Are there any tanks with the gun and autoloader outside the main turret?
Upvote:0
Don't forget about the M-50 "Ontos". Six 106 mm recoiless rifles and a .50 cal spotting gun outside the hull, crew jumps out, load same, then jumps back in to shoot. Recoiless rifles, you don't want to be standing behind one when it is fired.
Upvote:0
The Swedish Stridsvagn 103 didn't have a turret. The driver was also the gunner. He aimed the gun with his driving controls and raising/lowering the suspension. The radio operator sat at the back, and had driving controls to be able to drive backwards immediately. The Stridsvagn 103 had an autoloader.
Upvote:3
The idea of being able to peek over a hill and fire has been most successfully done using guided missiles. Since the weapon is guided, depression is not an issue. All that is required is a lock on the target. A typical example is the M901 ITV "Hammerhead" which features a large TOW missile turret on the roof along with its sights. Only the turret need be visible. It can be raised and lowered.
Taking it a step further, since the missile is guided only the sights need to be visible. The vehicle can remain hidden behind a slope with only the sights poking up. The missile is fired, arcs up over the slope, and then down to the target. The AH-64D Apache Longbow used this system.
Finally, if a missile can fire over a slope, why endanger the vehicle at all? Various missile systems have allowed the sights to be separated from the launcher. The British Swingfire was perhaps the weirdest. It was a wire-guided anti-tank missile. The crew could dismount and take the control unit 100 meters away. When the missile was fired it make up to a 90 degree turn to fly from the vehicle into the gunner's line of sight. The gunner then had to guide it to the target.
But you asked for a gun on a tank.
The idea of an externally mounted gun has been around since the 70s. The British tried the COMRES 75.
The Swedes tried with the UDES-19 and UDES-20, a light tank. Here's Curator Stefan Karlsson showing off their UDES-20 at the Arsenalen tank museum.
The closest to your question would be the AAI RDF Block 2 "Elke" light tank. This fielded the terrifying XM274 Hypervelocity 75mm Autocannon in an unmanned, exposed turret capable of being raised. The XM274 featured a unique rotating chamber which allowed the gun to be loaded vertically from the bottom and rotated in line with the breech. This allowed only the gun to be exposed, and it could be loaded at any elevation.
The general idea of remote overhead weapons systems has gained popularity, especially as remote optics have become better, for machine guns, grenade launches, and small autocannons. But it has not caught on for a tank cannon. In part because ATGMs work just fine, and in part because light tanks have fallen out of favor. An external, unarmored gun is fine if you're always behind a slope, but a tank should be able to fight in more situations.
Nicholas Moran aka "The Chieftain" talks about the Elke and the XM274 listing its problems. To get the high rate of fire of 120 rounds per minute the gun is fired out of battery meaning the gun is constantly in motion while firing, there isn't even a fraction of a second to stabilize the gun. Later prototype vehicles dispensed with that idea and lowered the rate of fire to about 60 rpm. Heat dissipation was also a problem. The recoil of a 75mm hypervelocity cannon on the support arms would likely have become a problem in production. They also tried a 90mm gun. However, The Chieftain sums it up like so: "what the hell is the point of a 75mm gun which fires 2 rounds per second... especially on a smaller vehicle with limited ammunition supply".
More post
- 📝 How many times did the US experiment before dropping the atomic bomb in Japan?
- 📝 How late where plumed helmets and muscle cuirasses used by Roman/Byzantine soldiers?
- 📝 Historicity of Agamemnon
- 📝 Was there any empire that was destroyed while still expanding?
- 📝 What are these hats and the function of those wearing them (worn by the Russian imperial army at Borodino)?
- 📝 What is the name of the Phoenician religion?
- 📝 Has more than 1/3 of Congress ever opposed a war?
- 📝 Was there an ancient cult of worshiping one's own reflection?
- 📝 What was the role of U.S. involvement in World War II?
- 📝 How did mid-19th century American legislation affect the corporate structure of railroad companies?
- 📝 Why did the death rate increase in US cities in 1934, when it decreased in each year from 1929 to 1933
- 📝 What are the immediate legal effects of rendering a royal branch illegitimate?
