1.
Singapore Army
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The Singapore Army is the service of the Singapore Armed Forces tasked with land operations. It is the largest of the three Services, the Singaporean army is primarily a conscript army that, in the event of war, mobilises most of its combat power by calling up military reservists. Two infantry regiments formed the nucleus of the Singapore Army and these were established pre-independence, in anticipation of self-rule following British decolonisation. The First Singapore Infantry Regiment was constituted in 1957, under British auspices, the Second Singapore Infantry Regiment followed in 1963. After a fraught merger with the Federation of Malaya and subsequent separation in 1965, in 1972, Parliament passed further legislation to reorganise and consolidate the armed forces disparate commands and administrative functions. Military Deployments May 2007-June 2013, International Security Assistance Force, deployment of close to 500 personnel including Singapore Army soldiers as part of Singapores contributions to multinational stabilisation and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. Logistical support of forces in the ongoing War on Terror. The stated mission of the Singapore Armed Forces is to deter armed aggression, the Army is also tasked with conducting peace-time operations to further Singapores national interests and foreign policy. These range from disaster relief to peacekeeping, hostage-rescue and other contingencies, the Army views technology as a force-multiplier and a means to sustain combat power given Singapores population constraints. Jointness across three branches of the SAF is integral to the Armys warfighting doctrine, joint operations undertaken with the Navy and Air Force include amphibious landings and critical disaster relief operations in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Combat readiness is a linchpin of Army policy, and military exercises up to level are conducted many times yearly, simulating full-spectrum operations, up to. Divisional war games are a combined arms, tri-service affair involving the Republic of Singapore Navy, because training space is limited in Singapore—artillery fire would quickly traverse the island—some military exercises are conducted overseas. Reservists periodically train abroad, their units regularly evaluated for combat readiness, the Army also trains bilaterally with some host nations, and military exchanges are frequent. Training is billed as tough, realistic and safe, with a premium on safety, the Army is headed by the Chief of Army. Assisting him are the Chief of Staff, Army General Staff and Commander, there are six branches of the General Staff, a National Service Affairs Department dealing with National Service issues, and an Inspectorate. The six branches handle manpower, intelligence, operations, logistics, each department is headed by an Assistant Chief of the General Staff. Also advising the Chief of Army are the Senior Specialist Staff Officers of the various formations and they include both active and reserve units that are operationally ready, all subject to mobilization orders in the event of war. 2 Peoples Defence Force is responsible for security, including that of key civilian installations
2.
Military engineering vehicle
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A military engineering vehicle is a vehicle built for the construction work or for the transportation of combat engineers on the battlefield. These vehicles may be modified civilian equipment or purpose-built military vehicles, military engineering can employ a wide variety of heavy equipment in the same or similar ways to how this equipment is used outside the military. Bulldozers, cranes, graders, excavators, dump trucks, loaders, military engineers may also use civilian heavy equipment which was modified for military applications. Typically, this involves adding armour for protection from hazards such as artillery, unexploded ordnance, mines. Often this protection is provided by armour plates and steel jackets, some examples of armoured civilian heavy equipment are the IDF Caterpillar D9, American D7 TPK, Canadian D6 armoured bulldozer, cranes, graders, excavators, and M35 2-1/2 ton cargo truck. Militarized heavy equipment may take on the form of traditional civilian equipment designed. These vehicles typically sacrifice some depth of capability from civilian models in order to gain greater speed, examples of this type of vehicle include high speed backhoes such as the Australian Armys High Mobility Engineering Vehicle from Thales or the Canadian Armys Multi-Purpose Engineer Vehicle from Arva. These vehicles are designed to directly conduct obstacle breaching operations and to conduct other earth-moving and engineering work on the battlefield, good examples of this type of vehicle include the UK Trojan AVRE, the Russian IMR, and the US