General AFV Thread

[Priory_of_Sion]

 

[Collimatrix]

Vickers Challenger 2 Roll-out Ceremony video:
 

 

 

Mostly this is a publicity piece talking up the Chally 2.  Most of the modern armor gurus here and elsewhere are dismissive of the Chally 2, and for good reasons so far as I can tell.  As far as modern tanks go, it seems adequate.

There isn't too much of riveting interest in this video.  6:26 on has some fun retro CAD action and tank manufacturing porn.  7:16 has a bit of footage of the hulls being welded, and after that there is a shot of the turret being lowered onto the hull by a gantry crane.  Manufacturing porn starts again at 10:39.  A small amount of the turret manufacturing process is shown.

I think Challenger 2 is the last tank ever produced with a cast turret.

[Bronezhilet]

https://www.shephardmedia.com/news/uv-online/ugv-weaponised-javelin/

Milrem is collaborating with Kongsberg. Their UGV can now mount an RCWS with a Javelin:

[Renegade334]

Okay, uh, need a small favor here...

I remember someone (maybe LooseR, my memory is failing me ATM) posted some time ago in the Mechanized Warfare section, a picture of a Middle East/Central Asian tank that had a boxy-type turret (think Zulfiqar), but, for some reason one of the front "turret cheek" panels was missing (a road accident?), revealing a semi-hemispherical T-55/62/64 turret underneath the plating. Long story short, it was an old T-Series tank masquerading as a more modern vehicle and it wasn't a vismod.

Anyone remember that and would be kind enough to repost the pic here? I'm not even sure of the country of origin, the tanks' names...so basic searches and Google are throwing up a lot of clutter (both dead and living pictures, too) that is a pain to sift through. Thanks in advance.

[Scolopax]

19 minutes ago, Renegade334 said:

Okay, uh, need a small favor here...

I remember someone (maybe LooseR, my memory is failing me ATM) posted some time ago in the Mechanized Warfare section, a picture of a Middle East/Central Asian tank that had a boxy-type turret (think Zulfiqar), but, for some reason one of the front "turret cheek" panels was missing (a road accident?), revealing a semi-hemispherical T-55/62/64 turret underneath the plating. Long story short, it was an old T-Series tank masquerading as a more modern vehicle and it wasn't a vismod.

Anyone remember that and would be kind enough to repost the pic here? I'm not even sure of the country of origin, the tanks' names...so basic searches and Google are throwing up a lot of clutter (both dead and living pictures, too) that is a pain to sift through. Thanks in advance.

Al-Zarrar

[Renegade334]

That's the one! A million thanks to you, sir.

[Khand-e]

Just to clarify, the Al Zarrar literally IS a modernized Type-59 made by Pakistan, it shouldn't come as a shock it looks like one underneath all the shit they added to it.

[Renegade334]

I'd have nevertheless expected them to fill that gap with either NERA or slabs of textolite or rubber.

Unless of course the Pakistani recovery crew already stripped such additions from the wreckage, but it doesn't look like there are mounts for them on the Type 59 turret in the first place.

[Khand-e]

As far as I know, they just added composite arrays and the option to mount ERA to them.

Pakistan had a lot of Type 59s to actually upgrade (in excess of a thousand) and didn't exactly have the largest budget to do so.

[SH_MM]

The armor might have been removed. There is no reason to assume it's jsut a T-54/55 variant with a thin spaced layer of steel.

Proof:

[Khand-e]

57 minutes ago, SH_MM said:

The armor might have been removed. There is no reason to assume it's jsut a T-54/55 variant with a thin spaced layer of steel.

Proof:

If you want to be technical, they're Type 59s (Chinese licensed produced T-54/55s), not USSR made T-54/55s.

The Al Zarrar program on the other hand, while it did use Chinese tanks, the upgrade program itself was done entirely domestically in Pakistan by HIT, and all sources I can find list that they simply added modular composite armor with attachment points for ERA.

