Test vehicle total protection

VTGS in the Munster tank museum

The Test Vehicle Total Protection ( VTGS ) is a tank prototype of the German Armed Forces , which was designed as a test vehicle for examining various new types of protection on a tank in the mid-1980s and built by the company Pietzsch GmbH in Schlangen near Paderborn . With the protective device, measures to reduce the radar and infrared signature were examined and successfully implemented. The chassis comes from a Leopard 1A3 battle tank . In order to be able to install a signature-enhancing ring cooling system instead of the flat cooler at the side, the gearbox had to be modified accordingly. The significantly cooler exhaust gases due to the improved cooling system could be diffusely distributed over the entire width of the rear under a shield, which significantly improved the infrared signature compared to the Leopard 1 due to the more distributed and lower heat emission. The additional armor plates were placed on the existing armor with shock absorbers , whereby the air gap underneath also hides the engine and exhaust heat generated due to the low thermal conductivity.

The effective reflection area, which is decisive for radar radiation, should be significantly reduced by means of an improved surface quality. All surfaces were designed using stealth technology to make it difficult to locate using radar. The surfaces were made up of the largest possible, flat surfaces with few edges, corners, angles, gaps and unevenness such as B. designed the typical attachments of a tank at that time and provided with a stealth coating. In terms of color, the tank was designed in a 3-color flecktarn pattern , which was quite new and not very common in tanks at the time.

The VTGS was designed and built as a single piece in order to subject it to a basic investigation in accordance with the new concept of protection. The knowledge gained from this later flowed into the development and construction of the Puma and GTK Boxer vehicles . The tank stood in a warehouse for decades and was handed over to the Munster Tank Museum in 2019 .

Web links

• Presentation of the VTGS on the museum page on facebook

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgabvU-fqDM Tales of Steel, the Stealth Leopard, 2019-03-17