M728 Combat Engineer Vehicle. Thus, armoured vehicle used generically would refer to AEV, AVLB, Assault Breachers. Lighter and less multi-functional than the CEVs or AEVs described above and these vehicles have greater high speed mobility than traditional heavy equipment and are protected against the effects of blast and fragmentation. Good examples are the American M9 ACE and the UK FV180 Combat Engineer Tractor and these vehicles are equipped with mechanical or other means for the breaching of man made obstacles. Common types of breaching vehicles include mechanical flails, mine plough vehicles, in some cases, these vehicles will also mount Mine-clearing line charges. Breaching vehicles may be either converted armoured fighting vehicles or purpose built vehicles, good examples of breaching vehicles include the USMC M1 Assault Breacher Vehicle, the UK Aardvark JSFU, and the Singaporean Trailblazer. Several types of military bridging vehicles have been developed, an armoured vehicle-launched bridge is typically a modified tank hull converted to carry a bridge into battle in order to support crossing ditches, small waterways, or other gap obstacles. Another type of bridging vehicle is the truck launched bridge, the Soviet TMM bridging truck could carry and launch a 10-meter bridge that could be daisy-chained with other TMM bridges to cross larger obstacles. Earlier examples of bridging vehicles include a type in which a tank hull is the bridge. An example of type of armoured bridging vehicle was the Churchill Ark used in the Second World War. Another type of CEVs are armoured fighting vehicles which are used to transport sappers and can be fitted with a bulldozers blade and they are often used as APCs because of their carrying ability and heavy protection
3.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
4.
Cold War
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The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc and powers in the Western Bloc. Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947, the year the Truman Doctrine was announced, and 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed. The term cold is used there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two sides, although there were major regional wars, known as proxy wars, supported by the two sides. The Cold War split the temporary alliance against Nazi Germany, leaving the Soviet Union. The USSR was a Marxist–Leninist state ruled by its Communist Party and secret police, the Party controlled the press, the military, the economy and all organizations. In opposition stood the West, dominantly democratic and capitalist with a free press, a small neutral bloc arose with the Non-Aligned Movement, it sought good relations with both sides. The two superpowers never engaged directly in full-scale armed combat, but they were armed in preparation for a possible all-out nuclear world war. The first phase of the Cold War began in the first two years after the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Berlin Blockade was the first major crisis of the Cold War. With the victory of the communist side in the Chinese Civil War and the outbreak of the Korean War, the USSR and USA competed for influence in Latin America, and the decolonizing states of Africa and Asia. Meanwhile, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was stopped by the Soviets, the expansion and escalation sparked more crises, such as the Suez Crisis, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The USSR crushed the 1968 Prague Spring liberalization program in Czechoslovakia, détente collapsed at the end of the decade with the beginning of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979. The early 1980s were another period of elevated tension, with the Soviet downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, the United States increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressures on the Soviet Union, at a time when the communist state was already suffering from economic stagnation. In the mid-1980s, the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the reforms of perestroika and glasnost. Pressures for national independence grew stronger in Eastern Europe, especially Poland, Gorbachev meanwhile refused to use Soviet troops to bolster the faltering Warsaw Pact regimes as had occurred in the past. The result in 1989 was a wave of revolutions that peacefully overthrew all of the communist regimes of Central, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union itself lost control and was banned following an abortive coup attempt in August 1991. This in turn led to the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. The United States remained as the only superpower. The Cold War and its events have left a significant legacy and it is often referred to in popular culture, especially in media featuring themes of espionage and the threat of nuclear warfare
5.
