VTS1

VTS1
VTS1 in the defense technology study collection
General properties
crew	3 (commander, driver, gunner)
length	6.79 m
width	3.24 m
height	3.05 m
Dimensions	28.4 t
Armor and armament
Main armament	1 cannon 105 mm L 7
Secondary armament	1 MG 3 machine gun
agility
drive	6-cylinder diesel engine MTU 833 Ea-500 440 kW (600 hp) at 2200 rpm
suspension	Torsion bar with shock absorbers and truncated cone springs
Top speed	75 km / h
Power / weight	PS / t 21.3
Range	520 km max.

The VTS1 -Panzer ( V ersuchs t räger S cheitellafette 1) was an experimental vehicle Company Thyssen-Henschel . The Scheitel Concepts study was part of the Kampfpanzer 3 project, which aimed to develop a successor to the Leopard 1 . The study was discontinued in 1978 after the prototype was built.

development

In the course of the planned replacement of the Leopard 1 battle tank, the development of the successor model battle tank 3 in various variants began in 1976 . On the one hand, a tank in casemate construction was imagined ( VT1-1 and VT1-2), on the other hand, the advantages of a tower armored tower with automatic loading were not to be disregarded and in 1978 Henschel in Kassel began building an experimental vehicle that was given the designation VTS1 . It was a Marder 1 infantry fighting vehicle , from which the tower had been removed. In its place a platform with a tubular cradle was attached, in which there was a 105 mm L7 cannon , which was also used in the Leopard 1 . The vehicle was used for several experiments - primarily the ones described above, but also for a possible increase in combat value of the Marder 1 (larger caliber of the main weapon). The latter results also flowed into the construction of the prototype of the Begleitpanzers 57 (AIFSV - Armored infantry fire support vehicle) by Thyssen-Henschel and Bofors in 1980 .

The vehicle built by Thyssen-Henschel is now in the Defense Technology Study Collection ( Koblenz / Langemarck-Kaserne ), nothing is known about the whereabouts of another vehicle built by Hägglund and Bofors in Sweden at the same time.

Web links

Commons : VTS 1  - collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

• Defense technology study collection in Koblenz
• FM by Senger and Etterlin : Tanks of the World 1983. Arms and Armor Press, London 1983, ISBN 0-85368-585-1 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Friends of the Officers of the Armored Troop: 50 Years of the Armored Troop of the Bundeswehr . Schneider Armor Research, Uelzen 2006, ISBN 3-935107-05-6 , The national phase (1976–1978) Unters. from vertex concepts, p. 143 .