The never realized supertanks

[Kingcoma]

http://www.ludd.luth.se/users/antenna/t2k/veh/bilder/strv2001.jpg
http://www.ludd.luth.se/users/antenna/t2k/veh/bilder/strv2002.jpg
http://www.mainbattletanks.czweb.org/Tanky/strv2000.jpg

The Strv 2000 was a tankers wet dream. With firepower that isnt matched even ten years later and a level of protection that not even the Strv 122(Leopard 2S) can compete with it would have been the totally dominant titan of any battlefield. Sadly but naturally its cost was equally impressive. The possibility to export it was slim as most potential customers had already bought the Leopard

http://www.mainbattletanks.czweb.org/Tanky/udes-20.jpg

The UDES-XX-20 was ready for testing in 1981. It was based on the Hägglunds BV 206 and had double waiststeering and an external 12 cm tank gun. While mobility was very good the concept is more expensive than tracksteering. The vehicle weighed 25 tons.

http://www.mainbattletanks.czweb.org/Tanky/udes-19.jpg

The UDES 03 was a test vehicle were the concept of an elevating gun mounted on a turretless chassie was tested and found workable. The UDES 19 was a german Marder with a 10,5 cm gun was mounted on top of the vehicle to test the feasability of a external tank gun in a low profile top mounted turret.

[ZeroPositive]

the germans do have a way of coming up with lovely tanks :D

[Midav]

I could be wrong, but believe that is Swedish.

At least all the designations are :D

[obd]

Uhhh..the Udes XX 20 looks to me to be more of a "tank destroyer" class than an actualy MBT class vehicle.....Did a little research on that tank and it had relatively thin armor.........I think that puts it in firmly in the TD class....... The top tank on your list seems pretty cool though......but US experimental tanks have taken that concept many steps farther....I suggest you visit FAS.org and go to the "land warfare" section....they have great information avalable and lots of pics........

[AVZ]

This has been a MBT with a 140mm main gun and a 30 or 35mm sige machine gun. and an aditional 7,62mm MG.

[Thor]

The swedish concept tank Strv 2000 (top three pictures) was meant to be the tank of all tanks. Awesome armor and just awesome firepower. Remember that the Strv 2000 was planned in the mid 80s. If it would have gone in to production in let say 1990 it would have had practically no competition. Even today it would have outmatched any tank in service in the world.

Big words but it sure as hell took a big budget. Too bad.

The two pictures below show other projects.

[Durandal]

...and a level of protection that not even the Strv 122(Leopard 2S) can compete with...

Ummm, that looks an AWFUl lot like a Marder chassis/hull...

http://www.mainbattletanks.czweb.org/Tanky/udes-19.jpg

Protection my ass...

[radon]

Durandal , did you read what it said ?

" The UDES 19 was a german Marder with a 10,5 cm gun was mounted on top of the vehicle to test the feasability of a external tank gun in a low profile top mounted turret."

That is not the real tank like it was meant to be.

[Durandal]

ROFL, I completely missed that. Need to actually wake up beofre I start posting...sorry folks.

Or read the entire post...

:cantbeli:

[Operation Ivy]

super :D

[Thor]

This has been a MBT with a 140mm main gun and a 30 or 35mm sige machine gun. and an aditional 7,62mm MG.

Hmm just a small correction. 140 mm gun (firing only APFSDS) and a coaxial 40 mm Bofors cannon.

[Wakizashi]

...interesting how they go with a larger design, while the USArmy is thinking smaller, should be interesting to watch and see hows things move in the next couple of decades in armor

[Ian H]

...interesting how they go with a larger design, while the USArmy is thinking smaller, should be interesting to watch and see hows things move in the next couple of decades in armor

These were designed during the Cold War though, so the increase in size over existing vehicles is understandable, as deployability wasn't an issue.
Nowadays things are different, as you pointed out.

Underlined bit: Damn right.

[Thor]

From what I remember the turretless version of the tank was to weigh 58 metric tons. Turrets are heavy things that really increases the weight. I watched some documentary on discovery channel were some new american turretless concept tank was demonstrated and I believe it's weight was 40 something tons.

Regarding the future of armor I believe that we'll see much more of MBT-based APCs. Like the ones the israelis are using. But that's another story..