M50 Ontos variants

cluttonfred

cluttonfred

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The M50 Ontos is an odd vehicle with an interesting story, a problem child that the U.S. Army ended up rejecting but the U.S. Marine Corps ended using to good effect, though in small numbers and for infantry support, not as a tank hunter. There are links to more resources in the Wikipedia article linked above, including quite a bit from those who crewed "The Pig."

Ontos.jpg


I have read about proposed APC variants of the Ontos and one with an autoloading recoilless rifle in place of the six manually-loaded ones. Does anyone have pics, 3-views or more info about any Ontos variants, prototypes or concepts?
 
Two quick notes:

First, the APC and other variants actually predated the RCL-armed version. ONTOS was based on an Alice Chalmers proposed Tracked Utility Vehicle (basically a tracked Jeep).

Second, R.P. Hunnicutt has very good coverage of the proposals and prototypes in his book on the Sheridan light tank.

Ta for now,

R6
 
On a related note, I have read about but not yet seen a photo of the Ontos variant with two revolver-type multi-shot recoilless rifles instead of the six single-shot ones. Does anyone have any info on this or other multi-shot large-caliber recoilless rifles? Thanks!
 
There was a japanese Tank Type 60 with two 106mm recoilless rifles same as Ontos.

60sprg.jpg
 
Anybody wanting shots of Marine ONTOS in combat -
drop me a line and I will either post them here or make other arrangements

Semper Fi
ontos0311
 
Okay let me sort them there are about 100 shots
some just of buddies and scenery
 
When I first seen this vehicle I thought it was a Self Propelled Artillery with multiple barrels for area saturation not a Tank Destroyer. Did the US army considered an artillery version of this vehicle or a similar multi barrelled SP Artillery vehicles?
 
cluttonfred said:
On a related note, I have read about but not yet seen a photo of the Ontos variant with two revolver-type multi-shot recoilless rifles instead of the six single-shot ones. Does anyone have any info on this or other multi-shot large-caliber recoilless rifles? Thanks!
Click to expand...
I think you are referring to the proposed AT-1.
Drawing found in Hunnicutt's Sheridan.
 

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Ashley said:
There was a japanese Tank Type 60 with two 106mm recoilless rifles same as Ontos.

60sprg.jpg
Click to expand...

The Chinese also made a comparable vehicle, the WZ 141, produced in prototype form and armed with two recoilless rifles and two HJ-73 (Chinese Sagger) missiles.
 

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It also makes the point that the Back-Blast wasn't quite as big a deal as many claim. However, that was the 57mm and 75mm, 106mm and 120mm Rcls produce considerably more Back-Blast. It also depends on where they are being used. The drier the environment, the more dust which is picked up and blown around. Cold, snowy Korea is rather different to say, an Arid desert.
 
Grey Havoc said:
H/t Triton for the image below:

index.php
Click to expand...

Dear Grey Havoc,
the image doesn't seem to open. Any suggestions?
 
Woops! Here it is in an attachment:
 

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Grey Havoc said:
Woops! Here it is in an attachment:
Click to expand...

Thank you for posting.

maybe it shouldn't have been posted.. can't give these Marines any ideas. ;D
 
I'm trying to slightly remove perspective distortions and correct colors - and hope, that this picture became more useful.


By the way, with Ontos, rotated on 90 degrees (and with its crew on-board) this combination of helicopter and fighting vehicle could be a kind of gunship!
:cool:
 

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Thank you for the clearer pic. Dear Silencer1.
 

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