- 📝 The allure of totalitarianism/ communism/ fascism
- 📝 Why did the USSR support the PRC entry into the UN?
- 📝 Did ancient miners have ways of predicting ore/stone deposits?
- 📝 Colonies in Machiavelli's age
- 📝 What sort(s) of identification were used before driver's licenses were issued in the US?
- 📝 Do most of today's democratic nations with two-party system exhibit a civil war in recent past?
- 📝 Did Peter the Great promote rights for women? If so, how?
- 📝 Battle of Xiaoting: was Shu's invasion doomed from the start?
- 📝 When did the Saxons settle Britain?
- 📝 How were the invasions of Korea by the Mongols and the Manchus similar?
- 📝 Were lay people ever forbidden to read the Bible in the Christian world?
- 📝 Is there an objective measure of decadence?
- 📝 Considering what was known about Hitler in 1933, why would German bishops declare that Catholics could cooperate with the new State?
- 📝 Contemporary opinions on Caliph Omar's burning of the library of Alexandria?
- 📝 European colonization of India: contrast with America?
- 📝 Why did Franklin Roosevelt promote Nazi sympathizer/eugenicist Frederick Osborn to high levels of office?
- 📝 Who used to present the Indian Order of Merit?
- 📝 What can be considered to be the single most important reason for the decline of muslim Golden Age?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Are there any tanks with the gun and autoloader outside the main turret?
- 📝 Is there any instance of part of a country successfully seceding and then unifying with a neighbouring country in the last century?
- 📝 Are there any accounts of German junior enlisted soldiers surviving the siege of Stalingrad and subsequent captivity?
- 📝 Are there any remaining existant texts that describe the styles and techniques of Medieval European swordsmanship?
- 📝 Are there any ancient sources clearly testifying a frozen Tiber river in the year 398, 396, 271, and 177 BCE?
- 📝 Are there any texts/translations of the 4 main Egyptian creation myths?
- 📝 Are there any examples of European rulers with a rank lower than king to utilize a "throne" and a "throne room"?
- 📝 Are there any incidents of war / brutalities because of Football match other than the famous one between El Salvador and Honduras?
- 📝 Are there any contemporary references to the Battle of Badr outside of the Qur'an?
- 📝 Was there any treaty during WWI and II with the world countries and Sir Henry Dunant's Red Cross to respect those with Red Cross?
- 📝 Are there any books on the recruitment of scientists from the Third Reich (Operation "Paperclip" and others)?
- 📝 Are there any accounts of everyday life during the Black Death?
- 📝 In the "Christmas truce" of 1914 were there any football (soccer) matches between British and German troops?
- 📝 Is there any evidence that Cleopatra and Caesarion considered fleeing to India to escape the Romans?
- 📝 Were there any Germans in Japan after the surrender of Germany in May, 1945 and if so, what happened to them?
- 📝 Are there any documented examples of wooden ships which were in active service for 100 years or more? If not, what is the longest?
- 📝 Is there any documentation that indicates the Aztecs were as violent as they are made out?
- 📝 Were there any crops and livestock common to both the Old and New Worlds prior to the Columbian exchange?
- 📝 Are there any scientific estimates for the population of Mycenaean Greece?
- 📝 Are there any existing foreign language teaching texts from the Ancient Near East?
- 📝 Are there any historians who believe that the crusades were not motivated as a distraction from internal conflicts?
- 📝 Were there any pilots that declined to carry out the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
- 📝 Is there any country(former colony) in the world that obtained independence and then again tried to join its colonist ruler?
- 📝 What is the origin of Khans? Is there any link between South Asian Khans and the Mongols?
- 📝 Are there any historical sources that support the claim that ancient high-speed archers held multiple arrows in their hand?
- 📝 Are there any ideas as to what the English landscape was like before the arrival of the Angles?
- 📝 Was there any connection between the Ottonians and Benedictines?
- 📝 Is there any footage and/or photos of Germans surrendering towns and cities in the Western Front?
- 📝 Between the 7 Years War and 1776, was there any effort to have the colonies represented in Parliament?
- 📝 Was there any conflict/interaction between the Black Panther Party and the Nation of Islam?