High-res Goodness of Latest Russian Equipment:

[Earl Grey]

This little baby here is called a "Gefechstversuchsträger" (roughly translates to "combat test carrier") or sometiems referred to as the "Leopard 3", a German experimental vehicle built to test new ideas for MBT design when the T-62 appeared in the Soviet arsenal since the early Leopard 1 variants were inferior at that time. As good as NO information is known about that vehicle safe from that it is still in driving condition and could have achieved speeds up to 100km/h (unlikely). Armament would have probably been two 120mm guns (shortened) with an automatic loader each, frontal armor estimated at 120mm.

A similar vehicle is this:

Called the "VT 1-1" (105mm) or "VT 1-2 (120mm) built on the chassis of a Leopard 1 in teh early 70s which I figure would have been the case for the above Leopard 3 - although I wonder why they built two different vehicles of roughly the same type.

[handihoc]

Fascinating stuff.

RedRage, great videos. The commentator in the first one has one of the strangest British accents I've ever hear. Quite creepy, in fact.

M1A1TC, it'd be good to know what each of those vehicles/weapons are. And any chance you can introduce me to the combatant in the blue beret? I think I want to sign up. (who cares which side?)

[Derfel]

Oops, meant to include this as well.

The pic was taken at Munster Panzer Museum this summer.

[Sivodsi]

Oops, meant to include this as well.

The pic was taken at Munster Panzer Museum this summer.

Thanks! A quick search reveals this:

But this still looks different to the version posted by Flaming Knives. Can anyone give further information about it?

[John Kettler]

The_Red_Rage,

Terrific videos, but the techno gave me a headache. With engine problems sorted out, the earlier Russian armor shown should be much more effective and reliable. I contrast this strongly with the hapless BTR-60s of Operation Dneiper which lacked the power to get up the shelled riverbank, forcing an unplanned debussing! Of course, the ergonomics will still be pretty bad, by western standards, at least.

M1A1TC,

Captions, please (and her number, even though I think she's Spetsnaz from a VIP assassination unit--a real femme fatale). Can ID some of it (TOS-1 Buratino, BMP-3 with everything on it, Aist ACV), but by no means all. Is that a 2S6? If so, where are the guns? Kornet-E, in one shot with the sight cap on, from what I can tell!

Derfel,

You apparently read minds, so thanks for that data placard!

Earl Grey and Sivodsi,

Well done!

People,

I've been out of military aerospace for nearly 20 years, but I'm still not used to the unbelievable stuff so freely available now on Russian weaponry. In my day, a man got killed stealing a tank manual. Wonder what his shade makes of Russian defense contractors hyping their latest and greatest to the world?

Regards,

John Kettler

[Earl Grey]

@Sivodsi: I just forgot to include additional pictures to show the difference. In fact, there have been more of this so-called "double-barrel casemate tanks" than only two, all built and tested in the 70s. I'll try to show it comprehensively (although a litle bit off topic - but we can always change to another thread, I guess):

VT 1-2: effectively already the second experimental vehicle with 120mm guns instead of 105mm (VT 1-1)

GVT?: another of 5 additional "Gefechtsversuchsträger"/combat test carriers (labeled GVT01 - 05), although it is not sure which one of these -> flamingknives post

GVT04: obviously similar in appearance to the VT 1-2, although differnece is that the VT 1-1 and 1-2 were built with a lot of components of the experimental MBT 70 and the GVT on the chassis of the Leopard 1. -> sivodsi's post

These seem to be the only survivors that are publicly known - you never know what might pop up in a private collection somewhere...

[Sivodsi]

Thanks!

Ok, they were all German and not Russian at all. What was the advantage of having two guns though? The only thing I can think of would be how it would work on a similar principle to the double barrelled shotgun.

Edit to add: the second picture you posted looks to be the same one as in Flaming Knives post.

[Earl Grey]

Correct, the second one is the same flamingknives posted and the third is the one you came up with. the idea was - obviously - to increase firepower exponentially while reducing the silouhette of the vehicle. And since Germany has had such success with the StuGs they tried it again... without the saems uccess, though. Even less ammo than before, to much strain on almost every part of the behicle, even less space for the crew and so on.