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12 - Artist's impression of 6 km-range Roland SAM system
mounted in self-contained module on a Caterpillar Goer vehicle.
Hughes and Boeing are Americanizing the Euromissile system for
US Army, and Norway has recently placed an order for this version.
Module has to be removed from Goer for airlift in a C-141.
The U. S. version of the ROLAND II, however, would be mounted on the GOER vehicle . The plan was to deploy the ROLAND II SHORAD system with troops in central Europe to defend
rear-area, high-value targets, such as airfields, depots, ports, troop encampments, and other support and combat facilities. A DSARC decision on its assignment to Army divisions was yet to be made.
uk75, in all due respect, appreciating the practicality of the German's (well most of the time), I'd think the Bundeswehr fully appreciated the Leopard 1/Gepard combination better than anyone else in terms of operational capability. As much as I appreciate the notion of commonality/logistics of the Gepard turret being fitted to the Leopard 2 chassis, I'm thinking the cost of new Leopard 2 chassis and the engineering outweighed the notion of continuation of the legacy Leopard 1/Gepard being kept as it was - 'if it's not broken, don't fix it'Back in the late 1960s, the West Germans commissioned a paper study and model work to see if the anti air weapons proposed for the Leopard 1 (Fla Pz Gepard) could be fitted to the KPZ 70, which was planned to replace the M48 in FRG service.
Because of the failure of the MBT/KPZ 70 nothing materialised. However, if the project had gone ahead, this would have been a great opportunity for the US and West Germans to standardize kit.
However, as the Gepard was never mated with the later Leopard 2 (KPZ 70s actual replacement) perhaps not.
But, I love paper studies, so maybe out there....
Pioneer
You are right about Leopard 2 and the Gepard turret, as I pointed out this was never an option.
The MBT70/KPZ70 was originally only intended to replace the M48 as Leo 1 had replaced the Heer M47s.
It never came close to entering service. But assuming the study was done as the German book on Deutsche Flakpanzer suggests, then a Gepard or Matador turreted KPZ70 was at least theoretically possible.
You could certainly say it was a show stopper at least.
Did you politely bring this to the museum attention Christopher Wang ?Oddly, the museum display misidentifies the replica as the Ford Aerospace M247 Sergeant York.
Did you politely bring this to the museum attention Christopher Wang ?Oddly, the museum display misidentifies the replica as the Ford Aerospace M247 Sergeant York.
Regards
Pioneer
Bet it's here:
https://generalpattonmuseum.com/exhibits/matzner-tank-pavilion/
The interior of the building looks very similiar, and the site says you can see an "M-60 turret"View attachment 688020
Yeah good point TomSDid you politely bring this to the museum attention Christopher Wang ?Oddly, the museum display misidentifies the replica as the Ford Aerospace M247 Sergeant York.
Regards
Pioneer
Given that Christopher notes in his post that he doesn't know where the museum is located, how could he do this? (And it's not trivial to figure out -- there are at least three "General Patton Museums" that I can find online, none of which call themselves the "General Patton Military Museum.")
The employment of the M109 chassis makes a lot of sense in my opinion, in terms of weight, complexity and it's SPH design configuration.
Regards
Pioneer