16 December 2024
With 45 years in Army, Andrew McAdie (Warrant Officer Class One at weekends) has worked on tanks his whole life.
Now he’s proud to be among the first in Australia to work with the new M1A2 system enhancement package version 3 (SEPv3) main battle tanks.
The field maintenance new equipment training (FMNET) course for the tank at Army School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering is a first of its kind.
Led by US instructors, the course melds the ways Australians and Americans maintain tanks. While Mr McAdie is enjoying the course, he can’t help but look forward to his next task – instructing on the new maintenance procedures.
“I've been very fortunate to be in a position where I can pass on what knowledge I have to Australia's young soldiers,” he said.
“It makes me want to go to work. I get to play with the big toys and I get to see fine young Australian soldiers, both men and women, and teach them how to repair these things. They make my job a pleasure.”
'The M1A2 is obviously far improved. The most important thing is crew survivability, so the up-armouring is really, really important.'
Mr McAdie, a self-confessed 'tank nut', has worked on everything from a Leopard AS 1 tank up. Seeing improvements in technology is at the heart of his passion, and with the new tank four generations advanced on the current M1A1, Mr McAdie couldn’t be more impressed.
“I always thought the M1A1 was an excellent tank,” he said.
“The M1A2 is obviously far improved. The most important thing is crew survivability, so the up-armouring is really, really important.
“There are other new advancements, like a separate site for the commander called a commander's independent thermal viewer. That means the commander could be looking in one direction, picking different targets than what his gunner is doing – for all-around awareness and protection.
“They've also got what's called a common remote operated weapon station. So the commander doesn't actually have to stick his head out of the hole; he stays down inside the turret, which protects him from any arms fire or shrapnel.”
'I've been very fortunate to be in a position where I can pass on what knowledge I have to Australia's young soldiers.'
The M1A2 SEPv3 also provides accurate and lethal fire mobility and superior mobility across ground. One of the most technologically advanced tanks in the world, it is at the core of Army’s combined arms fighting system, which protects and enables Army’s long-range strike capabilities.
With all the bells and whistles of the M1A2 SEPv3, downtime for maintenance has also improved, much to the delight of the students on the course. Mr McAdie, however, still looks forward to the thrill of problem-solving on the fly.
“When you're stuck out in the field and you have something that's not working, there's more than one way to get it going,” he said.
“Sometimes you have to be quite inventive and think of different ways to get them going. It gives you a real sense of achievement when you have a car that's not going – nothing to work with – and you get it back into the fight.”
