Transport and combat vehicle PUMA

The transport and combat vehicle PUMA was a concept for an anti-tank vehicle including a vehicle family, largely self-financed by the arms companies Krauss-Maffei and Diehl . Beginning in the 1980s, the aim was to create a combat vehicle that could be used in a variety of ways, had high firepower and still offered the crew adequate protection. One result of this development was the derived Marder-2 program. The in-house development should not be confused with the Puma infantry fighting vehicle, which has been developed by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) and Rheinmetall-Landsysteme (RLS) since 2002 .

history

Test vehicle VT001 Marder 2. The external appearance of the planned successor for the Marder 1 corresponded to that of the PUMA.

The reduction of the armed forces and armored vehicles in Europe after the CFE agreement and the tight budget of the states led to a new path for armored vehicles. The German armed forces were faced with a reduction, the Marder armored personnel carrier needed a replacement; Vehicle families like the M113 were at the end of their life. The increasing standardization in NATO and the demand to develop vehicles with a modular design resulted in new vehicle concepts. A major goal was to reduce development, procurement and usage costs.

A total of five prototypes were developed. The PUMA PT 1 was built in 1986 and was mainly used for demonstration purposes. With the PUMA PT 2, the turrets were tested and as armored personnel carriers on the combat troops School 1 used in Hammelburg for field trials. The Bundeswehr bought the PUMA PM1 and PM2 prototypes and tested them in the Wehrtechnische Dienststellen 41 and 91. The fifth prototype PT3 was used for factory testing in mid-1991 and was the test vehicle for Switzerland and Norway , which, along with Germany, showed interest in replacing their armored personnel carriers . The vehicle was never introduced into series production in any of the three states.

General

Like the heavy class, the Marder 2 used six castors. The tower concept was part of PUMA's development.

The construction of the Puma was largely based on systems introduced in the Leopard 1 and Leopard 2 . The light class with a weight of 18 to 25 t used this to 55%, the heavy class with a weight of 26 to 40 t used 71%. The proportion of new components was 19 to 30%. The use of commercially available engines resulted from the demand for economy. The price of the 550 kW engine was a quarter of that of the Leopard 1 engine. The mileage of the chains was 15,000 km and that of the rollers 13,500 km, 77% of the repairs could be carried out by the troops within two hours. The existing training equipment and simulators of the Leopard battle tank should still be usable through a modification.

The vehicle planned by Krauss-Maffei and Diehl was to be produced as a vehicle family. Were provided in the lightweight class, a personnel carrier , Gefechtsstand-, leadership and ambulances, dropsiders well as a pure transport tanks. The usable volume was 16 m³. In the role as weapons carriers were armored personnel carriers , armored mortar, mortars and various anti-tank vehicles planned.

The variant designated as the heavy class had a usable space of 21 m³. On their armored personnel carriers, should anti-aircraft tanks , tank destroyers , missile launchers , armored engineer vehicle , armored recovery vehicles , reconnaissance tanks and armored personnel build. A fire fighting vehicle was planned in a civilian role . In comparison, the Fuchs armored transport vehicle used by the Bundeswehr had a usable volume of 7.7 m³.

technology

Drive and drive

The tank had a torsion bar sprung support roller drive and consisted of Leopard drive components. The hydraulic end stops came from the Leopard 2. The light class had four rollers, the heavy class had five or six rollers. In 1991 the PT 1 received a drive that was decoupled from the hull, which reduced the noise level in the interior to 94 dB.

It was powered by a slightly modified MAN diesel engine. The drive power of the six-cylinder version was 325 kW (440 hp) and gave the light class a power- to-weight ratio of 18 to 13 kW / t, depending on its mass . The ten-cylinder engine with 550 kW (750 PS) enabled a power-to-weight ratio between 21 and 14 kW / t. The powershift transmission was 80% identical to the HSWL-284-C transmission of the Marder 2 and the Panzerhaubitze 2000 .

Armor

The armoring of the entire vehicle family was modular. The construction, designed as a self-supporting armored hull, had basic protection that provided all-round protection against hard core projectiles in caliber 7.62 mm and against 155 mm artillery fragments from a distance of 20 m. The interior was lined with a liner that was supposed to catch splinters that could flake off the inside of the armor due to the impulse of projectiles hitting the outside.

The adaptive additional armor consisted of composite armor . It increased all-round protection against 14.5 mm projectiles and against fire from 30 mm projectiles at the front with a side angle of +/- 30 °. Further protection against cluster munitions was possible. The protection technology against shaped charges was in development. According to the manufacturer, an improvement in protection would have been possible without reducing the protection against KE ammunition.

Armament

A number of concepts have been drawn up and studied for armament. Various towers were tested for the armored personnel carriers. These included the E4A1 turret from KUKA with 20 mm armament and the CK25B turret from the Belgian company Cockerill with an Oerlikon Bührle 25 mm KBB gun, which have been tested alternately in the PUMA PT 2 since 1988. Machine guns with a caliber of 7.62 mm served as secondary armament . Another variant with the 40 mm Bofors L / 70 gun was planned by the engineers. The Wildcat and Roland weapon systems were planned for the anti-aircraft tanks . The variants for the hunting and anti-tank vehicles should carry the TOW weapon system or be equipped with excess turrets from the Leopard 1A5. The feasibility of the latter was demonstrated by Krauss-Maffei in early 1990 on a prototype. The platform of the Panther weapon system, which can be elevated to 12 m and which has already been tested on a chassis of the Leopard 1 and was equipped with a launching device for the guided missile PARS 3 LR , was also considered.

For the mortar variant, the Federal Office of Defense Technology and Procurement tested two variants of a Mauser mortar tower with semi-automatic ammunition feed for 12 rounds per minute. The 120 mm ammunition had a range of 10 km. The structure of the mine throwing vehicle corresponded to that of the Skorpion mine throwing system on an M113 chassis. The development sketches of the rocket launcher were based on the MARS medium artillery missile system . A machine gun and various versions of an elevatable observation platform were planned for the reconnaissance tanks.

Literature and Sources

• Frank Lobitz: Leopard 1 Main Battle Tank in the Bundeswehr - Late Years, Tankograd Publishing - Military Vehicles Special 5014
• Soldat und Technik , Edition 7/1991, Marketing Report, Report Verlag

Web links

• Picture of the PT1 with Leopard 1A5 turret and 105 mm armament

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Frank Lobitz: Leopard 1 battle tank in the Bundeswehr - late years, Tankograd - military vehicles special 5014 , Puma 105 mm, page 8