The Canadian Army Trophy (CAT) was a tank comparison shooting by NATO and dates back to 1963, when the Canadian government donated a model of a Centurion tank in silver on a black base.
The land forces of the NATO partners stationed in the Central Region applied for this award. These were the USA , Canada , the Netherlands , Great Britain , Belgium and Germany . The objectives of the competition were to increase the performance in tank shooting in the Central Europe command area as well as the international comparison of the best tank troops and the opportunity for the participants to come together in a friendly atmosphere.
Since the competition began, it has undergone numerous changes in its process. Originally, individual tanks fired from fixed positions. From 1963 to 1968 the competition was held once a year, then every two years in the years with an uneven final number. In order to better emphasize the principle of “fire and movement”, the conditions changed from 1969 onwards. The CAT was now shot out until 1975 in such a way that the single tank had to hit moving targets out of position and out of movement. In 1977 and 1979 the battle took place as a tank group, i.e. with two tanks each. In addition, an ammunition bonus was introduced in order to assess not only the hit results but also the economical use of ammunition. In 1981 the CAT took place as a combat shooting of the armored train, i.e. with four tanks.
At the end of the competition in 1981, CINCENT (Allied Forces Central Europe), supported by the participating nations, suggested that better ways of achieving the goals and expressing the true character of the event be found, namely a competition involving the Land Forces of the Central Region. In 1983, the first event between competing armored trains of the NORTHAG (Army Group North) and CENTAG (Army Group Center) took place.
In the most recently updated form, the CAT included the shooting and moving of a train over a course designed to test the capabilities of the participating tank units under realistic conditions. The successful operation of a platoon now depended on the accuracy of the individual tank and the fire control through the platoon. Each platoon had a total of 32 stationary and moving main weapon targets and 80 machine gun targets (falling plates) to fight. The hidden main weapon targets were set up at a maximum distance of 2000 meters and were each made visible for 40 seconds, with a short fighting time leading to a time bonus.
A target was considered to have been successfully fought if it had at least one hit. Each tank was equipped with 12 rounds of tank ammunition and 250 rounds of machine-gun ammunition. Sparing use of the ammunition also earned bonus points.
The trophy was now presented to the winning army group team, regardless of the individual performance of the best platoon. The Canadian Army Trophy was last held in 1991.
The tank battalion 214 from Augustdorf was planned for the CAT shooting in 1993 , which was already in the preparation stage when the project was discontinued for cost reasons.
