Turkey and Indonesia to develop medium tank

[Rickshaw]

Haven't seen this mentioned here.

Turkey and Indonesia to develop medium tank

Christopher F Foss, London - IHS Jane's Defence Weekly 11 February 2014 An agreement to jointly develop a new medium tank was signed between the Indonesian and Turkish governments in Jakarta, Indonesia, on 6 February. Turkish company FNSS Savunma Sistemleri will work with local company PT Pindad to develop the tank for the Indonesian Army.
It is understood the new tank will be of a conventional design, fitted with a turret armed with a 105 mm rifled gun and 7.62 mm co-axial machine gun (MG) coupled to a computerised fire control system. For ease of deployment in Indonesia it is expected to have a combat weight of about 25 tonnes.
FNSS has extensive experience in the design, development, and production of wheeled and tracked armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs), with the latter including the Armoured Combat Vehicle (ACV) family of vehicles, which have been built in significant numbers for the home and export markets.

[Source]

 

[GTX]

Looks like it will be very much in the same class as the Tanque Argentino Mediano (TAM) tank.

 

[lastdingo]

More like CV90105 with body mod to look more MBT-like.

Note the spacing between the road wheels. An additional pair would easily fit.
This isn't even about creating a light tank for soft soil conditions (low MMP); it's a low budget light tank project.

 

[GTX]

More like CV90105 with body mod to look more MBT-like.

Which I would also put into the same class as the TAM.

 

[Rickshaw]

More like CV90105 with body mod to look more MBT-like.

Note the spacing between the road wheels. An additional pair would easily fit.
This isn't even about creating a light tank for soft soil conditions (low MMP); it's a low budget light tank project.

Putting more roadwheels on an armoured vehicle can be a disadvantage in jungle, where you want sufficient room for mud and debris to clear and not get jammed between the wheels. It is intended to be a medium tank, which means it will be optimised to be a tank, not an APC with a large turreted gun shoved on top. Although, I wouldn't be surprised to see a family of vehicles, including an APC to emerge from it although it more than likely will need a higher roofline from my reading of the drawings above. The front mounted engine confers adaptability to a design.

 

[Apophenia]

Would this vehicle be related to the ACV30 (Medium Weight) platform from FNSS? The M113-derived ACV30 has six roadwheels per side as well ... just not so widely spaced.

 

[Abraham Gubler]

Putting more roadwheels on an armoured vehicle can be a disadvantage in jungle, where you want sufficient room for mud and debris to clear and not get jammed between the wheels.

Which is why the Churchill tank was well known as being an immobile tank in muddy and overgrown terrain. Ahh not. :

The problem with mud and debris build up is not lengthways between road wheels. Because they are you know free running wheels and as such roll over such obstacles without the need to gain traction. But rather the problem with congestion is width ways. This is where debris can block suspension, wheel movement and push the tracks off the sprokets, wheels and rollers, etc.

As Dingo says such a design feature is all about lowering gross weight, complexity and cost at the sacrifice of ground pressure which road wheels still play a role in for tracked vehicles.

 

[TomS]

Would this vehicle be related to the ACV30 (Medium Weight) platform from FNSS? The M113-derived ACV30 has six roadwheels per side as well ... just not so widely spaced.

Unless the photos are flipped, it's laid out backwards compared to the M113 -- driver sitting on the right side, with the engine fitted on the left (and possible oriented fore and aft, rather than transversely, judging by the glacis access panel).