Quote:
Originally Posted by Raellus
Based on the M24 Chaffee light tank first introduced in 1944, the NM-116 Panserjager was used by Norwegian forces until 1993, IRL. There's a good chance that, had the Cold War continued, it would have still been in use when the Twilight War started.
https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/coldw...6-panserjager/
Thanks to Tegyrius for apprising me of this thing's existence. He also suggested that one or two NM-116 Panserjagers could have ended up in Poland after having been appropriated by US Marines fighting in Norway.
And the remarkable Paul M already has it stat'ed up for v2.2.
https://www.pmulcahy.com/tracked_lcv/norwegian_tlcv.htm
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The Chaffee itself remained in service with Uruguay until 2019(!). They received 17 tanks in 1958 from American stock in South Korea, which were organized into three platoons of five tanks each plus a command section of two tanks. One of the command section tanks was fitted with a dozer blade. In the 1980s the worn-out engines were replaced by Saab-Scania DN11, which had the same horsepower output as the Twin Cadillac but were available on the commercial market and had parts readily available. They also had their .30-06 M1919A4 rebored to 7.62x51mm NATO around the same time, and some other upgrades like modern radio equipment and updated ammo racks. They were withdrawn from combat units in December 2018 (replaced by M41C Walker Bulldogs sold to Uruguay by Brazil) and officially retired in July 2019.
Chile "only" kept their Chaffees in service until 2006. They wanted to upgrade them to NM-116 standard, but an embargo on providing weapons to the Pinochet regime prevented Norway from upgrading Chile's tanks. Instead, they got a (legal) engine upgrade, replacing the 220 horsepower Twin Cadillac with the 275 horsepower 6V53T from the M113. The upgrade made the tanks slightly heavier but also slightly faster. Israel agreed to supply weapons to Chile in defiance of the embargo, providing a combination of M-51 Shermans fitted with 105mm F1 cannon, M-50 Shermans with 60mm IMI-OTO HVMS guns, and enough additional HVMS guns to replace the worn-out 75mm guns on all 21 of the M24 tanks. All-up weight allegedly increased to 22 tons, which brought the tank's speed back down to its original 56 km/h, but the 60mm HVMS could allegedly penetrate as much armor as the 105mm L7, allowing the little Chaffee to punch well above its weight, very much an eggshell with a sledgehammer. They would be replaced by AMX-30B1 tanks in 2006.