Using refurbished parts can cut the bill down and is necessary for oddball pieces or complicated systems that aren't made anymore, such as tracks, transmissions, and diesel engines. Stockpiles of newly manufactured parts mix with those made decades ago, but stored neatly on warehouse shelves since, never having been installed. Obsessives can pay for a full restoration, wherein the dealer completely dismantles the vehicle into crumbs and skeletons. Dealers run through the hydraulic, electrical, braking, and steering systems, tune up the engine, change out the rubber and fluids, and wipe it in fresh military olive paint before it heads to you.Įverything comes scratch-and-dent, so while $50k buys you a runner, refurbishment adds up to $30k if you want your T-72 looking brand-spanking-new. Rubber hoses dry out and fluids grow stale, paint fades under years of sun.

Forty years of military service and sitting in an outdoor lot waiting for a buyer does a job on components. If you have a perfectly good hull, swapping out the turret is a great way to buy time and extend the service life of an otherwise-outdated and outmatched system.Anything crucial that needs replacing gets fixed as part of the base purchase price. Thankfully, the great thing about turrets is that they can be replaced quite easily if you have the proper facilities and trained maintenance personnel. This is where the firepower of your typical armored fighting vehicle resides. More often than not, your real problem isn't the armored fighting vehicle itself, it's what goes on top: the turret. Believe it or not, those old tanks can be given new life, and the process is actually very simple and relatively cheap. Sounds like you're stuck with obsolete vehicles, right? Now imagine that you're looking to upgrade your armored fighting vehicles (tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers), but you've just been told you can't buy new ones - even second-hand vehicles aren't an option. Imagine you're in a country that tends to pinch pennies when it comes to the defense budget.

What is the cheapest military tank