TokyoMorose

Also, when it comes to "muh future plans"... these are well known.
 
Panther II was outright cancelled and never, ever ever considered for a revival. Even mentioning it is pointless, like the original "Tiger II" (an abhorrent Tiger/Panther hybrid) it was a complete dead end.
 
The E series, much beloved, were also a complete dead end for the Germans in that they didn't ever attempt to even guess when they might be built. In '45, in the Twilight of the Nazi Gods, all panzer production was to be on three chassis families - Panzer 38(d), Panther, and Tiger II. And even then, the Tiger II chassis was used for limited volume specialist production only as the Germans more or less finally admitted they couldn't support a dedicated heavyweight branch anymore. 
 
The only planned changeover for medium weight production was the introduction of the Ausf. F and its Schmalturm which has a marginal effect on combat ability. Other than that, it's literally Ausf F. Panthers until the end of the planning periods. If they were lucky they would get the new optics and HL234 at some undecided point in the future. Even if they got everything in research into production, the Panzerwaffe '46 is going to be building the Panther Ausf F. with only minor tweaks.
 
At which point of course, the Russians may well have decided to put T-54-1 or T-44-100 into mass production unlike real life... Centurion II or III is in full production, and the M46 has probably arrived carrying some form of the long 90mm. (The ditching of the long 90mm and the glacial pace at which M46 arrived more or less resulting from postwar budget issues that wouldn't happen in such a timeline.)
 
And the T-54-1 in particular puts such a 1946 Panther to shame.
 

I occasionally play this mental game where I imagine describing, let's call it the Schwer-mittel panzerkampfwagen 44 "Cougar", to the typical wehraboo.
 
"It had a low profile, only 10cm taller than the PzIV. But the vehicle is much more heavily armed and armoured (equivalent or better to a Tiger frontally, only a little thinner on the side)."
"Fantastic. Really good, compact design. The Germans were known to be good at efficient layouts."
 
"The drivetrain was extremely compact and reliable, with a better power-to-weight ratio than PzIV, as well as a slick automatic gearbox that reduced workload on the driver and improved offroad mobility."
"Wonderful, truly a vehicle for mobile warfare. Didn't Guderian say, after all, that the principle weapon of the tank was its engine and radio?"
 
"The vehicle had lots of vision devices, a large, roomy interior and nice-to-haves like panoramic gunner's sights and an azimuth indicator in the commander's cupola."
"Brilliant. We know that the crew which sees the target and fires first usually wins. This all adds up to an improvement in firepower!"
 
"Over 2000 were produced in less than a year, making it a relatively common sight on the battlefield when compared to older heavies such as Tiger."
"That's great! Wars are won by industrial production as much as by feats of arms - look at the miracles that Speer accomplished."
 
"It had lots of upgrade potential. Prototypes were produced with guns and armour equivalent to Tiger II, but without completely sacrificing either mobility or reliability."
"This is what made the Germans so formidable during the second world war - their ingenuity and ability to improve on existing designs. If only it had been fielded for longer, it would have had the potential to turn the tide of the war."
 
"It was made by Americans."
"Oh, it's absolute shit then."

Panther has this very weird double diff system (not triple, sorry) that is sort of like two Clectrac units hulksmashed together operating in a compound fashion.
 
Ignoring the wherbwank for the "outgun anyone" (laffs in 122mm), this does do a good description of how it works. It is IMHO a lame system overall, being a *slight* improvement over the Controlled Diff system but at literally double the expense and space.
 

Panther has this very weird double diff system (not triple, sorry) that is sort of like two Clectrac units hulksmashed together operating in a compound fashion.
 
Ignoring the wherbwank for the "outgun anyone" (laffs in 122mm), this does do a good description of how it works. It is IMHO a lame system overall, being a *slight* improvement over the Controlled Diff system but at literally double the expense and space.
 

I believe these are new (for here) photos of Numba One MBT of World in construction.
 

 
This CAD drawing also shows glorious thickness of hull protective scheme.

Panther, but only just - and primarily due to a better and more efficient steering mechanism (Triple Diff versus good ole Cletrac steering on the M26).
 
On most terrain, the ground pressure difference is so marginal that it matters not (Panther of course has a more notable advantage in deep mud and the like) and while people love to factor in the full "power" of the HL230 once you factor in the actual *governed* net power, the Panther and M26 have almost exactly the same net HP/Ton.
 
So yes, the Panther is marginally more mobile when working but I cannot stress how slim the margin is. They are for all intents and purposes equal outside of specific terrain (i.e. bad enough mud/snow the ground pressure difference adds up) and yet everyone calls the M26 a slow pig, and the Panther's mobility tends to get highlighted.
 
I think the reason for this distinction is that M26 saw lots of service and use with the much, much faster post-war designs that made it seem like a slow pig in comparison while Panther was mostly used alongside/against wartime and even prewar designs so it seems very mobile indeed. If you compared the Panther to the same set of machines M26 usually gets compared to (even if the comparison is subconscious by a unit that say, transitioned from M26 to M46 or M47), the Panther is just as much of a slow pig.