Gulf War
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The Iraqi Armys occupation of Kuwait that began 2 August 1990 was met with international condemnation, and brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. US President George H. W. Bush deployed US forces into Saudi Arabia, an array of nations joined the coalition, the largest military alliance since World War II. The great majority of the military forces were from the US, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia paid around US$32 billion of the US$60 billion cost, the war was marked by the introduction of live news broadcasts from the front lines of the battle, principally by the US network CNN. The war has also earned the nickname Video Game War after the daily broadcast of images from cameras on board US bombers during Operation Desert Storm. The initial conflict to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait began with an aerial and naval bombardment on 17 January 1991 and this was followed by a ground assault on 24 February. This was a victory for the coalition forces, who liberated Kuwait. The coalition ceased its advance, and declared a ceasefire 100 hours after the campaign started. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, Iraq launched Scud missiles against coalition military targets in Saudi Arabia and against Israel. The following names have been used to describe the conflict itself, Gulf War, a problem with these terms is that the usage is ambiguous, having now been applied to at least three conflicts, see Gulf War. The use of the term Persian Gulf is also disputed, see Persian Gulf naming dispute, with no consensus of naming, various publications have attempted to refine the name. Other language terms include French, la Guerre du Golfe and German, Golfkrieg, German, Zweiter Golfkrieg, French, most of the coalition states used various names for their operations and the wars operational phases. Operation Desert Storm was the US name of the conflict from 17 January 1991. Operation Desert Sabre was the US name for the offensive against the Iraqi Army in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations from 24–28 February 1991, in itself. Operation Desert Farewell was the given to the return of US units and equipment to the US in 1991 after Kuwaits liberation. Operation Granby was the British name for British military activities during the operations, Opération Daguet was the French name for French military activities in the conflict. Operation Friction was the name of the Canadian operations Operazione Locusta was the Italian name for the operations, in addition, various phases of each operation may have a unique operational name. The US divided the conflict into three campaigns, Defense of Saudi Arabian country for the period 2 August 1990, through 16 January 1991
6.
M240 machine gun
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The M240, officially Machine Gun,7. 62mm, M240, is the US military designation for the FN MAG, a family of belt-fed, gas-operated medium machine guns firing the 7. 62×51mm NATO cartridge. The M240 has been used by the United States Armed Forces since the late-1970s and it is used extensively by infantry, most often rifle companies as well as ground vehicles, watercraft and aircraft. Despite being heavier than weapons, it is highly regarded for reliability. All variants are fed from disintegrating belts, and are capable of firing most types of 7.62 mm NATO ammunition, M240 variants can use non-disintegrating belts. There are significant differences in weight and some features among some versions which restrict interchangeability of parts, the M240s used by the US military are currently manufactured by FN Manufacturing, a US-based branch of FN Herstal. Manufactured by Fabrique Nationale, the FN MAG was chosen by the U. S. military for different roles after large world-wide searches, the MAG is a belt-fed, gas-operated, air-cooled, crew-served, fixed headspace weapon. Its versatility is demonstrated by its ability to be mounted on the M122A1 tripod and it was first adopted by the U. S. Army in 1977, as a coaxial tank gun, and slowly adopted for more applications in the 1980s and 1990s. The M240 and M240E1 were adopted for use on vehicles and this led to further adoption in more uses, especially for the Army and Marine infantry. While possessing many of the basic characteristics as its predecessor. The MAG actually has a more complex gas system than the M60, compared to other machine guns, its rating of 26,000 mean rounds between failure is quite high for its weight—in the 1970s when it was first adopted it achieved about 7,000 MRBF. It is not as reliable as some very heavy older designs and it would go on to be deployed in this role in the 1980s, but was additionally adopted for infantry and other uses. It was deployed in new roles in the 1990s and 2000s. As mentioned, during the 1970s the Army was looking for new 7.62 mm machine guns for vehicle/AFV mounts, the 1950s-era M73 had been rather troubled, and the derivative M73E1/M219 was not much of an improvement. A number of designs of the period from various countries were considered and they underwent comprehensive testing alongside the older M219 for comparison. Two main criteria analyzed were mean rounds between stoppages and mean rounds between failures, the results for the evaluated machine guns were the following, The test applies only to the 1970s-era versions tested. The MAG itself underwent some improvements and the M60E2 was a specialized coaxial variant that differed from some of the other types, the qualities of the M60 variants vary considerably, such as between the M60E4 and the M60C. That aside, for these types the clear winner was the MAG and it went on to replace many older types for the vehicle/coaxial role in the 1980s. The M240 proved popular enough that it was adapted by the later on, spawning the M240B
7.
