The Best That Never Was 2 (Prototypes)

[Raellus]

Speaking of German prototype turretless AFVs, check out this oddity:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VT_tank

From the article: "The idea was that the tank would close in on the enemy on a zig-zag course (Wedelfahrt, much like a skier wedeling downhill). The target would be locked into the aiming computer, the gunner would hold the trigger and the gun would fire automatically in the moment when the muzzle was on the target during the next change of direction."

The two guns aspect of the design was intended to increase the chances of a first-hit, I suppose? Or do the barrels alternate firing between directional changes (i.e. one fires on the zig, the other fires on the zag)?

[Raellus]

Just stumbled across this oddity- Chrysler's TV-8 medium, nuclear-powered tank. It looks like something one might encounter in the Fallout universe, not the real world (or T2k, really), but here it is.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...ddc96233&ei=45

https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/chrysler-tv-8/

[Vespers War]

I ran across the TV-8 in one of R. P. Hunnicutt's books that my local library had. The plan was to build prototypes with a petrol-electric drive (powered by a 300 horsepower engine) and then figure out whether to switch to another powerplant, with nuclear as one of the options and a gas turbine as another. The design also had a waterjet at the bottom rear of the turret, because it was supposed to be amphibious.

The main gun was the 90mm T208, which had also been fitted to the T95 medium tank, with a pair of coaxial .30 calibre machineguns and a remote turret with a .50 cal AA gun on top.

The hull had only 20mm of armor, while the turret had frontal armor of 70mm at 68 degrees (effective thickness 187mm) and sides of 80mm at 45 degrees (effective thickness 113mm), plus an outer shell of ~10mm to act as spaced armor against HEAT warheads.

[Vespers War]

Ian released a video earlier today with a firearm preserved in Prague, the early 1920s Samostril Netsch. It's basically a Czech BAR, chambered for 7.92mm Mauser. The museum has a webpage with enough information on the gun to put together its stats.

Wt 7.82 kg, ROF 5, Mag 20, Dam 5, Pen 2-3-Nil, Bulk 9, SS 3, Brst 8, Range 100

The one trials it took part in, the gun broke after 23 shots, so there were some robustness issues. It does have some interesting features where the safety seals the rear of the action when engaged, and the front handguard can slide back to block the magazine well if there's no magazine loaded, both presumably efforts by a Great War survivor to keep mud out of the action. As the same sort of proto-SAW that the BAR could have been, it's an interesting what-if weapon.

[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/...ay-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 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.