The Glade 4.0

Avalanche control for U.S. Highway 2 over Stevens Pass is (sometimes) done with Tanks!

Avalanche jobs

In California, in Mammoth, I think, they use artillery.

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106mm recoilless rifles. Howitzers, bombs, and even fuel-air explosives have also been used at various times.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

While watching, I just kept thinking about how their cleanup job would be easier if they were using M1A1s.

The rounds fired from the 120mm cannon on the M1A1 have combustible casings that get burned up when fired. They're much larger and require more delicate handling than the metal casings of the 105mm rounds, but all you're left with when the job is done is a pile of aft-caps.

Also, speaking from experience, it's a lot less awesome when it's what you do every day. As Elton John put it: "It's just my job, 5 days a week".

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Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

A lot of ski resorts in the West where snowpack becomes more of a concern do this but with explosive packs. In bounds avalanches tend to be rare and usually not fatal but there are usually one or two deaths a year from in bounds slides.

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"It's real, grew up in trife life, the times of white lines
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Hah, thanks, that was it. (I literally thought of you when writing the first post, figured you'd be by to correct me. )

The coolest part of the original video is that they get to drive around (I assume) in tanks.

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

Evidently they do. The M60 tank had a 105mm gun (so did the original M1; it didn't get the 120mm until the A1 version). There's also 105mm recoilless rifles and 105mm howitzers but none of them fire the same round. The 106mm recoilless rifle is really 105mm; it's referred to as 106mm in order to make it clear that ammunition from an earlier 105mm weapon is not compatible with it.

As for the M1A1, the problem with the 120mm round is that no dedicated high explosive 120mm round exists. Several rounds might suffice, such as the M830 (HEAT) or the M980 (obstacle reduction), but both are designed to hit things like light armor or concrete, not snow and therefore you might get undesireable results. The M60 actually retained certain minor advantages over the M1 series; one of them was the greater variety of ammunition for the 105mm gun, which ironically was not a problem on the earliest M1s. HE rounds are also cheaper than the specialized rounds used by the 120mm, and the diesel engine of the M60 is more economical to operate than the M1 turbine engine. The M60 is also about 17 tons lighter, better for the roads.

This round is designed to combine the 3 modes of the M830 plus the M1028 into a single round, and might have been suitable for avalanche control, but I don't know the status of the program, and there'd still be the problems of the fuel and extreme weight of the M1A1.

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."