General Dynamics
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General Dynamics Corporation is an American aerospace and defense multinational corporation. Formed by mergers and divestitures, it is the worlds fifth-largest defense contractor based on 2012 revenues, General Dynamics is headquartered in West Falls Church, Fairfax County, Virginia. The company has changed markedly in the post–Cold War era of defense consolidation and it has four main business segments, Marine Systems, Combat Systems, Information Systems Technology, and Aerospace. General Dynamics former Fort Worth Division manufactured one of the Western worlds most-produced jet fighters, the F-16 Fighting Falcon—until 1993, in 1999, the company re-entered the airframe business with its purchase of Gulfstream Aerospace. General Dynamics traces its ancestry to John Philip Hollands Holland Torpedo Boat Company and this company was responsible for developing the U. S. Navys first submarines built at Lewis Nixons Crescent Shipyard, located in Elizabethport, New Jersey. The revolutionary submarine boat Holland VI was built there, its keel being laid down in 1896, crescents superintendent and naval architect, Arthur Leopold Busch, supervised the construction of this submarine. After being launched on 17 May 1897, it was purchased by the Navy. The Holland was officially commissioned on 12 October 1900 and became the United States Navys first submarine, the Navy placed an order for more submarines, which were developed in rapid succession and were assembled at two different locations on both coasts. These submarines were known as the A-Class or Adder Class, Holland effectively lost control of the company and found himself earning a salary of $90 a week as chief engineer, while the company that he founded was selling submarines for $300,000 each. Holland resigned from the company effective April 1904, rice became Electric Boats first President, remaining there from that time until 1915 when he stepped down just prior to his death on 2 November 1915. Electric Boat gained a reputation for unscrupulous arms dealing in 1904-05, when it sold submarines to Japans Imperial Japanese Navy and Russias Imperial Russian Navy, who were then at war. Holland submarines were sold to the British Royal Navy through the English armaments company Vickers. The new pioneering craft originally developed by the company was now legitimized as genuine naval weapons by the worlds most powerful navies. In the post-World War II wind-down, Electric Boat was cash-flush but lacking in work, hoping to diversify, president and chief executive officer John Jay Hopkins started looking for companies that would fit into Electric Boats market. Hopkins quickly found that Canadair, owned by the Canadian government, was suffering from similar post-war malaise and was up for sale, Hopkins bought the company for $10 million in 1946. Even by the Canadian governments calculations, the factory alone was more than $22 million. When Electric Boat purchased Canadair, its line and inventory systems were in disorder. Hopkins hired Canadian-born mass-production specialist H. Oliver West to take over the presidents role, as defense spending increased with the onset of the Cold War, Canadair went on to win many Canadian military contracts for the Royal Canadian Air Force, and became a major aerospace company
8.
V12 engine
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By using split crankpins or ignoring minor vibrations, any V angle is possible. The 180° configuration is referred to as a flat-twelve engine or a boxer although it is in reality a 180° V since the pistons can. This is not important in a car if all-out performance is the only goal. Since cost and fuel economy are usually important even in luxury and racing cars and it is often used in marine engines where great power is required, and the hull width is limited, but a longer vessel allows faster hull speed. In twin-propeller boats, two V12 engines can be enough to sit side-by-side, while three V12 engines are sometimes used in high-speed three-propeller configurations. Large, fast cruise ships can have six or more V12 engines, after World War II, the compact, more powerful, and vibration-free turboprop and turbojet engines replaced the V12 in aircraft applications. The first V-type engine was built in 1889 by Daimler, to a design by Wilhelm Maybach, by 1903 V8 engines were being produced for motor boat racing by the Société Antoinette to designs by Léon Levavasseur, building on experience gained with in-line four-cylinder engines. In 1904, the Putney Motor Works completed a new V12 marine racing engine—the first V12 engine produced for any purpose, a single camshaft mounted in the central V operated the valves directly. As in many engines, the camshaft could be slid longitudinally to engage a second set of cams. Starting is by pumping a charge into each cylinder and switching on the trembler coils, a sliding camshaft gave direct reversing. The camshaft has fluted webs and main bearings in graduated thickness from the largest at the flywheel end, displacing 1,120 cu in, the engine weighed 950 pounds and developed 150 bhp. Little is known of the achievements in the 40-foot hull for which it was intended. One V12 Dörwald marine engine was still running in a Hong Kong junk in the late-1960s. Two more V12s appeared in the 1909-1910 motor boat racing season, the Lamb Boat & Engine Company of Clinton, Iowa built a 1,559 cu in engine for the companys 32-foot Lamb IV. It weighed in at 2,114 pounds, no weight is known for the massive 3,464 cu in F-head engine built by the Orleans Motor Company. Output is quoted as nearly 400 bhp, by 1914, when Panhard built two 2,356 cu in engines with four-valve cylinder heads the V12 was well established in motor boat racing. In October 1913, Louis Coatalen, chief engineer of the Sunbeam Motor Car Company entered a V12 powered car in the Brooklands short, the engine displaced 9 L, with bore and stroke of 80 x 150 mm. An aluminum crankcase carried two blocks of three cylinders each along each side, with a 60 degree included angle, the cylinders were of iron, with integral cylinder heads with L-shaped combustion chambers
9.
