Jane’s IHS has released an article
showing the various pictures recently released by the Russian Ministry of Defense showcasing their new suite of armored vehicles. Included in the article are Armata MBT, the Coalition-SV self-propelled gun, Kurganets-25 IFV, Boomarang 8×8 IFV and several other wheeled vehicles. The vehicles were revealed ahead of their formal debut at the May9 Moscow Victory Day Parade. In all the pictures the weapons systems of the vehicles are covered by tarps. The release of these official pictures follows the unofficial leaking of images and footage that happened earlier this month in the lead up to the parade.
Jane’s IHS on New Russian Heavy Armor
April 23, 2015 by 1 Comment
Lockheed Martin demos improved Warrior IFV
April 23, 2015 by Leave a Comment
UPI is reporting that a modernized Warrior infantry fighting vehicle of the British Army successfully demonstrated a new turret and cannon system against moving targets. The demonstration was part of the country’s Warrior Capability Sustainment Program, in which Lockheed Martin UK is upgrading the Army’s fleet of 380 Warrior vehicles. In addition to a new turret and the CT40 weapon system, the modernized vehicle features an updated environmental control system, improved all-round awareness cameras and driver’s night vision systems and a modular protection system fitted to the chassis.
M60 on display for 15 years started up and moved
April 23, 2015 by 3 Comments
Local News 8 in Idaho is reporting that an M60 tank on static display in a park in St. Anthony was started up and moved under it’s own power in order to receive a paint job.
The longstanding tank at Clyde Keefer park in St. Anthony is no longer there, at least for now. That’s because city officials, along with a few members of the military, drove the tank to the city garage to clean it, sand blast it, and paint it. “I get notices from the army once a year asking if we’re taking good care of our tank,” said Mayor Niels Thueson of St. Anthony. “And I write them back and I say, yea we’re taking good care of your tank, but it needs a paint job. Well they wrote back and said, well paint it.”
From the Vault: Merkava 2 article from ARMOR magazine
April 22, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Today we present an article from the Nov-Dec 1985 issue of ARMOR by R. M. Ogorkiewicz titles “Israel’s Merkava Mark 2 Battle Tank.” The article gives a good description of the Merkava as well as explaining the reasons for the vehicle’s unusual design. it is worth pointing out that the author is quite clear in stating that the Merkava is not intended to function as a tank/APC hybrid. This claim still gets made in various online forums from time to time. Ogorkiewicz states that “the fact that the Merkava can carry infantrymen has been misinterpreted by many people, including several contributors to ARMOR, who have wrongly assumed it to be some kind of tank-cum-infantry carrier. Those who have done this not only misunderstand the design of the Merkava, but seem to have no idea of the monstrous size of any tank which would carry not only a major caliber gun and a full load of ammunition, but also a squad of infantry.”
Canadian tank ace Radley-Walters passes away
April 22, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Sydney Valpy Radley-Walters passed away on April 21, 2015 at the age of 95. Radley-Walters was best known for having been a Canadian Army tank commander during the Normandy campaign in 1944. As part of the 27th Armoured Regiment of the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade, he is credited by some sources with 18 tank kills. Most famously, Radley-Walters may have been responsible for the destruction of the Tiger tank commanded by German tank ace Michael Wittman at the Battle of Villers-Bocage. While British tank gunner Joe Ekins is generally credited with destroying Wittman’s Tiger, a line of reasoning has been advanced suggesting that Radley-Walters unit was responsible for defeating Wittman.
Lawsuit over Panzer IV ownership continues
April 22, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The Portola Valley Almanac is reporting that the lawsuit against the Collings Foundation brought by Vulcan Warbirds over ownership of a Panzer IV tank continues. The Panzer IV tank was part of the Jaques Littlefield collection, which was given to the Collings Foundation after Mr. Littlefield passed away in 2009. Last year Collings Foundation auctioned off part of the collection to pay for a building to house the rest of the collection. Vulcan Warbirds, which is headed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, had made a bid during the auction which was rejected for not meeting the reserve price. After the auction ended, Vulcan Warbirds claims to have made an agreement with a representative of the auction house to buy the tank for 2.5 million dollars. Collings foundation says they did not agree to sell the tank after the auction ended nor did they receive the 2.5 million dollars. According to an LA Times article, the tank in question was built in 1944 and used as part of the German effort during World War II. It was eventually bought by Syria in the 1950s. The Israelis captured the Panzer in 1967 during the Six-Day War and used it to train soldiers before retiring it to the Israeli Armor Museum. In 2003 it was purchased by the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation (Littlefield Collection.)
The original auction listing for this Panzer IV can be viewed here.
From the Editor: Weird and wonderful old timey AFV patents
April 21, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Here at Tank and AFV News, we like to dig through old patents to see what sort of odd and unusual ideas people have come up with in regards to tanks and AFV design. Today we present a few of the more unusual patents we have found from the early days of tank and AFV design. These were found by browsing Google patents (any typos in the patent descriptions are due to errors made by the OCR when these patents were digitized.)
1. We’ll start with a patent from 1911 by Anthony Mcf Mcsweeny for a “Skirmish-machine.” This is essentially an armored car and is probably the most sensible of the designs we present in this article. That said, it earns a place on this list by nature of it’s rather unusual name of “skirmish-machine.”
The inventor describes his invention as:
The present invention provides an engine of warfare which is self-propelling and armored so as to amply protect the `vital parts and the complement of men manning the same. The machine besides being self propelling, so as to move from place to place by its own power, is adapted for use as a traction engine for drawing ordnance, wagons,” or vehicles containing supplies or munitions of war.
Book Alert: BTR-60 In Detail
April 21, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Wings and Wheels publications has announced the upcoming release of a new entry in their Green Series examining the BTR-60 family of APCs. This book covers BTR-60PA, BTR-60PB, BTR-60PB-PU-12 and BTR-60PB-R145BM and contains 385 colour photos and manual drawings on 120 pages. The author of the book is František Kořán, the owner of WWP. The release date for the book is April 24. To order the book, or to see other titles from this series that are available, go to the WWP website at http://wwpbooks.com.
Russian Defense Ministry reveals photos of T-14 Armata
April 21, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The International Business Times is reporting that Russia’s defense ministry has released it’s first official image of the new Armata T-14 tank. The image was released via the “Russia Beyond the Headlines” news source. The article notes that:
The heavily armored T-14 is the main battle version of the Russian Armata tank and features a 125mm gun that is remotely controlled, with an unmanned turett. The photo of the tank was first posted on the ministry’s site in a section about Victory Day, Russia’s celebration of the 70-year anniversary of the end of World War II. Images first leaked of the highly anticipated tanks in late March.
The tanks are a part of Russia’s plan to update its military, and it has proven costly with the country attempting to maintain its plan to spend 23 trillion rubles ($433 billion) despite economic contraction, Bloomberg reported.
The picture itself it not particularly exciting. As with the other leaked pictures of Armata that have appeared, the details of the turret are obscured by a tarp. Also, it would appear that the picture (below) referred to in the article is not of the tank version of the vehicle as it has no cannon.
Virginia Museum of Military Vehicles Video Clips
April 21, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Over at the AFV News Discussion Board, board member “vagabond” recently posted this nice collection of videos from the 2010 Virginia Museum of Military Vehicles Open House. The video clips contain footage of numerous tanks and armored vehicles being run around the track. Vehicle types include a Centurion tank, M3 Lee, M7 Priest, M4 Sherman, Pz 61, T-55 and a British Valentine tank.
View the SmugMug video gallery of the 2010 VMMV Open House here
.
Tank and AFV News 