Bovington Museum never ceases to amaze me. (Taken from a video)
"If the system got misaligned the case could be ejected at speed into the turret with fatal results"
"The Soviets liked to ensure that the crews were made up of strangers. This meant the KGB spies could infiltrate crews and report anyone who was disloyal to the Kremlin"
I've concluded that with my current pace of "processing" my photos of pages from some military-related magazines and books from and usually on 1950s-2010s, stored at Russian State Library, it would take months or years until finally done,
so I've decided instead to upload it asap, "as is", with most uploaded by now, and few (in subfolders which would be available via the same link) in following couple of days.
Greetings all, I've been pulled on as a judge for this one, so none of the following should be construed as competition so much as... encouragement.
This is the Mogcat:
It's designed to exactly nail the minimum specs, while being relatively easy to produce and long-legged. It sports a 3"/76mm main gun, a bunch of machineguns and the sort of conveniences you'd expect from a late-40s design (gunner's panoramic sight, wet ammo racks, internal firefighting equipment and smoke launchers). It's otherwise very bare-bones, and comes in at all of 10.3st/9.3mt.
I'll add further specs as this goes along, but for the moment all you have to know is that this is the minimum, lowest bar that I can think of. This thing is intended to be the product of unimaginative minds working at what passes for the ordinance department in the Lone Free State - men who spent their lives designing incremental improvements on machineguns and recoilless guns, and think that their lightweight 3" gun is a world-beating novelty.
For what it's worth; what I would like to see is something that grabs the requirements by the balls and works out a way to wring something that can beat @N-L-M's Norman design in a reasonably fair fight out of the thin gruel that the Provisional Government has put out. Remember that the Texans don't know what they don't know - their official line is that the arrival of Deseret light tanks is some sort of shocking revelation. But they aren't stupid - the smarter engineers will already be looking at what they could do with their given automotive and gun tech, and what was achieved in the pre-war era, and are probably staying up late at night worrying about their conclusions.
Update 1:
I had a think last night, and decided to swap out the turret crew to a commander-loader and gunner configuration instead of the T-34-esque commander-gunner and loader configuration (now included with the rest of the pictures).
Here's a bonus picture of the vehicle in travel configuration - turret rearward and gun in cradle:
Update 2:
Here's some more stats on the vehicle, in the prescribed units...
Description
The Mogcat is a 6x6 armoured scout car designed for mobility and extended operations. The design boasts an innovative engine, drivetrain, suspension package and gun, all built with an eye to ruggedness and light weight. The Mogcat's 3-inch cannon is able to provide useful anti-armour (APHE and HEAT-FS) and anti-infantry (HE, canister and shrapnel shell) firepower, while the plethora of machineguns it sports allows it to tackle dismounted infantry and light vehicles with confidence. The combination of purpose-built drivetrain components, long operational range and firepower makes the Mogcat a strong contender for the present production contract.
Major dimensions and mass
Crew: 3 (driver, commander-loader, gunner)
Length: 16'/9" (hull), 19"/4' (gun forward)
Width: 6'/7"m
Height: 9'/6"m (top of commander’s cupola)
Unloaded weight: 8.7 ton
Loaded weight: 10.3 ton
Ground pressure: 4900lb/ft2 (unloaded, muddy ground) to 5785lb/ft2 (loaded, muddy ground)
Axle loading: 3.4t/axle loaded
Mobility
Engine: 4-cylinder turbodiesel, 732cu displacement, 200-280HP
PWR: 19.4HP/t loaded, detuned
Ground clearance: 17.7"
Max road speed: 60mph
Max offroad speed: 20mph
Operational range (on road/offroad): 850mi/500mi
Protection
Armour:
2" LOS on hull front (1" RHA @ 60°)
0.8" LOS on hull sides with 30° angle (0.8" RHA @ 90°, 0.5"mm @ 45°)
0.6" RHA on hull rear
0.5" LOS on hull bottom (0.4" RHA @ 45°)
2" LOS on turret front (1.8" RHA @ 30°)
2" CHA mantlet
0.8" LOS on turret sides with 30° angle (0.6" RHA @ 25°)
0.6" RHA on turret rear
0.4" RHA on roof
0.4" RHA on turret floor
2" RHA turret neck ring and splash guard
0.4" Aluminium turret basket, skeletonised
3.2" smoke dischargers (2 reloads).