Diesel engine
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Diesel engines work by compressing only the air. This increases the air temperature inside the cylinder to such a degree that it ignites atomised diesel fuel that is injected into the combustion chamber. This contrasts with spark-ignition engines such as an engine or gas engine. In diesel engines, glow plugs may be used to aid starting in cold weather, or when the engine uses a lower compression-ratio, the original diesel engine operates on the constant pressure cycle of gradual combustion and produces no audible knock. Low-speed diesel engines can have an efficiency that exceeds 50%. Diesel engines may be designed as either two-stroke or four-stroke cycles and they were originally used as a more efficient replacement for stationary steam engines. Since the 1910s they have used in submarines and ships. Use in locomotives, trucks, heavy equipment and electricity generation plants followed later, in the 1930s, they slowly began to be used in a few automobiles. Since the 1970s, the use of engines in larger on-road and off-road vehicles in the US increased. According to the British Society of Motor Manufacturing and Traders, the EU average for diesel cars accounts for 50% of the total sold, including 70% in France and 38% in the UK. The worlds largest diesel engine is currently a Wärtsilä-Sulzer RTA96-C Common Rail marine diesel, the definition of a Diesel engine to many has become an engine that uses compression ignition. To some it may be an engine that uses heavy fuel oil, to others an engine that does not use spark ignition. However the original cycle proposed by Rudolf Diesel in 1892 was a constant temperature cycle which would require higher compression than what is needed for compression ignition. Diesels idea was to compress the air so tightly that the temperature of the air would exceed that of combustion, to make this more clear, let it be assumed that the subsequent combustion shall take place at a temperature of 700°. Then in that case the pressure must be sixty-four atmospheres, or for 800° centigrade the pressure must be ninety atmospheres. In later years Diesel realized his original cycle would not work, Diesel describes the cycle in his 1895 patent application. Notice that there is no longer a mention of compression temperatures exceeding the temperature of combustion, now all that is mentioned is the compression must be high enough for ignition. In 1806 Claude and Nicéphore Niépce developed the first known internal combustion engine, the Pyréolophore fuel system used a blast of air provided by a bellows to atomize Lycopodium
10.
