Bradley Development: What Pentagon Wars got right.

Is "The Pentagon Wars" a film with no historically redeeming qualities? Fortunately, no!
The US Army's Armor and Cavalry Collection (and the Infantry Museum) have some of the progenitors of Bradley, and we can compare the film's development sequence with what the Army was really building.
Note. I transposed the dates on M701 and M734. The 701 was built 1965, testing complete 1966. XM734 was started 1965, delivered 1966.

Thanks to the ACC and the Patreons for making the trip possible.

Public facebook page:

Improved-Computer-And-Scout Car Fund (i.e. financial donations):

[thecanadianbeaver]

As former Bradley users always seem to like to point out, they forgot about air conditioning....

[MajesticDemonLord]

All the time he's in front of the Bradley, it looks like the Abrams to his left is holding him hostage, forcing him to talk at gunpoint (cannonpoint?)

[KermitTheGamer]

As equally confusing as the Bradley's development is that of its crews' defensive weapon, the M231 Firing Port Weapon. When it was first envisioned by Rock Island Arsenal in 1972, it was basically an M16A1 receiver with a short barrel, a handguard which locked into the firing port of the Bradley's prototype, and featured a wire stock inspired by the M3 Grease Gun that was still in use as the crew's weapon.

But the Army feared that the crews would want to take the weapon out of the vehicle, and they couldn't have that for some reason, so they removed the iron sights, upped the rate of fire to ridiculously uncontrollable amounts, and made it full-auto only. Then they removed the stock too, making the weapon all but useless. It now fires 5.56 at over 1200 rounds per minute and because it has no iron sights the only ammunition it is allowed to fire is tracer ammo.

It all just seems so ridiculous to me.

[Starfireaw]

Pentagon Wars is to military procurement what Office Space is to working in an office. It's farcical and over the top, but everyone that has any experience with the subject matter sees a lot of truth in it.

[Ksportin]

I have never seen a Bradley's in person but had always heard it was a tall vehicle. Seeing it next to an Abrams and towering so much over the chieftain really put it's height into context for me

[brotherbisquick]

Chieftain literally getting into the weeds.

[chanman]

I'm getting bad flashbacks to every project involving clients, management, and business analysts I've ever had the misfortune to work on. IT isn't much different, except you don't get cool miniatures for everyone to play with while they heap on the contradictory requests.

"The interface must be clean, but also have good information density. Operation should be simple, but the logic complex, and user-customizable."
And no one ever, EVER wants to allocate the time or budget needed.

Finance, healthcare, small businesses... some things never change.

[douglaskautzman]

Her Name was The Chuck Wagon and she was my M2A2 W/ODS She took me from Kuwait to Baghdad in 29 days and did things the designers probably never dreamed possible. I miss her. she is sitting somewhere at arifijan rotting in the desert.

[Pincer]

I served with the YPR-765 PRI AIFV in the Netherlands Army. Neat little thing with armour that could withstand 7.62mm AP and that's all she wrote, but with a 25mm Oerlikon and (later) a pretty good thermal sight. Basically the M-113/XM-765 with port holes (we never used in training or otherwise). Funny how our army ended up with the leftover idea of the US Bradley development.

[dermotrooney]

Nice action. Pentagon Wars is much closer to the procurement of UK's Ajax.

[CB-vtmx]

If you watch the Pentagon Wars, you come away believing the M2/M3 should be a terrible vehicle good at no actual role. But in fact, it has proven to be a very solid vehicle and weapon platform. Not perfect, but no system will be. The critical part of the success--particularly of the M2A1--was the several years of use in the field army in Germany where tactics, drill, and maintenance could be improved in iterations. Had the M2 been developed in a WW2 situation, it may have failed on fielding, but giving us a chance to roll it around German, NTC, and Fort Hood for 10 years meant that a lot of lessons in actual use could be learned, cataloged, and passed to the builders for improvements. That it remains a viable infantry/Cavalry system in 2021 is nothing short of a miracle and points to just how good it really is.

[killroy]

I'll be honest, I'd love to see a companion video to this where you also go over everything wrong with the Pentagon wars. I feel like you'd at least have more of an applicable POV compared to any other random person on YouTube

[fwfs]

I just want a sign on it in 50 different languages saying, "I'm a troop carrier, and not a tank. Please, don't shoot at me."

[Nathaniel_F]

My father was a Naval procurement officer and according to him, although not a factual retelling of any one program, The Pentagon Wars is the most accurate depiction of the general sense of frustration and jadedness among procurement officers. Watching that movie with him is a real experience.

[amzeke]

As a former Bradley crewman, it's so confusing why you wanted to make something to do all that and then wonder why it's taller than the first proposal. But I loved my time in 1/5 Infantry in 1st Cav back in 2000-2003

[gregoryheim]

Linking to a farce, not linking to a lie.

Sounds like the US Army that I know and love.

[leonpeters-malone]

No more nightmares this time, next to the Quad City Arsenal, this seems positively well managed and streamlined.

Still, things to be learned and mistakes made.

Isn't that life in general?

[NjK]

Love Kelsey Grammer in that film, such a turn from The Frasier character, and overall while exaggerated, the subject matter was quite fascinating

[MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

2:50 is that a early/mid Panzer III in the background!? Looks like the 50L42.

[its]

When I got out of the Air Force at the end of 92' my friend Allen had a game called Twilight 2000.His greatest dream was to serve in the Army but he had ALL the medical conditions and weighed about 110 lbs. soaking wet. My friends and I played that game with him and I always drove a Bradley with Allen as the commander. My man passed a few years later.Still, good times.Miss ya, Allen.