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29 minutes ago, Serge said:

The successor of the French VAB APC fleet will be devided into two segments :

- the heavy one will be outfitted by the Griffon VBMR,

- the light one (17t) will be outfitted by the Serval VBMR-L. 

 

The first mockup of the Serval :

img_4116.jpg

 

img_4114.jpg

 

img_4115.jpg

 

https://www.lopinion.fr/sites/nb.com/files/2018/09/img_4117.jpg 

 

I like the approach angle of .7 centimeters.

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Yes and no. 

There are two optical effects 

- Jaguar is closer,

- the ROWS is very large. 

 

Jaguar is large because :

- driving gear is truck like, not a military one;

- the engine is not a compact one but a cost effective one,

- there is 1m3 of free internal volume into to have future improvement capability ;

- the turret is build like a survival cell surrounded by mission modules (ATGM launchers,...)

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  • 3 weeks later...

The first VT-4 have been delivered to the army:

 

vt4-20180907.jpg

 

Aimed at replacing (together with the PVP) the Peugeot P4 (which was starting to get prohibitively old) the VT-4 is based on the Ford Everest militarized by ARQUUS.

In 2019 730 vehicles (out of 4380 ordered) should in service and among them 430 should be standard 2 version (airlift capable, night-vision equipment and add-on armor kits).

 

It can carry 4 soldier with the FELIN kit (or 5 soldiers with minimal gear) and is compatible with both the CONTACT and SIC-S (Scorpion program BMS) softwares.

It is per-equipped to house PR4G radios.

Weights 3,5 metric ton for 160 hp.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi guys, I would like to take this place to ask that how credible is this article?

13825_original.png

Screenshot from Magazine RAIDS Les Chars de Combat en Action 3,.

All of tanks mentioned in this article have taken part in the Sweden trials, I suppose that maybe the author would have some materials related to the true armor layout.:P

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Well it's more general principles than exact diagrams.

Guy who wrote the article was in charge of the R&D on the Leclerc program for some time, and is basically the only reputable French author on AFV.

 

Though he does have a tendency for chauvinism and I don't think he really had access to foreign designs.

Unless proven otherwise, consider it as an educated guess of someone who worked in the AFV industry and tank design for years, have an engineering background and have a great deal of contact on the international market.

He most likely was around during the Swedish tank trial.

 

The series of RAID articles have been compiled into those two books if you can read French:

 

Spoiler

https://static.fnac-static.com/multimedia/Images/FR/NR/c6/43/35/3490758/1540-1/tsp20130506180133/Encyclopedie-des-chars-de-combat-modernes.jpghttp://www.histoireetcollections.com/2127-large_default/encyclopedie-des-chars-de-combat-modernes-t2.jpg

 

Both books are interesting and do very well as an introduction on MBT design while containing interesting tidbit of information.

The only problem with them is that you have the feeling that nobody ever proof-read them (grammar, syntax, etc).

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On 10/25/2018 at 5:16 PM, Molota_477 said:

Screenshot from Magazine RAIDS Les Chars de Combat en Action 3,.

All of tanks mentioned in this article have taken part in the Sweden trials, I suppose that maybe the author would have some materials related to the true armor layout.:P

 

These are some very nice illustrations of possible armor arrays, but they certainly do not reflect the actual products. It is interesting that the author supposed that glass is one of the go-to solutions against shaped charges; even in NERA plate arrays (example 5). While glass has proven to be a possible interlayer material for NERA, it isn't particularly effective; so maybe this is deliberate misinformation or did the original Leclerc use glass as part of its armor?

 

As you can read in the article, these are only illustrations of different armor technologies and concepts, not actual armor arrays. Example 3 is showcasing the T-80U's turret ERA, but at the same time shows a modular construction (ERA and ceramic armor are a detachable module bolted ontop of the steel-titanium armor). Example 4 shows the external wedge-module of the Leopard 2A5 (simplified with just one NERA layer and incorrect mounting mechanism) in combination with base armor optimized for protectiton against KEPs. Example 5 shows a fully modular armor array (a concept used on the Leclerc and Merkava 3 & 4), but at the same time is used to showcase DU armor, which both of these tanks seem to lack, while the Abrams doesn't have fully modular armor. These are interesting illustrations, but rather show concepts of armor design, they certainly do not reflect actual tank armor.

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1 hour ago, SH_MM said:

 

These are some very nice illustrations of possible armor arrays, but they certainly do not reflect the actual products. It is interesting that the author supposed that glass is one of the go-to solutions against shaped charges; even in NERA plate arrays (example 5). While glass has proven to be a possible interlayer material for NERA, it isn't particularly effective; so maybe this is deliberate misinformation or did the original Leclerc use glass as part of its armor?

 

As you can read in the article, these are only illustrations of different armor technologies and concepts, not actual armor arrays. Example 3 is showcasing the T-80U's turret ERA, but at the same time shows a modular construction (ERA and ceramic armor are a detachable module bolted ontop of the steel-titanium armor). Example 4 shows the external wedge-module of the Leopard 2A5 (simplified with just one NERA layer and incorrect mounting mechanism) in combination with base armor optimized for protectiton against KEPs. Example 5 shows a fully modular armor array (a concept used on the Leclerc and Merkava 3 & 4), but at the same time is used to showcase DU armor, which both of these tanks seem to lack, while the Abrams doesn't have fully modular armor. These are interesting illustrations, but rather show concepts of armor design, they certainly do not reflect actual tank armor.

Yes, I do know these diagrams just simply illustrate some concepts, each color block just stands for an armor type which may have more complex details in real design.

I am very curious about the sequence of these armor material inserts, especailly the DU package in example 5 was place in the front as a face plate which I suppose it won't offer so much protection from shape charge or KE round in such small oblique, but there is little open research related to the ballistic performance of DU plates, so maybe it is a possible solution.

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