Fort Belvoir
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Fort Belvoir /ˈbɛlvwɑːr/ is a United States Army installation and a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Originally, it was the site of the Belvoir plantation, today, Fort Belvoir is home to a number of important United States military organizations. With nearly twice as many workers as The Pentagon, Belvoir is the largest employer in Fairfax County, Fort Belvoir actually comprises three geographically distinct properties, the main base, Davison Army Airfield, and the Fort Belvoir North Area. The base was founded during World War I as Camp A. A. Humphreys, named for Union Civil War general Andrew A. Humphreys, who was also Chief of Engineers. Fort Belvoir was initially the home of the Army Engineer School prior to its relocation in the 1980s to Fort Leonard Wood, as a result of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission, Fort Belvoir had a substantial increase in the number of people stationed or employed there. The cost of the new center was $2.4 billion, in addition, Fort Belvoir is home to National Reconnaissance Offices Aerospace Data Facility-East. Lord Fairfax came to America in 1747 and stayed less than a year at the Belvoir estate before moving to Greenway Court, the Fairfax family lived at Belvoir for over 30 years, but eldest son George William Fairfax sailed to England on business in 1773, never to return. The manor home was destroyed by fire in 1783, the ruins of the Belvoir Mansion and the nearby Fairfax family grave site are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. William Fairfax served in the Royal Navy as a man and all of his sons served in uniform. The Army Historical Foundation announced in March 2017 that construction will begin on the National Museum of the United States Army on Fort Belvoir. The museum, set on 84 acres, will tell the stories of the 30 million men and women who have served in the Army since 1775. The 185,000 square-foot museum will feature state-of-the-art technology throughout the dramatic historical galleries, an interactive Experiential Learning Center, there will also be outdoor venues including a Memorial Garden, Amphitheater, Parade Ground, and Army Trail. It is expected to open in late 2019, Fort Belvoir is also a census-designated place. Neighboring CDPs are Mount Vernon to the east, Woodlawn and Groveton to the northeast, Hayfield and Kingstowne to the north, as of the census of 2010, there were 7,100 people,1,777 households, and 1,700 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 809.9 people per square mile, there were 2,018 housing units at an average density of 230. 2/sq mi. The racial makeup of the CDP was 64. 9% White,21. 7% African American,0. 6% Native American,2. 5% Asian,0. 5% Pacific Islander,2. 5% some other race, and 7. 3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 13. 2% of the population,4. 1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 0. 1% were someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.80, and the family size was 3.90
11.
M26 Pershing
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The Pershing was a heavy tank of the United States Army. The tank is named after General of the Armies John J. Pershing and it was briefly used in the final months of World War II and extensively during the Korean War. Based on the criteria of firepower, mobility, and protection, R. P. Hunnicutt ranked the Pershing second, behind the German Panther medium tank, but ahead of the Tiger I heavy tank. The lineage of the M26 continued with the M47 Patton, and was reflected in the new designs of the later M48 Patton and M60 Patton. The M26 was the culmination of a series of tank prototypes that began with the T20 in 1942. The prototype series began as a medium tank upgrade of the M4 Sherman, in addition, the large diameter of the radial engines in the M4 line of tanks added further to the hull height. These mechanical features accounted for the silhouette and large side sponsons that were characteristic of the M4 lineage. In the spring of 1942, as the M4 Sherman was entering production, the T20 tank reached a mock-up stage in May 1942, and was intended as an improved medium tank to follow the M4. An earlier heavy tank, the M6, had been standardized in February 1942, the U. S. Army had no doctrinal use for a heavy tank at the time. The T20 was designed to have a more compact hull than the M4, the Ford GAN V-8, a lower silhouette version of the GAA engine used in later variants of the M4, had become available. The T20 was fitted with the new 76 mm M1A1 gun, the 3 inch front hull armor was.5 in thicker than the 63 mm front armor of the M4. The glacis plate slope was similar at 46°, the T20s overall weight was approximately the same as the M4. The T20 used a version of the horizontal volute spring suspension. Later prototypes of the M26 tested a torsion bar suspension, which would become the standard for future U. S. tank suspension systems, the T22 series reverted to the M4 transmission because of problems with the early Torqmatic transmission used in the T20. The T22E1 tested an autoloader for the gun, and eliminated the loaders position with a small two-man turret. Through much of 1943, there was little perceived need within the U. S, the electrical transmission was built by General Electric, and had the engine driving a generator that powered two traction motors. The concept was similar to the system of the German Porsche Tiger. It had performance advantages in rough or hilly terrain, where the system could handle the rapid changes in torque requirements
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Oman – three in service with the Royal Army of Oman[17]
Portugal – three in service with the Portuguese Army[17]
Morocco – six in service with the Royal Moroccan Army[18]
Saudi Arabia – 15 in service with the Saudi Arabian Army[17]
Spain - 38 M60CZ-10/25E Alacran[19]
United States – Retired from combat use 2000, 262 are relegated to the Army National Guard and US Army Reserve (as of 2007)[20]
Singapore – 8 formerly in service with the Singapore Army (and most likely stored in reserve) as of 2016[14]
