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DarkLabor

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Everything posted by DarkLabor

  1. DarkLabor
    Well, I have a spotty collection, so don't expect anything comprehensive. In that case, I discovered that I did not have the Saumur AMX 30 B hull leaflet (figures)... Hope this will be helpful :
  2. DarkLabor
    You are right, it doesn't make sense for a perfect protection. But in the end, the client is almighty. Depending on his choices, the modifications can be cost-effective with minimal changes. Or it can be an entire overhaul with high expenses (price and mass-balance). Since yesterday, I checked some photos of the "nude" tanks that received the CLARA packages. And it seems (to me at least) that the skirts are indeed slightly different. So you may be right regarding the passive skirt armor.
  3. DarkLabor
    Yes DND provides the ERA packages but there is another modification that got made. And I don't think Nexter got contracted for it... Once again, it is not necessary to look far : https://dn-defence.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/NEW_Folder_DND_Protection-scaled.jpg My best guess is that they did not touch the first 7 elements. And only sub-contracted GEKE for the 3 at the back, plus attach points...
  4. DarkLabor
    Regarding the AMX 30 capability to fire illuminating rounds, I don't think so... That kind of task was more for the ART support with their 155. In terms of night fighting capability it was more direct illumination through PH8 projector (vis./IR) Indirect fire was also done with M1 quadrant. Regarding operation Daguet, the AMX 30 B2s were equiped with counter-measures not APS (as defined by today's standards).
  5. DarkLabor
    Just look at the next vehicle they quote, you can fairly piece it together.
  6. DarkLabor
    A former worker is much more credible when he, unlike any parties in presence (competitors + judge) , did show me his videos of the competition. The tank losing the accompaniment vehicle. The fixing process on the hull, etc. In addition, the guy who supposedly leaked info on the armor protection said that they made, on their own, some changes to the armor protection of the Leclerc. Yet the 3D model shown was a Giat Industries one used to make a counter proposal on the protection requirements of the swedes. Regarding the suspicion of bribery with the aid of Al Yousef, this has been under reinforced investigation and nothing has been found so far. Giat Industries continues to abide french laws wich led to the dispute in the first place. Do not mistake lobying with corruption. But I give you that the comissions made are sickening for business reporting and marketing...
  7. DarkLabor
    I am in touch with some former worker of Giat Industries and have some details on what happened. That's how I know one of the Leclerc got its chassis damaged and not the suspension (as claimed the swedes...). I also have the confirmation that, at the time, the Leclerc performed poorly in mobility due to the defect of a temperature sensor that induced surging on multiple occasions. In addition, the tanks sent there were NOT prototypes, they were batch 1 tanks (a pre-series despite what say the engineers). I still maintain that weight is not a gage of efficiency of the armor. There is so many mecanisms that enter into play to defeat a penetrator that it is difficult to make a clear statement. But the example of a large slab of a dense material compared to an array of same thickness having a succession of sandwiches (dense material + rubber + dense material). Overall the slab of dense material is more dense than the array having rubber and air inbetween the sandwiches. Yet the array will be more efficient to defeat a penetrator, because it will disrupt it. The succession of different densities will also reduce greatly the kinetic energy.
  8. DarkLabor
    They asked for quotations, and maybe got demoed a live fire of said protection in each country. But they did NOT use the different packages for their own testings... They got rigs to put THEIR OWN layouts so they could test on their own but that's about it. NOTHING developped by the different competitors have been tested BY THE SWEDES THEMSELF. What do you want? A full volume made out of the strongest/the most dense alloy you can ever make? (yay, check mate engineers!) That is silly! You have sandwiches that can shear the penetrator (presenting fresh armor as the penetrator is advancing). You can set up your layout so that a large dense chuck can deform the penetrator, backed by a set of disruptors that will shear the penetrator in a different direction, backed by a lightweight high tensile buffer... In the age of composite armor, the mass is nearly irrelevant (totally regarding HEAT protection; a little less for KE protection).
