Uparmoring

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 12:51:19 -0500, Erik Hoover <grinchy at GRINCHY.COM> wrote:

>FWIW: The now familiar usage of uparmor is older than recent events.  I
>do not have access to a wide range of sources, but Google's Usenet
>archives show postings with the current sense in 1993 and 1995.
>
>http://groups-beta.google.com/group/sci.military/browse_frm/thread/6324a48c4411c1e/6764930efc231672


"Uparmored" dates back to 1991 on Usenet (note that it is used in
conjunction with "upgunned", upon which "uparmored" may be based):

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/sci.military/msg/7c18d341fa38ba69
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Iraq's Up-gunned T55s
Message-ID: <1991Feb18.062559.15289 at cbnews.att.com>
Date: 18 Feb 91 06:25:59 GMT
One of the recent issues of ARMOR (Dec or Jan) had an article on the
Iraqi armored establishment. The article said that some T55s had been
modified (upgunned and/or uparmored).


Amazon "Search Inside the Book" feature finds 5 books with "uparmored",
including one first published in 1994:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1580970184/?v=search-inside&keywords=uparmored
Rommel's North Africa Campaign: September 1940 - November 1942
by Jack Greene
1.       on Page 48:
"... medium Pz III and IV were the main battle tanks for Rommel throughout
this campaign. The Pz III's had been uparmored since the fighting in
France, and most of the initial arrivals received extra 30mm face-hardened
plates to protect the vulnerable ..."
2.      on Page 49:
"... the Pz III (though a ratio that would quickly fall off to 1 to 3 or
more), were also being uparmored, and were armed with a short 75mm gun.
While primarily used against enemy infantry and AT guns, they could damage
..."


The version of Proquest I can access doesn't show anything before 1997:

JOM, May 1997, p. 45
TACOM is also using titanium to uparmor the M1 Abrams main battle tank.

Electronic Engineering Times, Jun 2, 1997, p. 44
The laser system is integrated onto an uparmored high-mobility,
multiwheeled vehicle.


--Ben Zimmer