The Poles are pretending they're Japanese (Obrum PL-01)

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To add smooth armour packages and lots of electronic gadgets to a CV-90 doesn't make a sound light or medium tank. Nor do cool LED headlamps.

The tracks don't extend forward enough, restricting obstacle crossing ability a lot. Sensors and APS are too exposed to mere bullets. And to pretend that your tank doesn't need antennas isn't a promising approach either.

It is notable that Poland is at least still trying to develop tracked armoured fighting vehicles with some degree of at least superficial ambition. The ridiculously expensive British MoD projects, the technically challenged German Puma or the French wheeled armoured trucks aren't going to carry European mechanised forces into the 2030's, that's for sure.

We need a 40-50 ton hull, 1500 hp (+ enough kW electrical power) engine and drivetrain with moderate fuel consumption, little maintenance needs and high reliability and durability. Once we've got that, the different countries could develop different variants for their use. I still think the German industry is first choice for developing such a platform (preferably with its own money), but they first need to get the Puma project done and learn from it.

Don't get me wrong: We don't "need" new tanks now or soon, but we need to prepare long-term, so we don't need much in the 2030's either.

related: 2009-06: Heavy armoured fighting vehicles for Europe

S O

defence_and_freedom@gmx.de

PS: The reference to Japanese was because of the Type 10. The 1990's Experimentalwanne Gesamtschutz (EGS) had a passing similarity as well, though.

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