Multiple Weapons for Armoured Vehicles

[Old Wombat]

I remember one idea from a sci-fi story, maybe one of the Hammer's Slammers?  The idea was that the commander would man a weapon from the turret hatch.  At any sign of danger, he would press a panic button, and the seat he was in (presumably belted in) would drop as a spring under tension expanded, drawing the hatch closed.  

I can't recall a detailed description of the mechanism but that does sound like something I read in a Slammer's story.

Problem with it is that it kinda reduces its effectiveness as an anti-sniper weapon, & as a crowd-control weapon if the crowd are shooting back.

The M48 cupola is one of those good ideas which was let down in execution.  

I did say "similar to".

Make the cupola-turret bigger, to suit a full-sized .50 cal, & maybe a bit blockier (?) to suit the British styling of the period, or, as Sauragnmon suggested, fit it with an early remote-targetting system.

I just liked the benefit of the 360-degree periscopes for urban fighting.



Guy

(Edit:)
PS:

In Vietnam, they often welded a standard .50cal mount on top of the cupola or simply didn't bother with it and replaced the standard co-ax with a .50cal.

This explains a few photo's I've seen from Vietnam where the commander is sitting on the open hatch cradling an M16 & there is no .50 cal mounted in the cupola.

On reflection, for MOAT I'd go with something like the "penthouse" they had on the M551 Sheridan with overhead cover.  Allows a standard .50cal and plenty of room to operate it and still have protection, particularly from overhead where it's most needed.

Is that similar to the one they fitted to the M113? If so, I agree.

[dadlamassu]

Something like the BMPT might fill the bill - twin 30mm cannon and 4 missiles in turret and a small turret on each side mounting a 30mm automatic grenade launcher.



Another version has a 30mm cannon with co-axial 30mm automatic grenade launcher in the turret.



I believe that these vehicles operate in support of MBT in street fighting sometimes as many as 2 x BMPT to 1 x MBT.