Canada's tanks

[Kirkhill]

I think that if you can get a 70 tonne vehicle to the front the the locals will add another 10 tonnes of whatever protection they think works for them. That will likely include APS and CUAS systems, the best that they can patch together.

Scrim nets, scaffolding, railway ties, rails, spare tracks, sandbags, homemade ERA all come to mind.

If you can get the vehicle to the front in the first place.

 

[AmmoTech90]

Is no one going to mention the tri-barrel coax gun in some of images?

 

[Kirkhill]

Is no one going to mention the tri-barrel coax gun in some of images?

https://militarnyi.com/en/news/bae-develops-new-version-of-cv90120-light-tank/

BAE Hägglunds announced a new CV90120

BAE Systems Hägglunds recently announced a new CV90120 version with a new turret on their youtube channel. It will still have a 120mm main gun with an autoloader. As secondary armaments there seems to have a 7.62mm RWS and a coax GAU-19/B 12.7mm rotary cannon. The RWS is also used as the...

forum.warthunder.com

Speculation is that one of the coax options could be the 12.7 GAU-19/B

It will still have a 120mm main gun with an autoloader.
As secondary armaments there seems to have a 7.62mm RWS and a coax GAU-19/B 12.7mm rotary cannon. The RWS is also used as the commander sight.

 

[KevinB]

Is no one going to mention the tri-barrel coax gun in some of images?

Which images.

NVM @Kirkhill clarified the GAU-19 ones.

 

[PrairieFella]

Is no one going to mention the tri-barrel coax gun in some of images?

That would certainly lay some hate on any dismounts/soft skins.

 

[Kirkhill]

That would certainly lay some hate on any dismounts/soft skins.

It also explains the two supernumeraries in the rear. Somebody is going to have to load all that 50 ammo.

 

[Kirkhill]

Any opinions on rubber tracks?

Smoother ride? Quieter? Less vibration? Less weight? How easy are they to repair?

Dutch CV90s to get composite rubber tracks - Army Technology

BAE Systems will equip Dutch CV90s with composite rubber tracks as part of a €500m upgrade programme to the Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV).

www.army-technology.com

 

[PrairieFella]

Any opinions on rubber tracks?

Smoother ride? Quieter? Less vibration? Less weight? How easy are they to repair?

Dutch CV90s to get composite rubber tracks - Army Technology

BAE Systems will equip Dutch CV90s with composite rubber tracks as part of a €500m upgrade programme to the Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV).

www.army-technology.com

Less maintenance but unrepairable as they're a solid piece. Good for lightweight track like TLAVs. Less tear on infrastructure too.

 

[childs56]

Less maintenance but unrepairable as they're a solid piece. Good for lightweight track like TLAVs. Less tear on infrastructure too.

They have repair kits for those tracks.

 

[PrairieFella]

They have repair kits for those tracks.

Ah neat, ive only ever done wholesale swaps on TLAVs.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Less maintenance but unrepairable as they're a solid piece. Good for lightweight track like TLAVs. Less tear on infrastructure too.

As I understand it, most rubber tracks now come in sections, which can be removed and replaced, with each section being 6'+ as I have seen in pictures.

 

[MilEME09]

Here's my worry, and something we need to consider about tanks. Weight, and not of the tank directly. The average weight limit of bridges in Europe is 44 tons. Anything over that and we start limiting where our armoured formations can go unless we start dropping our own bridges which will slow things down.

 

[GK .Dundas]

One of the things I would do if I were King would be to spend an insane amount of cash on Combat engineering units .
Including and I'm fairly certain that this won't come as a surprise bridging unit's.

 

[FJAG]

One of the things I would do if I were King would be to spend an insane amount of cash on Combat engineering units .
Including and I'm fairly certain that this won't come as a surprise bridging unit's.

I'd start with mines and mine layers. Bridging can wait a little.

 

[Kirkhill]

One of the things I would do if I were King would be to spend an insane amount of cash on Combat engineering units .
Including and I'm fairly certain that this won't come as a surprise bridging unit's.

I've noticed that both the Russians and Ukrainians have been using a lot of pontoons.

At the same time they both seem to value amphibious vehicles. In fact the Nordics, Poles, and Koreans all seem to maintain a riverine amphibious capability.

The Korean K21 and Polish Borsuk IFVs are both amphibious.
The Korean K808, Polish Rosomak, Finland's Patria AMV, Pasi, CAV, GTP, MiSu and Famous and Sweden's Bandvagns (206, 206S, Viking and Beowulf) are all amphibious.

It seems that they all have the means to secure both banks of major water obstacles, and to cross minor water bodies, without resorting to the engineers.

 

[FJAG]

It seems that they all have the means to secure both banks of major water obstacles, and to cross minor water bodies, without resorting to the engineers.

There's a bit of an art to bank preparation in order to make swimming you amphibs (and snorkeling tanks) possible. That's definitely an engineer task.

 

[Kirkhill]

There's a bit of an art to bank preparation in order to make swimming you amphibs (and snorkeling tanks) possible. That's definitely an engineer task.

A good recce team can read the banks. There are natural approaches and existing man-made approaches that can be exploited. Even if you have to go upstream a ways to where the waterway narrows.

Robert and Gene demonstrate how not to do it.

Elliot showed the alternate.

And then there was the DUKW and the Scheldt at Walcheren.

The Calgary Highlanders, along with the Maisies and the Watch, would have been happy to have had the DUKWs.

 

[OldSolduer]

I'd start with mines and mine layers. Bridging can wait a little.

One of the most difficult military operations is an assault river crossing.

Both sides of the river are vulnerable, and there are only so many places suitable for it. The enemy should know this and plan for it accordingly.

 

[KevinB]

One of the most difficult military operations is an assault river crossing.

Both sides of the river are vulnerable, and there are only so many places suitable for it. The enemy should know this and plan for it accordingly.

Biggest piece of advice is don't do it

Realistically all the ones that we did while I was in, realistically fell deep inside what was a SOF specific task - as they where always at a Coy or Platoon level - and while great fun as an adventure activity - the idea that a light infantry unit was going to conduct crossings like that where significantly unrealistic (in hindsight).

 

[FJAG]

One of the most difficult military operations is an assault river crossing.

Both sides of the river are vulnerable, and there are only so many places suitable for it. The enemy should know this and plan for it accordingly.

I still remember quite fondly on my Army Command and Staff course in Kingston as we were doing a water obstacle crossing exercise, how our 5 RALC course mate decided to add to the fire plan by brigading all of the battalions' 81mm mortar platoons. Unfortunately due to range he placed them in the boat-off-loading area for the two assault battalions.

As the rest of us, who were casually popping over to his table (pre-CAX, game board days) to watch and snicker, expected, within two minutes of the mortars opening up the enemy's counter battery fire hit the mortars, and the assault troops who were in the open and preparing to move forward, hard.

There may be small streams and canals that can be rapidly bounce-crossed with bridge layers but generally you need to preplan both resources and the detailed phases of the mission. I don't think that we have bridge layers anymore. I note in Wikipedia that Canada allegedly has a Bridge and Gap Crossing Modernization project on the books but know nothing about it. I also note that there are no bridging resources in the US Armored Division. These are all concentrated in the three Armored Divisions (Reinforced)