Picture of the day

Anyone here old enough to have worked with the "Snowmobile, Armoured, Canadian, Mk. I"?

"One notable Canadian-designed and produced vehicle that arrived for field tests was the Snowmobile, Armoured, Canadian, Mark I, often referred to as the Mudcat, and later known as the Penguin. This remarkable little vehicle was designed as an armoured, two-man recce vehicle for cold weather regions. This vehicle was the result of a verbal request by the British Ministry of Supply, and was a development of a full-tracked unarmoured snowmobile, upon which the Army Engineering Design Branch had already conducted tests in 1943.
Equipped with a Cadillac V8 engine coupled to a Hydra-matic automatic transmission, and a Ford T16 Universal carrier axle with controlled differential steering, this vehicle was tested by the 5th Armoured Brigade in the first weeks of January 1945, when it was issued with one M29 Weasel and 12 snowmobiles. With its armoured hull and ground pressure of only 1.9 pounds per square inch, it not only provided good fun for the Strathcona's recce troop but proved able to negotiate all types of mud, sand and snow encountered. It was compared against the M29 Weasel and the conclusions reached were that the Weasel was fine for carrying stores but not useful for much else because of its lack of armour, very short track life, and low horsepower-per-ton ratio of 10.9, compared to the Canadian snowmobile's 29 hp/ton. The Penguin proved to be an ideal recce vehicle, with provision for a No. 19 wireless set, a Sten gun, a rifle and a Bren gun that could be mounted on any of three pivots on the hull front and sides. It was also tested for bringing forward supplies to areas previously accessible only by foot or mule, and six-pounder guns were towed through mud up to the axles with no problems.

For added load-carrying capabilities, two trailers were designed in the Mediterranean theatre for use with the snowmobile. One, designed at the Mechanical Experimental Establishment in Cairo, was based on the tracks and suspension from a Universal carrier and was quite serviceable. The other was designed in Italy and was found to sink in soft ground. The British discovered that while the vehicle was being tested in Egypt of all places, it overheated when operating in temperatures above 70 degrees F - a fact that was confirmed when the instruction book finally arrived. In all, 415 of these nimble little vehicles were made. Of these, three were shipped to Russia, 400 were ordered by the British, 10 by the Department of National Defence, and two Mark Is were supplied to the Army Engineering Design Branch. Orders were placed for a Mark II version with improved cooling and better weather protection for all-weather use. Unfortunately, this was after the major component assemblies were already out of production. This necessitated a cutback of four vehicles to the British order, under Contract #UN 4718. The fifth vehicle came under Canadian Contract #MP 10027. Therefore, the total production was 410 Mark Is and five Mark IIs. They were not taken on strength by Canadian units as there was no requirement for them in Canadian units and spring was approaching."
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Dark Alley Dan said:
Anyone here old enough to have worked with the "Snowmobile, Armoured, Canadian, Mk. I"?
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Before my time. When I was stationed at Churchill for two years we had the Nodwell snow machine, a real Cadillac for a military vehicle. Used to chew up the muskeg 'loon sh!t' (Pee-yew!) something awful, so it was best employed during the winter.
 
Don't have to, they have their own leopards.

RUAG Land Systems Ltd. Leopard 2 midlife upgrade
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With the midlife upgrade programme (Swiss Armed Forces designation: WE) RUAG Land Systems Ltd. and partners have succeeded in developing a modular and further upgradeable programme for the main battle tank Leopard 2 (Swiss Armed Forces designation: Pz 87 Leo).

The new Leopard configuration (WE) was both tactically and logistically successfully tested in tough military missions. The modularity and upgradeability are the most prominent features of the programme, fulfilling the military and also the political demands of a weapon system of the future.An integrated, state-of-the-art command and control system

The electrical turret drive with digital controller assures further upgradeability, increases the safety of the crew and reduces maintenance work.

By retrofitting the existing commander’s periscope, night vision is optimised. The chosen technical solution allows the periscope to remain in the same place.

All control and command functions are centralised on the commander’s new control panel.

The new self-contained observation and weapon station (ABWS) on the roof of the tank and the upgradeable, modular protection concept with roof protection, front and side protection together with the mine protection assures the adaptability of the Leopard 2 to the changing demands.
 
diopter said:
With the midlife upgrade programme (Swiss Armed Forces designation: WE) RUAG Land Systems Ltd. and partners have succeeded in developing a modular and further upgradeable programme for the main battle tank Leopard 2 (Swiss Armed Forces designation: Pz 87 Leo).

The new Leopard configuration (WE) was both tactically and logistically successfully tested in tough military missions. The modularity and upgradeability are the most prominent features of the programme, fulfilling the military and also the political demands of a weapon system of the future.An integrated, state-of-the-art command and control system

The electrical turret drive with digital controller assures further upgradeability, increases the safety of the crew and reduces maintenance work.

By retrofitting the existing commander’s periscope, night vision is optimised. The chosen technical solution allows the periscope to remain in the same place.

All control and command functions are centralised on the commander’s new control panel.

The new self-contained observation and weapon station (ABWS) on the roof of the tank and the upgradeable, modular protection concept with roof protection, front and side protection together with the mine protection assures the adaptability of the Leopard 2 to the changing demands.
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That drivel reminds me of every project manager I've ever worked with that desperately needed to get throat punched. Meaningless corporate-speak passed off as information, in an attempt to make the corporate wog-wogs feel much more smarterer, while the engineers bang their head against the table instead of yealling "SHUT UP! That has nothing to do with what we told you."
 
diopter said:
Precisely, cut and paste.
Almost halfway down the webpage.
http://tanknutdave.com/the-german-leopard-2-series/

Ruag Website, BTW they made and will make further batches of GP11 7.5x55.
https://www.ruag.com/en/products-services/land/vehicles-weapon-systems
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I'd heard about the GP11 going back into production, which is nice because my stockpile will eventually run out. Always a funds juggle to determine which milsurp to blow money stockpiling ammo for at any given point in time.
 
Doesn't matter. RUAG always made the commercial brand of GP11, and so did Prvi Partizan.

But GP11 went into production again 2016. The army figured it was about time to stock up on ammo.
 
grelmar said:
That drivel reminds me of every project manager I've ever worked with that desperately needed to get throat punched. Meaningless corporate-speak passed off as information, in an attempt to make the corporate wog-wogs feel much more smarterer, while the engineers bang their head against the table instead of yealling "SHUT UP! That has nothing to do with what we told you."
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Take comfort in the knowledge that just down the hall there is another project manager spouting off about his new munitions that are 'fully adaptable to the changing demands of the evolving tactical situation and the technical challenges associated with defeating any current and future armour systems at all anticipated ranges and diverse climatic conditions' etc etc...:)
 
Dark Alley Dan said:
B29 fixer upper, rumored to be at China Lake in the late 1960s:

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In the 50's thre was a program to see what air to air weapons would be effective on big bombers. e.g. Is 20mm better than 50 cal? (I think they decided they were about the same.) There was a move to the air to air unguided rocket. (FFAR) It carried a small explosive war head (5 pounds of RDX, if memory serves). Would a single hit bring down a bomber?

Those damaged bombers look like the sample warheads were detonated at various places to see what kind of damage they would inflict.

The Canadian CF 100s carried two pods of these FFAR rockets. Our Neptune anti-sub planes carried 2 pods of FFARs with anti-tank warheads (for subs).
 
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