South African prototypes, projects, concepts, etc.

[Rooikat]

Anyone have concept art or models of the TTD with an 120mm gun?

 

[Hood]

Perhaps not the most ideal thread, but some nuclear weapons development posts have been made here.

An open access article from the Cold War History journal on European links in nuclear technology.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14682745.2024.2384355#d1e1465

 

[Tim_TeaDrinker]

New turret on Marauder?
Does anyone know something about it?

 

[Herman]

External stowage box ?

or maybe merely just a steel 'filler' piece taking up the corner and removing the rear flat ?

Yep. Just an armour filler plate to cover the flat, "bullet trap".

 

[Herman]

Does anyone have any photos of the Olifant Mk.1B/2 Transmission? I've recently been doing a deep dive into the Olifant tank series since it holds a special place in my heart. The one thing I haven't been able to find out is the physical design of the Amtra 3 transmission used in the Mk.1B and Mk.2.

SA did not have the ability to develop and construct a MBT transmission (it's a pretty big deal). It did not need to either. The tank's Continental engines were imported (Israel?), and the transmissions could be sourced in the same way. The AMTRA transmission is most likely a slightly modified Allison CB-850 cross-drive unit. If not, it could be a ZF or Renk unit. The Ratel also uses a Renk transmission.

 

[kaiserbill]

Gear Ratio had the capability to design and manufacture transmissions, either in-house custom designs, or established designs.
They mainly do (or did) military and large earth moving equipment for Bell.
Bell seem to have moved exclusively to Allison recently for its articulated truck range.

I'm not sure about the AMTRA 3 design, but two reports I've seen say it was either assembled or manufactured by Gear Ratio.

Gear Ratio were also the contractors to maintain that particular component of the Olifant fleet.

Just an example, the G6 uses an "OMC auto transmission which is from the Renk family".
I strongly suspect Gear Ratio was set up to locally manufacture and assemble transmission systems under licence during the sanction years, to circumvent embargoes.

Denel Gear Ratio | Denel Vehicle Systems

Denel Gear Ratio - custom-designed and manufactured solutions to standard drive-train options

denelvehiclesystems.datahost.co.za

 

[blockablocka]

Like I've stated before - these days you have to refer to foreign companies to see and get updates on the latest South African vehicle developments and upgrades. Here's some of the RG-35's latest upgrades (obviously done by mostly, if not all of a South African engineering team..).

Do you have any more pictures or information about the Jais Mk. 2? Also, I've noticed some examples have armor plates over the side door next to the RWS. Does anyone have an idea as to the purpose of those? My first thought was that it provides cover for someone trying to reload the RWS through a roof hatch, but I'm not sure there is a hatch there with the RWS installed, and it doesn't seem like it's in the right position for that purpose.

 

[Tim_TeaDrinker]

A great solution for countering drones

Centauri and Mersad team up to bring down the drone threat - defenceWeb

Recent conflicts, notably in the Ukraine, have shown the increasing use of attack drones that are posing a serious threat to military forces and their equipment. South African defence company Centauri has partnered with UAE-based Mersad Technologies to display an innovative solution at IDEX 2025...

www.defenceweb.co.za