Na, give them AKs, more humiliating.Originally Posted by Airgun_Hunter
yes i know but it looks something like that
do you guys know what the park thing is called where they have all their old tanks and armored vehicles on display on top of concrete blocks?
if so thats where that one tank is at
and its not a sherman or any other old tank it looks like a leopard 2 mixed with a sheridan
That's the Henschel HWK 11 APC they got back in the early 1960's.
Mexican Tank Program
I think in the early 1980s the SEMAR of Mexico developed a prototype based off of the Leopard 2 called the Ocelotl with assistance from Brazil and Germany but due to the shortsightedness of the politicians it was never put into service with the army. The army was supposed to get more of the upgrade HWK-11s with the autocannon turret at the same time but the revamping of the Mexican armed forces was put on hold due to the economic crisis of the 1980s.
I think these may be what your talking about. Theres also a picture of an upgraded HWK-11:
Anyone think it's weird that SEMAR has a way smaller budget than SEDENA yet they get so much more accomplished? They build there own military electronics, computers, and even there own naval ships! Hell they should just put the secretary of the marina in charge of the whole armed forces. haha
I've heard about the upgraded HWK 11 program, but never heard of the Ocelotl MBT before. Anymore background informationabout the tank.
Because SEDENA spends 90% on their officers and generals while rest of the 10% goes to purchasing and upgrading there equipment. While SEMAR on the other hand spends 50% on there infantry and officers while the other 50% goes to upgrading and purchasing new equipment.
Mexican Ocelotl Tank
All i know is that the body was based off of the Leopard 2, it mounted a 120mm Rheinmetall L-44 smoothbore cannon and the turret was developed with help from Brazil. The turret definately looks like it had Brazlian influence as the turret looks similar to the turret of the Engesa EE-T1 Osorio which Brazil was developing during the same time as this tank. Theorheticaly this would have been a very good tank. The Leopard 2 body was extremely fast and manuverable and if the Turret had fire control similar to the EE-T1 Osorio then it would have had some of the best trgeting systems of the time as the EE-T1 proved to have better fire control than even the M1-Abrams during trials in Saudi Arabia in the late 1980's. The EE-T1 also had advanced composite armor similar to the Chobham armor used by Abrams and Challenger tanks and this Ocelotl tank probably had similar armor charecteristics to the EE-T1.
Heres a picture of the Brazilian Engesa EE-T1. Note the turret similarity.
AHA!
so i wasn't crazy, I did see that tank. So that's the one they have on display?
it looks so alike however that one has a little square thing on the cannon, to the right side I think.
HWK-11 looks like an apc, I wonder why they don't change the amx vci's into something like them
They should bring this back Oeclotl tank or buy some Leopard II tanks for the Mexican Army.
does mexico need an MBT? they are fighting a home grown insurgency in thier own cities. maybe a MBT is overkill. i mean, the US is not going to invade, and is anyone farther south really a concern?
The place where the tanks were on display was probably somewhere at the Heroico Colegio Militar in the Federal District. They have some displays of military equipment there.
Tanks for the Mexican Army
Well you never know. The increased violence has helped Calderon finaly convince the politicians to raise the military budget to 1.6% of the GDP up from 0.8% last year. This makes this years defense budget somewhere around $21 Billion USD so we actualy may have some spending money this fiscal year! I don't think main battle tanks are a priority for the Army right now but it would be nice to have some if we ever had to repel any military force. I think they'll most likely spend the new money on more helicopters or maybe armored transports. Now imagine if we set our military budget at 3.5% of the GDP which is the international average. We would have a similar budget to Germany or China at around $67 Billion USD then we could get some real nice stuff. If Mexico ever gets around to procuring new tanks i think it would be a good idea to do another joint project with Brazil. This tank turned out pretty nice and both countries have way more technical know-how now, it would also be nice to see more inter-regional military collaboration within Latin America.
The reason I said they should get those tanks along with other armoured vehicles because the Mexican Army needs a massive overhaul on there outdated equipment. Also the Mexican government is talking about allowing the Mexican military to get involved in UN peacekeeping missions.
Pretty much agree with you there. They do need to acquire some armoured vehicles because there unarmoured military pickup trucks and the police cars are like paper mache to the cartels high powered guns.
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