Best Main Battle Tank!

[Zoid]

I meant in comparison with the Jagdpanther (which was built on a Panther chassi)

[klesh]

Originally posted by Lord Avalon
The early Ausf. D had many mechanical problems, but the later A & G models were much better.

Is that a G?

Yes it is. You can also tell by the mantlet armour. Note the stop in the curve at the bottom, where the last few inches are perpendicular to the ground? This is an upgrade of the A's & D's which had a shot trap because of their fully curved mantlet piece. Any round that struck the lower half of the older mantlet would ricochet downward into the hull top and kill the driver and radio operator.

[Zkribbler]

Re: Best Main Battle Tank!

Originally posted by Lonestar
So, what's the greatest Moden Main Battle Tank?

Obviously, the M1A2

Although it's one thirsty tank. After only 4 hours, it needs to refuel.

[Lord Avalon]

Originally posted by klesh

Yes it is. You can also tell by the mantlet armour. Note the stop in the curve at the bottom, where the last few inches are perpendicular to the ground? This is an upgrade of the A's & D's which had a shot trap because of their fully curved mantlet piece. Any round that struck the lower half of the older mantlet would ricochet downward into the hull top and kill the driver and radio operator.

A nasty design flaw. In a brief search I found a drawing of an A, but couldn't tell how curved the mantlet was. The posted pic seemed to have the modification, so I guessed G. I also read that the early Panthers had a flap-covered slot for the hull MG, later replaced by the ball mount.

[Proteus_MST]

IMHO interesting that modern MBTs could theoretically penetrate the armor of even a Tiger II at distances at which the Tiger II has only the slightest chance of penetrating the armor of a modern MBT
(probably he wouldn´t even hit the modern MBT, as the modern MBT could fire while moving, whereas the Tiger II had to stop to aim and fire)

IMHO an impressive example for the giant leap that weapons technology has made since WW2.

But nevertheless, I would vote for the Tiger II as sexiest Tank

[Lord Avalon]

Nah, Tiger II, while bigger and more powerfully gunned, was slow.

Panther's got the moves.

[Lancer]

T34 was the easiest to build and repair. Though the Panther could take it one on one imo in reality there was never a shortage of T34s. The Tiger was just too heavy, mechanicly complex, time consuming to build, prone to sinking in the mud and would fall through many of the bridges of the time.

The US didn't have a decent tank until the M48, yes? Even then they were too high. When I served the MBT was the M60A2 and even that was too high. In a decade when the crazy Swedes were making a tank without a turret to make it hard to hit the US was stupidly providing a perfect target.

[Lord Avalon]

US tanks were sized to fit taller soldiers, I presume.

There wasn't a height restriction for US tankers, was there? "You must be below this line to be a tanker."

[Zoid]

Heh Strv 103, also known as the S-Tank. I´ve actually driven one of these. It was a awesome!!

[Dr Strangelove]

The greatest MBT of WW2 was the Mustang. Thanks to American fighters less than one out of three German tanks sent towards the western front ever made it to the front lines. I doubt that any Panther or Tiger tank ever so much as scratched a Mustang.

[Lord Avalon]

I thought the P-47 Thunderbolt was used more in the ground attack role.

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
The greatest MBT of WW2 was the Mustang. Thanks to American fighters less than one out of three German tanks sent towards the western front ever made it to the front lines. I doubt that any Panther or Tiger tank ever so much as scratched a Mustang.

Yes,
even Tiger Ace Michael Wittman met his fate at the hands of an allied fighter.

This fighter accomplished something that dozens of allied tanks failed to do.

[Will9]

Here's a good pic of the Abrams.

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by Zoid
Heh Strv 103, also known as the S-Tank. I´ve actually driven one of these. It was a awesome!!

Isn't that the one where they have as many gears in reverse as in forward? And where the Commander can just turn his chair around and go as fast in reverse as forward?

Yeah, that sounds like a Great Tank, built by a Martial people.


Of course, it kinda hurts that you have to move the entire ****ing vehicle to point the gun.

[Zoid]

No, the tank actually had two drivers. One front driver and one rear driver

And the turretless design might seem cumbersome but it was actually very good in accuracy.

The Stridsvagn 103 never saw combat and so its design remains unproven. It is the case that every other deployed Main Battle Tank has a turret. On Discovery Chanel's "Greatest tanks ever" they ranked the Stridsvagn 103 as number 6. In 1967 Norway carried out a two week comparative observation test with the Leopard 1 and found that with closed hatches the 103 spotted more targets and fired faster than the Leopard. In April to September of 1968 two 103s were tested at the British armored school in Bovington and reported that "The turretless concept of the "S"-tank holds considerable advantage over turreted tanks". In BAOR 1973 the 103 was tested against the Cheftain. Availability never fell under 90% and the final report stated "It has not been possible to prove any disadvantage in the "S" inability to fire on the move.". In 1975 two 103s were tested at the american armor center at Fort Knox. The result was that the 103 was more accurate that the M60A1E3 but fired on an average 0.5 seconds slower.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strv_103