Marksman (Air Defense)
Marksman is a British air defense -Waffensystem consisting of a turret with Marconi -Series-400 radar and two Oerlikon-35-mm-KDA - automatic cannons . The system was developed by Vickers and is similar to the German Gepard anti-aircraft tank .
The battle tower can be mounted on many tank chassis, which makes it very easy to build an anti-aircraft tank. The only user of this weapon system is Finland, which ordered seven units in 1990. The battle towers were mounted on Polish T-55AM armored chassis. This system was named ItPsv 90 ( Ilmatorjuntapanssarivaunu 90, anti-aircraft armor 90; the number 90 refers to the year of introduction). It is known as a very precise anti-aircraft cannon weapon system with a documented hit probability of 52.44 percent.
In 2010 the weapon system was taken out of service and stored. Between 2014 and 2015, the stored systems were transferred to surplus Leopard-2 chassis by Millog Oy ; this was necessary to maintain the air defense capabilities of the units. The combat weight reaches 49.25 tons. The new name is Leopard 2 Marksman
commitment
The Finnish ItPsv 90 Marksman is mainly used for air security of the armored units, so it corresponds more to the deployment doctrine of the Cold War. The anti-aircraft tanks are usually connected to the operational headquarters and form a group of two units. The vehicles are capable of all-weather combat and, thanks to a second crew, guarantee greater survivability in combat. The ItPsv 90 Marksman primarily fights helicopters, low-flying aircraft and UAVs . In addition, it is also possible to fight soft and armored ground targets.
The chassis of the Finnish ItPsv 90 Marksman was originally a Polish T-55AM tank that was modified to accommodate the combat turret. The AM version was chosen because of the heavy weight of the battle tower (a T-55AM weighs 36 tons, a T-55AM Marksman weighs 41 tons) and because of the higher engine power of the AM version (620 hp) compared to the normal T-55 . The weapon system is guided by a British Marconi air surveillance and tracking radar with a range of twelve kilometers in search mode and ten kilometers in follow-up mode. The laser rangefinder measures targets from a distance of eight kilometers. The commander and the gunner each have gyro-stabilized optical aiming devices. These are mainly needed when manually operating the weapon for ground targeting.
Armament
The armament consists of an Oerlikon 35mm twin cannon with a combined rate of fire of 18 rounds per second. The anti-aircraft ammunition has a muzzle velocity of 1175 m / s. The effective range is 4000 meters. The vehicle has further a 76 mm smoke grenade launcher of Wegmann with eight tubes. The battle tower can rotate 360 ° and the elevation range of the weapons is −10 to +85 degrees. 460 cartridges of anti-aircraft ammunition and 40 cartridges of armor-piercing ammunition are carried as ammunition.
Equipment / crew
There are also three radio devices installed in the vehicle for fire control and communication. The three-man crew consists of the commander, the gunner and the driver. In order to ensure operational readiness around the clock, a second crew is alternately deployed during combat operations.
Technical specifications
| T-55AM Marksman | Leopard 2 Marksman | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Origin: | United Kingdom (turret), Poland (hull), Switzerland (guns) | United Kingdom (tower), Germany (tub), Switzerland (guns) | |
| Type: | Anti-aircraft gun tanks | ||
| Weight: | 41 t | 49.255 t | |
| Suspension: | Torsion spring | ||
| Main armament: | 2 × Oerlikon-35-mm-KDA - automatic cannons | ||
| Ammunition: | 460 anti-aircraft and 40 armor-piercing shells | ||
| Secondary armament: | Smoke throwing system with 8 tubes | ||
| Engine: | V-12 diesel engine W-55 | MTU twelve-cylinder diesel engine MB 873-Ka 501 with charge air cooling and two exhaust gas turbochargers | |
| Engine power: | 462 kW (620 hp) | 1103.25 kW (1500 hp) | |
| Crew: | 3 (driver, gunner, commander) + replacement crew | ||
use
-
Finland : 7 units
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ilmatorjuntaupseeri: Panssari-ilmatorjuntakoulutus Hämeen Ilmatorjuntapatteristossa ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ MAAVOIMIEN LIIKKUVUUDEN JA TULIVOIMAN ROLL OUT PANSSARIPRIKAATISSA August 5th, 2015– Esiteltävä kalusto. (PDF 2.6 MB) (No longer available online.) Finish Defense Force, archived from the original on September 24, 2015 ; Retrieved August 15, 2015 (Finnish).