Panther, but only just - and primarily due to a better and more efficient steering mechanism (Triple Diff versus good ole Cletrac steering on the M26).
 
On most terrain, the ground pressure difference is so marginal that it matters not (Panther of course has a more notable advantage in deep mud and the like) and while people love to factor in the full "power" of the HL230 once you factor in the actual *governed* net power, the Panther and M26 have almost exactly the same net HP/Ton.
 
So yes, the Panther is marginally more mobile when working but I cannot stress how slim the margin is. They are for all intents and purposes equal outside of specific terrain (i.e. bad enough mud/snow the ground pressure difference adds up) and yet everyone calls the M26 a slow pig, and the Panther's mobility tends to get highlighted.
 
I think the reason for this distinction is that M26 saw lots of service and use with the much, much faster post-war designs that made it seem like a slow pig in comparison while Panther was mostly used alongside/against wartime and even prewar designs so it seems very mobile indeed. If you compared the Panther to the same set of machines M26 usually gets compared to (even if the comparison is subconscious by a unit that say, transitioned from M26 to M46 or M47), the Panther is just as much of a slow pig.

I know, I've read that piece. Just had DB been able to keep their design independence it was a lot more promising. Said independence is of course, the biggest obstacle to them winning in the first place.
 
 
I know the new turret didn't fit, DB designed their own and the Rheinmetall-provided turret as used on production Panthers wasn't a terribly good design in any case. The late war efforts at a Schmalturm were actually *reviving* the general concepts DB was working on for their turret. More cramped is relative, as that would depend on how the internal arrangement is laid out - on paper Panther has lots of room, in practice the internal layout is a trainwreck and wastes this. Go watch Moran stumble around the various positions.
 
The cheap but bad leaf spring bogies carried the German army on their back on the endless Panzer IVs and derivations. Which were actually largely reliable, and simple to repair unlike the doubled-torsion-bar set up on Panther. But yes, I had forgotten that the DB did have a simple interleaved setup (only 2 layers, of single road wheels).
 
And you can hardly say that politics didn't play a role - Maybach aggressively pushed against diesels to maintain their AFV monopoly, MAN enthusiastically wooed Kniepkamp and crammed as many of his ideas as they could into their changing proposals. MAN did everything they could to please as many other major firms, while DB basically went it alone.

I do get the feeling that the bucket choice and location, along with the location of the excavator arm were determined by the chassis used as the base. Wheeled vehicles aren't the best for a massive solid dozer blade, there might be stress and balance issues...
 
IMHO, it seems they chose the platform first (and was probably chosen due to low cost & high strategic/road mobility) and then did what they could to make a viable engineering vehicle from it. Also, their obsession with road mobility in the Sahel would suggest they think the future use is going to be overwhelmingly in non-combat or counter-insurgency ops. Note how they directly mention trailer coupling ease / capability as a plus.

I believe these are new (for here) photos of Numba One MBT of World in construction.
 

 
This CAD drawing also shows glorious thickness of hull protective scheme.

I believe these are new (for here) photos of Numba One MBT of World in construction.
 

 
This CAD drawing also shows glorious thickness of hull protective scheme.

I believe these are new (for here) photos of Numba One MBT of World in construction.
 

 
This CAD drawing also shows glorious thickness of hull protective scheme.

I believe these are new (for here) photos of Numba One MBT of World in construction.
 

 
This CAD drawing also shows glorious thickness of hull protective scheme.

I believe these are new (for here) photos of Numba One MBT of World in construction.
 

 
This CAD drawing also shows glorious thickness of hull protective scheme.

I believe these are new (for here) photos of Numba One MBT of World in construction.
 

 
This CAD drawing also shows glorious thickness of hull protective scheme.

I believe these are new (for here) photos of Numba One MBT of World in construction.
 

 
This CAD drawing also shows glorious thickness of hull protective scheme.

I believe these are new (for here) photos of Numba One MBT of World in construction.
 

 
This CAD drawing also shows glorious thickness of hull protective scheme.

I believe these are new (for here) photos of Numba One MBT of World in construction.
 

 
This CAD drawing also shows glorious thickness of hull protective scheme.

I believe these are new (for here) photos of Numba One MBT of World in construction.
 

 
This CAD drawing also shows glorious thickness of hull protective scheme.

Spoilering it because it's huge, but here's a good image showing how the armor was added on the M1A2C.

Spoilering it because it's huge, but here's a good image showing how the armor was added on the M1A2C.

Spoilering it because it's huge, but here's a good image showing how the armor was added on the M1A2C.

Spoilering it because it's huge, but here's a good image showing how the armor was added on the M1A2C.

Spoilering it because it's huge, but here's a good image showing how the armor was added on the M1A2C.

Spoilering it because it's huge, but here's a good image showing how the armor was added on the M1A2C.