World of Tanks is a beautiful thing. First it increases knowledge about obscure vehicles and second it reminds us that nothing is new.
The interwar and early war years brought on the multi-turret vehicle craze. It was a crude attempt to get the maximum amount of firepower on a single vehicle. The best examples of this are (in my opinion) the T-35 of the Soviet Union and the M3 Lee in US Army service. Both were considered less than optimum but did the job till better came along.
Flash forward to today and what do we see....
The US Army M1A2 Tusk 2 Upgrade has what many Old, Old, Old skool tankers would consider a multi-turret feel if not look.
The Tusk is optimized for urban combat and the array of machine guns coupled with the main gun make it formidable. Add in the ability to replace a machine gun with a grenade launcher and you're looking at a vehicle designed to take on infantry as well as other armored vehicles.
The main battle tank is returning to its roots. A universal or infantry support vehicle role instead of purely anti-armor.
Now. Just now the armored corps is meeting the future. Lose about 20 tons and MBTs will be big in the expeditionary movement.
Where are you tier wise in World of Tanks?
ReplyDeletei have a tier 6 vehicle but i play tier 4. i don't know the game yet and this is letting me get up to speed before i face the crazy russians and the other aces on the game.
Deletei'm inches away from getting a jackson and i've started the grind to get an M4. i already broke my rule and paid to be premium so i could get there quicker but we'll see.
Spudman has been trying to help me but its the perfect get on play 5 maybe 10 min and do something...then get back on again.
lol, well, I had literally nothing to do last week and I'm about 45K xp away from getting the tier 10 T57 Heavy. I'd still like to platoon with you guys sometime though. Please let me know if you're down for that and online sometime.
DeleteMy understanding of the hull mounted 75s was that they hadn't figured out how to design a turret big enough yet, and were rushing to get a larger gunned tank in service.
ReplyDeleteyeah i've heard that before but considering the same advances in aviation that we were seeing at the time and then considering that a turret ring was simply a minor engineering challenge in comparison i believe that what really was occuring is that extremely conservative, we'll stick to the old way thinking was going on.
DeleteYah what John was saying above was what I've always understood was the reasoning.
DeleteWhat i would say is while having all the RWS machine guns on top, eventually you have to understand you have to feed said guns. I like the Abrams original loadout of the gun, 7.62 coax, 7.62 loaders gun (especially the Crow mounted version) and the RWS 50.cal Tank commanders gun. thought you hit a solid line of offensive and defensive fire for the tank. while limiting the need to carrys a bunch of different ammo types (mk19 cans are very big and bulky) one think i have always liked (and this is somewhat hypocritical) was the Merkava IV's added Mortar. Really thought it added a interesting ability for a Tank to add Indirect Fire support from a armored platform.
I know this is about a main battle tank, but what about a light tank with say the 57mm programmable round the navy uses? Would anyone see that as a good support weapon system?
ReplyDeleteI believe its coming and thanks for the idea (i'll post on it later). i see a return to small armored tanks with a two man crew (driver, gunner/tc) that will float, be air droppable and emphasize protection against small caliber cannon and artillery fragments. the days of the big tank are over.
DeleteBig Tank = Big target.
ReplyDeleteThe multi turret tanks were considered the best war fighting vehicles. The problem was each gun had to have a gunner and once the TC had more than three men to over see then Command and control suffered.
The T-35 had five turrets and that was five plus the driver and the TC with a loader.
Seven at least and maybe more.
Fewer men meant more jobs per man.
Now, with remote weapons stations and better TC inter crew comm the multi turret tanks are again feasible and with the correct mix of large, medium and small weapons to engage a large array of target types can be force multipliers and more survivable.
I see a more futuristic approach for armor, low slung to the ground chassis and an RWS turret for small caliber guns. The main fire weapons will be vertical launch missiles programmable in flight and fire and forget. Picture an M-113 that's not as tall with one shot missile pods in back that can be fired and dumped for re loads like the MRLS only carrying Anti tank missiles with DP warheads.
There is a possible four vehicle plt with three uncrewed weapons drones vehicles and a Command
Vehicle that only hides and sends it's UGV's into battle.
TONY: The Russian's have a new vehicle called a Tank support weapon in 37 mm. used just to protect the tank.
Yeah I saw that one. Ever since I saw the 57mm being tested on future weapons or something showing the programmable features I wondered why no one was trying to slap that on some type of light tank or armored car like the SPHINX setup is. Its big enough to take out IFVs, but the big advantage to me seems to be anti personal from a round that can be delayed to blow up inside a room or air burst over someone dug in.
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