[LoooSeR]

Quote

   The Ministry of Defence of Singapore March 22, 2017 reported that Singapore has issued a contract to public association Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd (ST Engineering) for the serial production of the new tracked infantry fighting vehicle of national development, provisionally called New Generation Armoured Fighting Vehicle. Deliveries of those IFVs to Singaporean army must be initiated in 2019, the other parameters of the contract were not disclosed.

[LoooSeR]

Parade in Pakistan

 

 



 

[Collimatrix]

 

[LoooSeR]

From andrei-bt's blog - a VT-4 plackard in Thailand, rumored that Thai army prepare training center for crews for VT-4 MBTs.

[Mighty_Zuk]

Kudos to the Oplot-M for being the first tank to start being phased out before it's even fully acquired. 

[LoooSeR]

3 hours ago, Mighty_Zuk said:

Kudos to the Oplot-M for being the first tank to start being phased out before it's even fully acquired. 

AFAIK it is not phased out, VT-4 will supplement Thai army current stock of Oplots.

[Mighty_Zuk]

It was said in a humoristic way. I know they're not going to phase out newly acquired tanks. But them looking at other options already, is a really bad sign for the Ukrainian industries.

[Collimatrix]

It's a sad swansong for the mighty T-80 family.

[Mighty_Zuk]

Elbit has unveiled the TORC30 turret made for the Guarani by its subsidiary company Ares. The turret uses an MK30-2/ABM gun. 

Seems that this gun has stability issues which warrant a cage. Where exactly do they come from? Longer barrel? Higher pressure?

 

 

 

 

[LoooSeR]

4 hours ago, Collimatrix said:

It's a sad swansong for the mighty T-80 family.

Kharkovite-80UD and dress-up versions of it are not true T-80s!

[SH_MM]

The "stability issues" are the result of the higher rate of fire. If the RoF is limited to levels comparable to the Bushmaster, the problem doesn't exists.

[Mighty_Zuk]

As far as I know, both the Bushmaster and the MK30-2 have a RoF of 200RPM. 

[Collimatrix]

The Bushmaster is externally driven, so in principle the ROF can be dialed down to any desired value.  MK30-2 appears to be both recoil-operated and percussion primed, so limiting the rate of fire would require more involved modification (though not difficult).

[LoooSeR]

According to this Thai army buys Chinese ZBL09 armored personnel carriers

 

Quote

   RTA ordered ZBL-09 from NORICO to be commissioned in the cavalry unit.

 

   Foreign correspondent said to TAF in LIMA 2017 yesterday that the Royal Thai Army signed the order to buy 34 ZBL-09 8x8 and 12,506 30 mm round from China's NORICO.

   ZBL-09 can be compared to BTR-3E1 earlier procured and deployed in the infantry units. RTA will buy one battalion of ZBL-09 and aim for 2020 delivery at the price of 1.695 mil USD each. TAF believe that this order is a part of the 400 million Baht project to upgrade the RTA maintenance factory to be able to maintain and refurbish all Chinese-made vehicle in RTA, including VT-4 tank, Type-85 and ZBL-09. Thy aim to become the regional center for Chinese vehicle maintenance.

 

Export version of ZBL09 is VN1 (photo of Venezuela-purchased VN1)

 

Quote

   The bmpd comment. The contract for the purchase of new Chinese APCs by Thailand is very indicative after the completion of the receipt of Ukrainian armored personnel carriers BTR-3E1 under the contracts of 2007 and 2011. As with the Ukrainian tanks BM Oplot-T, the epic story with the purchase of which ultimately led Thailand to order Chinese tanks VT4, in this case, there was also a reorientation to Chinese samples.

 

   The armored vehicles of the ZBL09 family are designed and manufactured by the Inner Mongolia First Machinery Group Company (known as Plant No. 617) located in Baotou (Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region), which is part of the China Industrial Association of China North Industries Group Corporation (Norinco) and is also the only In the PRC factory for the production of tanks. The armoredd forces of the People's Liberation Army purchase this APC since 2009.

 

   Thailand became the second known foreign customer of Chinese ZBL09 series APCs (VN1) after Venezuela (40 AFVs were bought for Marines).