The Best That Never Was 2 (Prototypes)

[Raellus]

This could also fit in the Franken-AFV thread but since, AFAIK, it never entered production/service, this is probably the right place for it.

M41 Walker Bulldog / Cadillac-Gage Stingray Hybrid

From FIGHTING-VEHICLES.com:

"Another hybrid by Cadillac Gage, this time a Cadillac Gage Stingray turret married to the M41 hull. This offered less affluent countries operating the M41 the opportunity to up-gun and improve the vehicle."

https://fighting-vehicles.com/tanks/stingray-light-tank/

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[Vespers War]

Cadillac Gage was trying to sell the Stingray turret as an upgrade for a number of older tanks, including the M47 and M551 in addition to the M41. I could see any or all of those being plausible upgrades in a Twilight War scenario, trying to make old vehicles more relevant by giving them a 105mm L7 to replace the 76mm/90mm/152mm of the original turrets.

[Vespers War]

Perun's video on rocket artillery mentioned something I wasn't previously familiar with, the XM70 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XM70E2) developed in the late 1950/early 1960s. It straddles the line between being a rocket launcher and an artillery piece, apparently using a very small charge to get the projectile down a rifled barrel, at which point the rocket ignites. The ammunition is more of a traditional rocket than a RAP, and the whole thing's pretty lightweight at 3100 pounds for a 115mm launcher.

It carried 6 rounds in a pair of contrarotating 3-round revolver cylinders, and could fire all 6 in 2.5 seconds. Range was supposed to be 10 miles.

One thing I noticed while reading up on it is that while 115mm never caught on as an explosive round, it was used for rockets with payloads of VX and sarin. Those rockets were around 57 pounds each including a 10 pound payload and a 3 pound bursting charge, with a range of around 6 miles (lacking the gun boost to their initial velocity). The chemical rockets were the M55, and the XM-54 was the HE version, with firing tests of the XM-54 "gun boosted rocket" from the XM-70 occurring in 1959.

They don't really fit into any of the existing Twilight War scenarios, but they're still a bit of an interesting what-if.

[Tegyrius]

One thing I noticed while reading up on it is that while 115mm never caught on as an explosive round, it was used for rockets with payloads of VX and sarin. Those rockets were around 57 pounds each including a 10 pound payload and a 3 pound bursting charge, with a range of around 6 miles (lacking the gun boost to their initial velocity). The chemical rockets were the M55, and the XM-54 was the HE version, with firing tests of the XM-54 "gun boosted rocket" from the XM-70 occurring in 1959.

About a decade ago, I was peripherally involved with the emergency protective program around one of the Army's chemical weapons stockpiles. M55s containing both VX and GB may have been out of service by the time of the Twilight War, but they were very much a going concern in storage until only a couple of years ago. There might be interesting plots around the disposition of those stockpiles after the TDM.

- C.

[Vespers War]

About a decade ago, I was peripherally involved with the emergency protective program around one of the Army's chemical weapons stockpiles. M55s containing both VX and GB may have been out of service by the time of the Twilight War, but they were very much a going concern in storage until only a couple of years ago. There might be interesting plots around the disposition of those stockpiles after the TDM.

- C.

Up until last year if one wants to be somewhat loose with the definition of "going concern" - the last M55 GB was destroyed on July 7, 2023 (the VX were destroyed first, the last of those on April 19, 2022). They were officially obsoleted in 1981, but in 2012 there were still over 69,000 in storage at Blue Grass, so plenty of opportunity for them to be recalled or go walkabout.