You'd be stuck and die by ambush like this Russian BTR was in Chechnya:
BTR dies on narrow mountain pass
Size doesn't matter?
Ability to turn in place doesn't matter?
This is a sample of some of the difficult terrain that can be encountered in the Balkans. Here an M3A2 is making a U-turn because the path ahead became too narrow for the vehicles to proceed. On the right, you can clearly see the vertical rock wall, but on the left (directly behind the 'Bradley') is a sheer 500 meter drop.
A Vietnam combat veteran writes:
Have you considered that if the vehicle were only 100 inches wide it wouldn't have to turn around because roads around the world are built to acomodate standard width vehicles. The Bradley M3A3 is overwidth being 117 inches wide over tracks and 129 inches wide overall. The M1 series tanks are even wider at 144 inches which is the maximum width allowed to be transported by the Association of American Railroads.
I agree with you about the importance of pivot steer! The picture looks like an ideal ambush site in which vehicles are restricted to the road and the enemy has long range fields of fire. Imagine that the site pictured was the ambush of a LAV convoy, and the lead LAV had already been destroyed, blocking the road. Now imagine the rest of the LAV convoy trying to turn around or back up under machine gun and anti tank or missile fire. I have a nightmare of having to watch such a scenario on CNN when our LAV's are fielded.
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