Briefings : New DPRK tank, P-8A, PLA report

• North Korea has unveiled its latest tank the Pokpung-Ho on some video footage. South Korean analysts say it is based on the Soviet T-62 and has enhanced mobility, protection and firepower over older DPRK tanks (which wouldn't really be that hard to guess to be honest).
• The Boeing P-8A ASW aircraft has been cleared to begin ramping up to production as the plane enters the last 2 years of its testing and development programme. The US plans to buy 117 of them.
• The Pentagon has released its annual report on the Chinese military and notes the development of the "most active land-based ballistic cruise missile program [sic] in the world". The actual report is here. Meanwhile China are seeking closer military ties with Serbia.
• It has been suggested that the MOD should relocate to Portsmouth from London to save money.

Briefings : SDR, SLBMs, Tank reefs

• The SDR leaks and gossip continue, according to the latest reports the RAF will take the brunt of the cuts in the UK forces and be left with less than 200 fighters. All Tornadoes and Hercules would be withdrawn and the number of Typhoons cut. The Army would lose 40% of its armoured vehicles and the Navy 2 submarines and 3 amphibious warship ships in the latest leaked proposals.
• The MOD is looking into a training package to support the operations of its future fleet of A400M transports.
• Russia has successfully tested 2 Sineva SS-N-23 SLBMs but the next test of the troubled next-generation Bulava SS-NX-30 has been postponed.
• 25 ex-Thai Army tanks and other vehicles have been dumped in the Gulf of Thailand to produce an artificial reef. Similiar things are often done with ex-warships.

Sunday Fail : Maus

The Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus was the heaviest tank built in World War 2, and at 192 tonnes probably the heaviest tank ever built (by comparison a Leopard 2 weighs just over 60 tonnes). Now tank designs often get heavier during their development but the Maus was rather impressive in that aspect, the original design was to be 100 tonnes but the result (which never entered service) was almost double that.

That sheer weight bought a lot of problems of course. It was too heavy to use many bridges so it had to be designed to ford rivers instead. To cross deep streams or rivers the Maus was designed to be able to travel along the river bed fully subermerged coupled up to another Maus on the bank which would supply it with electrical power for it's transmission. Late in the war you might think German engineers and scientists might have better things to do.

Moving nearly 200 tons was another problem of course, a special railway car had to be built for it. But for it's own engine no German made engine proved powerful enough to give it a decent performance. A 1200hp engine was fitted but this couldn't take the Maus over 8mp/h.

The Maus would have been a formidable tank to fight of course with a 128mm cannon and a 75mm secondary armament (which on it's own was more powerful than the guns tanks had had for much of the war). The armour ranged from 60mm to 240mm steel. However it is not thought any of the Maus prototypes saw any action. The Soviets managed to capture several prototypes but noticeably it does not seem like the Maus made much impact on postwar Soviet tank design.

The Maus was no doubt an impressive sight but it's utility as a military weapon was rather suspect. Considering the vast resources that would need to go into producing a decent force of the tank it is likely the Maus, if it had entered service, would have remained in small numbers and considering it's slow speed probably would have just been bypassed by advancing Allied forces and destroyed at their leisure.

Book Review : Japanese Tanks 1939-45 by Steven J Zaloga

Osprey produce many interesting books on less obvious subjects at a handy price and this book is one of their New Vanguard series which focuses on weapons of war, and in this case Japanese tanks of World War 2, an aspect of the war much less covered than tank warfare in the west. Though the book is a bit misnamed, as the period covered stretches from early Japanese tank developments just after the First World War onwards.

The Japanese were the largest manufacturer of tanks in the 1930s outside of Europe, their early designs based on imported British and French tanks and steadily developed thanks in some part to combat experience in the 1930s in China. At the start of WW2 they were pretty much on a par with European and American designs and led the way in the incredible Japanese advance across the Pacific proving that tanks could be used through jungle terrain and played a full role in actions such as the capture of Singapore.

However their development and production stagnated as the Japanese navy and airforce took the priority so when the Allied fightback against the Japanese later in the war began the Japanese tanks were outclassed and had been left behind by armour and weapon advances and suffered accordingly.

This is an interesting read on the less well known aspect of tank warfare in WW2, gorgeously illustrated as with all Osprey books with some fine colour artwork. The writing by Stephen Zaloga is up to his usual high standard and covers the history of development and combat experience. My only real criticism is the book is a bit short but that is the case with all of the New Vanguard series which could be better served with a few more pages.

Republished from my tech blog

Insurgents driving the development of MBTs?

Whilst reading up on some new equipment and updates being procured by the British Army i found that the army's Challenger 2 MBT (Main Battle Tank) will be receiving a number of armour and weapon updates. Nothing is new in that of course, tanks are always under development and like all military equipment there is a constant effort to improve faster than your enemy can. However in the past what drove MBT development was other MBTs.

Tanks like the Challenger 2 were designed for World War 3 and tank battles against the Soviet Union. The need to kill Soviet tanks is what drove development of the tank. However since the end of the Cold War the prospect of epic tank battles across Central Germany has pretty much disappeared. In the 2 wars against Iraq the Challenger 2 mostly faced much older Soviet-era tanks like the T-55.

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein however tanks have been used to support ground forces fighting the insurgency and this seems to be driving MBT development now. The Challenger 2 has had armour upgrades especially at the front to improve protection against IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) e.g. road side bombs. The tank has also had an extra machine gun fitted atop the turret that can be fired remotely from within the protection of the tank (though just for development at the moment). Such an extra gun is not really aimed at fighting other tanks but another anti-insurgent measure. Other armour upgrades have sought to improve protection against rocket propelled grenades. The tank has had to develop to combat not the latest cutting edge Soviet design but pretty low-tech but insurgents with no lack of courage or ingenuity.





Images from MOD Image Database
Republished from my general tech blog