Fuel tanks on driver’s sides improve protection against threats from the front.
Ammunition stowage in wet racks in turret bustle, turret floor and driver’s compartment.
Internal fire control system (BCF canisters in engine compartment and fighting compartment, driver has access to removable CO2 extinguisher).
Firepower
Turret ring diameter: 4'/5"
Main gun: 3" L/40 medium-pressure gun, 12" recoil travel
Ammunition stowage: 50 rounds main gun ammunition stowage
+30/-10 degree elevation.
Ammunition:
3"x15.2" cartridge (3.7" base, 19lb max all-up weight)
APHE: 13.9lb, 2425ft/s, 3.5" RHA penetration at 1000m
HEAT-FS: 15.4lb, 2295ft/s, 9.8" penetration
HE: 13.7lb (1.35lb fill), 2460ft/s, 0.4" RHA penetration
APFSDS (spindle-type, 15L/D ratio, maraging steel penetrator): 1.5lb, 5900ft/s, 6.5" RHA penetration at 1000 yards.
Secondary weapons:
.30 cal coaxial MG (600 rnds)
.30 cal gunner's MG (600 rnds)
.50 cal commander’s MG (500 rnds)
Additional features
Long-range transistor radio.
Vehicle intercom system.
Ancillaries (fire tables, gunner’s quadrant, traverse markings etc) for indirect fire missions.
Commander has access to panoramic sight (x1) and telescopic sight (x4) for target acquisition and lay-on.
Turret traverse is electric (30 degrees per second rotation).
Fume extractor on main gun
Large hatches in hull rear allow easy servicing of engine and gearbox.
Storage lockers in hull rear flanking the engine for personal/supplies stowage.
Hydraulic jacks on the hull bottom between the first and second wheels and at the rear make changing tires easier.
Edit:
This is pounds per square feet? But 8 psf is 380 Pa. The ground pressure of human and modern FAVs is ~55 - 70 kPa (8 to 10 psi). The very safe pressure for wheeled vehicles is 170 kPa (25 psi). In case of modern wheeled APCs is around 200 to 350 kPa (29 to 51 psi). In case of human with snowshoes it is ~700 Pa.
Axle load with this ground pressure will be much lower. I'll count that.
MMP ground pressure formula (in metrics)
K - constant dependent on number of axles and drive axles
g - gravity (~9,8 m/s^2)
m - weight of vehicle
n - number of axles
d - outer diameter of chosen tires
b - width of chosen tires
(o/h) - tire deflection to height ratio (usually between 0,15 and 0,35)
And table regarding the choice of K ratio
The top line - number of drive axles
The side lide - number of axles
Source: M. Saarilahti, Modelling of the wheel and tyre. 1. Tyre and soil contact, Soil Interaction Model. Appendix Report No. 5, s. 24-29
That's the second part. Tanks for you (and for the rest of Europe) would be produced in Poland but that would be an up-armored version (similar to Altay). Not the basic one.
But still it's around 2030+ year when you can receive these tanks.
I have just heard from Richard Ogorkiewicz's wife that he died suddenly on Sunday. As all will know, he was a brilliant writer and analyst in the field of AFVs. He was still active physically and mentally, just completing his memoirs.
I remember all his many kindnesses, keen intelligence and his wry sense of humour. I wil miss him.
Marsh
Zadlo got a reaction from Lord_James in Polish Armoured Vehicles
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Zadlo got a reaction from DIADES in StuG III Thread (and also other German vehicles I guess)