  9. DarkLabor
    Your lack of knowledge regarding the different stages of the trials is kinda cute. That's not a pure competition à la Strong Europe Tank Challenge where the winner is designated at the end of the "field activities". Nor the competitors have eyes on what could happen behind the rug. They don't clearly know what other competitors have put on the table. Never been educated with crayolas, always pencil and eraser. Never stated that the Leclerc was "perfect" far from it. That is one of your inventions to drag the argument where you want it to be. The Leclerc is a compromise that suited the french army at the end of the cold war (sadly not anymore). It's greatest drawbacks are : -Complexity to use (complexity that serves as anti-theft and complexity induced by the system of systems) -Low ground footprint (forcing to weight every evolution to minimize the increase of ground pressure) -Of course the ridiculous number produced and the lack of family to drag down the prices on "consumables"... The designers of the Leclerc have set every armor modules with a set of mass efficient // volume efficient materials it's protection efficiency varies independently of the thickness. Nothing like what the swedes did with their simulation. The Leclerc has smaller armor packages with more dense materials. In that case, the weight of the turret itself is not a good indicator...
  10. DarkLabor
    KMW already showed evidence of corruption during the greek trials; that would not be impossible that they did the same thing with the swedes... But yeah keep drawing sunshine and rainbows with your crayolas...
  11. DarkLabor
    In what world do you live? The Swedes had the opportunity to add "production under license" in their requirements yet they ignored the propositions and threw their industry under the truck by just buying from the germans (the trials in itself was a mean to appease the industrials that were complaining). In addition, they managed lose the accompaniment vehicle of Giat Industries and during that time, they managed to damage the hull of a Leclerc... It was written that the suspension was damaged yet those fools didn't even managed to damage it. The impact was so strong that the nitrogen spheres went up to 1400 bars (were the french STAT managed to go up to 900 bars with their testings) and the bolt holes of the suspension units had been deformed... Hell, even recently, the "armor assessment" "leaked" is just BS. The swedes just 3D modeled however they wanted and put their armor composition in their simulation. Apparently from what I'm reading, you live in the world of care bears & Co...
  12. DarkLabor
    Well, I never heard of it. This doesn't mean that it never happenned. It could have happenned in punctual manner to validate or gather additionnal data... There is A LOT of things that the constructor (or the DGA!) experimented that has not been revealed to the public.
  13. DarkLabor
    While there is no radar on this photography, the MSC used to carry a ballistic radar to collect data. Never heard or seen anything like this on the prototypes or the first batches...
  14. DarkLabor
    Alright! Thanks for this precision! Not the first time eSim Games writes down wrong stuff...
  15. DarkLabor
    Errr... Welcome in the 1990s... Congrats! More seriously is this a full switch from hydraulic to electric or a just a handiwork to ease the power management? The ideal situation would be to remove all the hydraulic system to replace it with batteries accumulators and the double set of electric motor + gearbox (traverse & elevation). But who knows their limitations in space & budget...
  16. DarkLabor
    Er... No, it is just a forward-facing camera. You said antenna based on certain claims made by the koreans with their K2 (I also was fooled once when they presented their prototypes)?
  17. DarkLabor
    https://imgur.com/a/rvwc31g Well the history of the AMX 10 program is quite complicated (at least for the AMX 10 RC). At first (1960) it was planned to have an all tracked family with the ERAC (Engin de Reconnaissance Amphibie Chenillé == Tracked Amphibious Reconnaissance Vehicle) as a recce vehicle with a 90mm gun fitted in an oscillating turret. Studies were pushed towards a 105mm gun system with an ongoing competition between the APX and the EFAB engineers teams for the ammunition. The ERAC was dropped when the specifications were more demanding and other weapon systems were considered. The ECA (Engin de Combat Amphibie == Amphibious Fighting Vehicle) did not last long (mid 60s) but was considered with a wide range of weapon systems ranging from conventional 105mm gun to conventional anti-tank missile with the tube launched ACRA missile system inbetween. In the end, the development of the AMX 10 P seems to be uneventful compared to the AMX 10 RC which ended up being based on the AMX 10 P in order to reduce possession cost and ease of maintenance.
  18. DarkLabor
    Whut? The cooling unit is right behind the UFP, you can see the air intakes on the pictures. The UFP just carries the main air intake (plus the air filter, I believe).
  19. DarkLabor
    BMS burden?
  20. DarkLabor
    At the start of the production of the UAE tanks, the armor packages volumes were similar to the french série 1 : But at the end, they all ended up with the same armor packages volumes as our série 2 tanks : Even old ones were retrofitted (as you can see with the apparent gap between the storage boxes) : https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CLeT2-6VAAAgSPh.jpg:large
  21. DarkLabor
    As far as we can tell, there is no such thing. Of course the UAE doesn't have the same level of protection regarding the turret and chassis. The turret (at the end of the production) is similar to a Leclerc serie 2 while the chassis is way more protected with the extended skirt armor.
