Quote:
Originally Posted by cavtroop
... However, that's most definitely an M113 chassis it's sitting on - Bradley's have 6 roadwheels, 113's have 5...
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I have some more thoughts on this.
While I have no quarrel with the provable fact that some of the stats reported on the page are incorrect (you only have to watch the video for that), I don't agree that the similarity to an M113 is a good basis to declare it is made from an M113 chassis. Using the number of roadwheels idea by itself is dubious at best and wishful thinking at worst. Following that logic, the M109 should be a derivative of the Bradley because the M109 has 7 roadwheels, two more than the M113 but only 1 more than the Bradley.
Because the vehicle is a prototype, it's more likely they fabricated the chassis to meet the design specs rather than modified an M113 chassis which would involve some serious cutting down to make it thinner (the video states that the vehicle is 2.44m wide) and shorter (height 2m to the M113s 2.5m). And why waste a perfectly good M113 when there is an obvious need for that vehicle in some form other than to cut it down for a prototype?
I can't imagine them being able to fit a standard caterpillar diesel into the front of that thing, I believe it's in the rear. The exhaust possibly vents up from the rear deck in a manner similar to the radiator cooling fans on the Panther tank. Or it's even possible the exhaust vents underneath the vehicle which could help it mix with the cooler air being drawn in under the hull helping to reduce the thermal signature.