SPAAS Thread

[tahsin]

Thanks . Went deeper into it and I think the first is a one off and not even German . For the 88 turret it seems there was such a  project but the Alligator is a what if as post 295 in this page depicts it .

[ChernayaAkula]

I've mentioned it before, but I've thought of mounting a Gepard turret on the Faun Elefant & armouring the cab.  It would be a German SPAAG version of the Czech Dana/Zuzana Self Propelled Howitzer, which is itself an armored version of the Tatra 8x8 truck.  Getting away from this thread, you could also mount a PzH 2000 turret for the same role.  My idea was that although less mobile over terrain, it could deploy very quickly via Germany's extensive road network.  This is a simiar reasoning behind the Dana IIRC.

The Czech had the very same idea! They mounted a turret containing a 30mm gun, SA-16 missile and associated fire control equipment on the chassis of the Dana. CLICKY! Never saw production, though.



Gepard turret on Elefant (or MAN 8x8) sounds great!  Beats me why Revell only ever did the Leo 1A5 in 1/72. 

[Cobra Kebab]

Would it be possible to put something similiar on a stretched Mowag Piranha (LAV/Stryker) chassis?

[Mossie]

The Czech had the very same idea! They mounted a turret containing a 30mm gun, SA-16 missile and associated fire control equipment on the chassis of the Dana. CLICKY! Never saw production, though.



Gepard turret on Elefant (or MAN 8x8) sounds great!  Beats me why Revell only ever did the Leo 1A5 in 1/72. 

Thank you Mr Black Shark!  If HobbyBoss ever get around to scaling down their forthcoming Dana to 1/72, you've given me a plan, although it looks like quite an involved conversion.  Fantastic find!

[apophenia]

Would it be possible to put something similiar on a stretched Mowag Piranha (LAV/Stryker) chassis?

Could be tricky, the Dana hull is a smidge wider than the Piranha III.

There's a bunch of slightly smaller scale AA turrets on offer for the 10 x 10 Piranhas: Bofors Triad (as per CV9040 AAV), KMW Wildcat twin 30mm (once offered on the Mowag Shark as well), plus the missile/gun combo Thales Blazer (GAU-12 + Mistral version),

Of course, the Blazer (Stinger version) is already fit on the standard-sized Piranha II/LAV AD. Thales' Crotale NG turret is also offers. ADATS is another missile that fits the standard Piranha hulls (eg: mockup on LAV III for the Canadian Forces' MMEV program) although it too was offered on the LAV II/III 10 x 10s.

[ChernayaAkula]

While trying to find pics of a Bundeswehr Gepard painted in a special decommission scheme, I found this interesting set-up:



A conventional 155mm artillery piece (KMW's Donar in this case) is coupled with an artillery-spotting radar to fire at and detonate HE rounds near incoming rockets and mortar or artillery shells. The fragments of the HE shell are deemed powerful enough to destroy or disable an incoming shell. Apart from that, the artillery spotting radar could also determine the position of the attacker and have the artillery piece lob a few shells in that direction as well (in case the ROE allow that).

Here's the pic of the Gepard.



While the scheme obviously hints at a cheetah (Gepard in German), I think this might make for a decent camo in the African bush.
Or maybe this a totally different approach to camo: painting your tanks in the colours of endangered species, making your enemy think twice before shooting and getting into trouble with the WWF/IFAW/Greenpeace/whathaveyou. 
A German comedian (yes, we do have those!) once joked that "it is unfair, naming your tanks for animals. You go to war with tanks and stuff, and your enemy, briefed by his spooks, only brings popcorn to feed the zoo".

[Maverick]

Neat pics Moritz, thanks for sharing.

The 'cheetah' scheme looks quite good even from a baseline camo look.

An interesting idea for anti-artillery fire tho.  You'd think a laser might be better, but perhaps that's the future.

Regards,

Mav

[rickshaw]

The Australian Leopards for many years were nicknamed "Koalas" after the endangered Marsupial tree-climbing species (no, they aren't Bears!) - because they could not be exported or shot at!  That was because the Leopards weren't deployed outside of Australia during their service lives.

[MAD]

Question to Greg (GTX)

The information you have have on the AB Bofors TEAK 40 x 66 40mm SPAAG system!
Do you have anything more on this projects?
Does your information give a time line of when it was being developed?
and did Bofors enter it into the U.S Army's DIVAD (Division Air Defense) SPAAG competition?

Could you please email me this info if you have it mate?

M.A.D

[GTX]

Could you please email me this info if you have it mate?

M.A.D

Check your email Robert

[MAD]

Could you please email me this info if you have it mate?

M.A.D

Check your email Robert

Thank you sir 

M.A.D

[ysi_maniac]

KMW's Donar

Love that!

[GTX]

One I wasn't aware of until just recently was the Canadian Skink:






Regards,

Greg

[Maverick]

I always thought the Skink looked a bit like the Flakpanther quad 20mm version.  Either way, they'd put up a bit of lead.

Regards,

Mav

[Jschmus]

According to the Wiki article, the only machine sent to the UK for testing actually entered combat during the Battle of Hochwald Forest.  Given the need for infantry support machines in Europe, you'd think they'd have ordered up the whole production run for that purpose.  Or is that modern thinking applied to an old scenario?