  22. DarkLabor
    The one he is refering to is a tank hit in 2015 at the beginning of the conflict in Marib province. The one you are refering to is last year assault on Mocha in Taiz province. The SLAT were first seen end of last year alongside the new urban kit integrated by the germans.
  23. DarkLabor
    Who is more qualified to talk about the actual protection of a tank than the engineers involved in the program? As I said to your friend, there are high suspicion of corruption/lobbying in those two competitions (with actual confirmation in the case of the greek one). The UAE trusted the data sent to them and confirmed it with live fire before the production phase entered its first step. If the tests were not confirmed they could end the contract and ask for some conterparts. Yeah sure, stipping off armor, this is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. If you strip off the armor you compromise the balance of the turret. If the french did such thing you could directly see it by the position of bottom line of the skirts compared to the roadwheels... duh... Radios is just an asset within a weapon platform... If there are falty or not good enough, you just take anything else. The integration is far more easy than what we are seeing with this hybrid made by KNDS. So yeah... pure BS either from your part or the greek authorities... You seem to think that weapon acquisition is fair and square "the best will be the winner". You tend to close your eyes on the fact that lobbying is a thing and politics have their word in it also... +1
  24. DarkLabor
    Think what you want about Mr Chassillan, you don't know him and the way he is... I NEVER said that it was a specificity of Giat Industries (again G.I.A.T. was the previous entity! G.I.A.T. >> Giat Industries >> Nexter...) Weakpoints may vary in terms of angles. But regarding the driver station there always the fact that you'll have to make room for the driver to enter his station and have room for that said station. Regarding the Leclerc hit in Yemen, that kill was just "lucky" coincidence that the missile hit that specific spot... Higher, it would have ended up in the hatch slab. Lower the full array of the glacis would have offered a better chance to the driver. The weakspot is anything but big, that's just you who claims such thing... It's Leclerc not LeClerc nor Le Clerc... Yeah, sure... Data that were never returned to the constructors... Regarding your latest sentence, I'll just skip. Just google KMW and bribe... Sure, sure... As if radios were inseparable of the vehicle... In tank competitions they assess the value of the tank. If there is something elsewhere that is interesting to the customer, they just buy it and integrate it (look at the Galix system used on the STRV 122 or the CLARA on the UAE Leclerc). The tank sent there was not lighten, at best they did not put ammo in the hull storage... And yet the tank was heavier to the regular UAE variant simply because they installed a video GAS next to the MRF laser receiver and all the instrumental tools to get a wireless monitoring of what's going on inside (see the little white antennas at the back of the turret). They simply judge the data given to them not enough and Giat Industries. I was refering to the faceless people that allows themself to comment on the Leclerc without having an actual experience with it. They just spread some random memes that others created to just to bad mouthing it. And yet, in french army there are huge misconceptions (not to say memes) that are spread over time regarding the Leclerc. Some think Leclerc is a POS just because it can break down. The sad truth is that it is a vehicle that requires a high degree of technical know-how to operate properly in addition to decent preventive maintenance (again, just like any other tank). The current state with defence budget cuts, the fact that tankers don't tank all year long and the fact that maintenance is reduced to its simple expression make favorable conditions to break downs. Some people think that we bough the ARV "as is" because the french powerpack was worthless. Yet they don't know that this decision was to save money because requalifying another chassis was expensive and time consuming... just for 20 vehicles... And who said I only had contacts in french army... The 3D models used by Giat Industries were old models of the prototype during aesthetic redrawal (you can see it with the commander sight). One has all the turret bustle roof equipment, the other not (most likely a provisional proposal to the requirements raised by FMV). The FMV did a 3D model that looks similar to the Leclerc for sure. But nothing proves us that the model is "good enough" for an armor assessment as I said there is dead space that was not even taken into account on their model. As said before, you can make drawings sign different songs depending on what your goal is. Knowing that KMW was involved in a corruption scandale in Greece doesn't exclude another one six years before hand...
  25. DarkLabor
    Still too soon to confirm... I would be curious as to what caused the fire... A galix that detonated with the VBIED and a poor Murphy law coming in hot? Or a critical failure of sort during the blast?
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