RE: Top Ten PBEM Mistakes
Actually, I can. I think the JS-II and 3 series were better tanks. If you are just interested in big guns and thick armor, then you need a costal fortress.
2 meters of concrete backing 25mm of armor with a 400mm gun. That beats the King Tiger and is almost as mobile. The Jadpanther was a MUCH better weapon. The real winner would have been the Panther II with IR vision and the 88. Glad that never went into production. I could also argue that the M-26 was a better tank.
MBT's about mobility. Firepower is second, armor third. Reliability would be 4th with cost 5th. Or at least that is how the IDF figures it. Note that mobility is 'battlefield mobility' not how fast the thing will go.
The real contribution to tank development by the Nazi's was the 3 man turret and a radio in every tank. The biggest problem with the later Soviet designs is they got away from the 3 man turret. That 3rd crewman is more then just a loader. If you want to put in an auto loader, don't take out the 3rd man in the turret.
I think that the tank designs of the future will have an EW operator in the turret. Somebody to control all the parasite tanks and look at the EW battlespace. Each MBT will have 2 or 3 unmanned tanks operating with it , as well as a pair of UAV's . I think they will be armed with Lasers and SAM's as well as a main gun.
Grumman just opened a production line for building soild state LASERs. They will be installed in aircraft and on ships as anti missile systems. If you can put it on a helio, you can put it on a MBT.
"I totally don't know what that means, but I WHOUNT it!"
-Jessica Simpson
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