The U.S. Army revealed the name of its newest combat vehicle, the M10 Booker, on Saturday — but don’t you dare call it a tank.
“It’s been a tremendously successful program… on schedule, on budget, and performing well in testing,” according to Maj. Gen. Glenn Dean, the program executive officer for ground combat systems. The first tanks… er, combat vehicles, should be delivered to the Army later this year.
The M10 has armor. It has tracks. It has a turret borrowed in part from an actual tank, the deadly M1 Abrams. It has a big gun — the 105mm gun from the early version of the M1 — sticking out of that turret. It’s crewed like a tank, it drives like a tank, it shoots like a tank, and it looks like a tank but, make no mistake, the M10 is “mobile protected firepower,” and not at all a tank.
Stick a pin in that thought; I’ll get back to it in just a moment.
The Booker is named after not one, but two fallen Army heroes. Staff Sgt. Stevon Booker of Pennsylvania was killed in action in Iraq on April 5, 2003, and posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his heroism during the initial invasion of Iraq. Booker was “a tank commander serving under Task Force 1-64,” according to Defense News, and “was killed by enemy machine gun fire during the first thunder run up Highway 8 leading to the Baghdad International Airport.”
When both of the tank’s machine guns failed, Stevon laid down on top of the tank’s turret and fired at enemy forces with his own weapon, destroying an enemy troop carrier as it attempted to pass the tank. He continued to fire his weapon along an 8-kilometer route until he was mortally wounded.
With Stevon Booker’s name gracing it, the M10 becomes the first vehicle of any kind to be named after a service member from any of America’s post-9/11 wars. But we have one more hero to go.
Private Robert Booker of Nebraksa served during World War II and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty in action” during the Tunisia campaign.
On April 9, 1943, despite hostile enemy fire, Booker crossed an open field near Fondouk, Tunisia, carrying a machine gun and a box of ammunition. Once he reached his intended location, nearly 200 yards away, Booker set up his machine gun and began firing on enemy targets. After being shot and injured, he continued firing his weapon and eventually destroyed an enemy machine gun. As he turned to fire on a second enemy machine gun, Booker was shot again, this time fatally. Before he died, however, Booker remained restrained and unfazed as he continued to encourage his squad and help direct their fire.
“It’s really cool to get to name something after two amazing soldiers,” said Doug Bush, the Army’s assistant secretary for acquisition, at the naming ceremony.
Indeed.
No matter what name you put on it though, the Army wants you to know that the Booker is not a tank.
Modern main battle tanks like the M1 Abrams serve as part of a fast-moving, hard-hitting armored formation. But that’s not the M10’s job. Instead, the Booker will “bring new firepower and frontal-assault capabilities to light infantry formations,” according to Star and Stripes. Ask any infantryman if he’d like to have a highly mobile 105mm cannon available to punch big holes in stuff, and he’ll either say, “Yes, sir!” or look at you like you’re an idiot for even asking the question.
And at 38 tons — the newest M1A2 Abrams weighs nearly 74 tons — the Booker was designed with mobility in mind, not armor. Its comparatively light weight means that Booker can get to more places while burning less fuel. The M10 is much more air-mobile, too. A C-17 Globemaster can transport two Bookers at a time, versus just one Abrams.
Finally, while the M10 might have borrowed its turret layout from the M1, its aged cannon and lighter armor just don’t stack up against modern tanks.
As awkward as it is to say “mobile protective firepower combat vehicle,” that’s exactly what the M10 is.
So let’s just call it Booker.
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