Who can make out these two tanks?

external image



All I know just is these tanks are belong to USSR.

[edit on 1-6-2006 by emile]

mod edit:
How to resize an image (review link)
ATTN: Image Size Guidelines (review link)

[edit on 1-6-2006 by UK Wizard]

They look amphibious to me. The wide 'skirting,' multiple treads, and fans on top.

But I dunno the make, srz.

hmmm -- i will have to " hit the books " later -- but a few charateristics of these images look very suspicios .


#1 - turret , where is the turret hatch ??? -- for that matter -- any vision blocks , gun sights etc etc


#2 - turret - at the resolution in pic no2 the turret doe not look like it rotates - like its a plastic mock up


#3 - main gun -- thats a very large bore , and a very small turret -- there does not look room for a breech / lloader inside the turret .

also where arre the trunnions ?? the gun does not look capable of elevation


#4 - track width - those are tiny tracks , ground pressure must be immense

#5 - fans in the deck . WTF ??? they look worthy of a hovercraft , they are certainly not cooling fans for the powerpack

as a follow up to #4/5 - there is no sign of a skirt for a lifting system -- and why have tracks and lifters ??

#6 - a general unfinished / plastic look -- ie there are no fitting on the hull -- such as no tow eye on the front glacis .

#7 - road wheels - only 5 ??? unless there are 5 more " overlapped " in the shadow -- there is far too few

those are just the glaring points .

may i ask where you got these pics from ??

The three aircraft style bubble canopies are interesting. The crewless turret....

Those huge fans look like a hovercraft in the sense of lift fans but that idea doesn't really float.


Any dating evidence - looks 1950s to me.

Originally posted by emile
external image
...

This one is:

Object 279 (1957) Troyanov super- heavy tank with double treads.

From here, 6th entry down.

I´ll most probably have an ID on the other tank within the next 8 hours, depending on the speed of my "operatives"

Not too sure what it actually is, but the chassis is an old MTLB.

The turret looks very much like the 120mm mortar found on the 2S6 but the pics are not clear enough.

I'll check my old recognition training books and get back to you.

FRITZ :

an MTLB ??? - THE MT-LB has 6 road wheels , and a much taller hull .

the only thing i retract from my previous list - is my babbling about track width . - looking through the recognition card -- i forgot how narrow treads soviet stuff like the BDMs and BMPs had -- my bad

but its deffo not an MT-LB , count the road wheels and spacing .

The second one looks like a tank from a '50's Sci-Fi low-cost movie. Looking at one of the pics, the porportion of it the environment, it looks like a medium-sized plastic mock-up of a vehicle from a popular sci-fi show or low-cost movie. Also, the writing in the top left hand corner(can't read it) looks like it's promoting the vehicle to a certain commercial audience non-military related. So it might be a remote-controlled vehicle of some sort. It doesn't leven ook like a tank to me either, looks like an IFV.

The first one as stated before is a double-traded Russian Heavy Tank.

Shattered OUT...

Um.. It looks like a model. A plastic model.

Sorry to disagree with you ignorant_ape but, apart from the road wheels, the chassis - I repeat - the chassis or hull to use the correct terminology, does look a lot like the MTLB, whilst the width of the tracks suggests that it could be a 'modified' BMD.

I have looked through all our in house recognition journals and cd-roms, but to no avail. It [the veh] does not feature in any of them.

One can only suppose that it is a mock up or a test bed for a future concept IFCV, which the former Soviets are quite good at.

Concept vehicles, that is.

Looks like a movie prop if you ask me

A model? Who says a model in my post? Do you notice that first three pix showed is same tank by diferent angle.
Lonestar is obviously correct!

I mean it looks like something your find in a 1960s aliens movie rather than actually be used in combat.

Multi-turrnets went out of fashion before the BMP went to production

All right, it turned out to be devilishly hard to find any info on this unit.

It is most likely Soviet and definitely hover-craft type. There were some obscure references to this R&D but apparently it never moved beyond a very preliminary stage and this prototype. Was meant to be a truly "all-terrain" and amphibious vehicle.

FRITZ : Why I am certain that this is NOT a MT-LB or any remotely close variant thereof :

Please look at this comparison picture :



Ignoring the sheet metal work [ sprocket guards etc – and other minor extras ] – the entire hull shape is totally different

Why I am so fixated with counting road wheels :

Because to change the number of road wheels Requires a rebuild , from the floorpan up , if the hull is cast , then its an entire new casting . If its welded – its an entire new set of jigs .

See this pic , it’s a T34-77 hull – but the holes in the hull for the suspension are clearly visible . you cannot just change the suspension layout on a whim



AFV designers and builders re use existing hulls and running gear for a reason – it is far cheaper than building a


Thus , they will use SLIGHTLY sub optimum designs , ESPECIALLY if the production run of the variant type will be low .

Preferring a existing hull of proven reliability , which already exists – and more importantly for which the jigs . patterns and tooling have already been bought and paid for – and for semi obsolete designs , may now be standing idle

Yeah! Well...........................It took you long enough to spot my deliberate mistake! Huh!

No seriously mate, it does look like a modified MTLB - kinda! It also reminds me of a BTR and a BMP.

Trouble is, the photo is way to fuzzy. I have watched all my videos, looked at all my recognition cd-roms, checked my 5,000 vehicle slides, all my recognition journals and even the odd text book and - I can't find a single reference!

Maybe some information on where Emila obtained these pics might help our search instead of us going out on a whim. Might be easier to start from the source files.

Shattered OUT...

I don't know tanks, but may I suggest Ignorant Ape may be darn close to the answer, if he'd just turn his argument around?

Begin designing our mystery machine, and build at least one mock-up/test vehicle. During a few tests of this vehicle, if it is discovered that the 5 wheels present just can't do the job, modify the plan to ADD another axle. (thus shortening the tread distance between road wheels, possibly reducing tension on the treads, and reducing breakage.)

On the other hand, the hull of the MT-LB extends considerably beyond the tread length, and rides very much 'over' it rather then the more 'nestled down in-between' configuration on the mystery vehicle.

Those very large ducts on top have me truely intrigued. If it were meant as a hover tank, it's doubtful they'd have stuck treads on at all, with any number of road wheels. However, if it were an early expieiment in gas-turbined power, hopefully for a high speed tank, it could make some sence. Unfortunately, the only picture with much chance of confiming/refuting that theory is the last one, where I would be looking for the distortion caused by some very large amounts of very hot exhaust. I say Unfortunately, as there is nothing but clear sky visible behind the vehicle.

I was just wondering if these pics may be of an experimental modification to an existing vehicle to turn it into a more effective amphibous vehicle. Just a thought