most of the wheels off the armored cars.

Many look in better condition that a lot of "reallistically" weathered models I've seen.

cool beans


reb

Thanks.

A good start for sourcing material for ' The Purple Hearts ' campaign.

A few years back, the state of Alabama dropped old Patton tanks into the Gulf of Mexico to make fish habitat so the fishing would be better. I believe that is about all those wrecks would be good for. Plus it makes for really cool scuba diving.

Patrick

My dad worked at the depot once in a while as the site doctor. I went in a few times and got some tours due o my status as well his son and an active reserve armor officer. It was kind of cool watching them convert M60 a1's over to A3's and whatever other restoration they could do. In Germany, one of my tanks look lie it had been repaired from a hit in the lower hull. Someone thought it may have been a rebuild off of one we sent to the Israli's during the 73 War.