Light Tanks

Alvis Scorpion Light Tank, 1974

The Scorpion was introduced into Service in 1973, and withdrawn from service in 1994. It is made from aluminium and mounts a 76 mm gun. The box to the left of the gun contained a night sight for observing enemy movements during hours of darkness. It also mounts grenade dischargers so that if necessary a smoke screen could be quickly produced.

This would enable the tank to get out of an area under cover of smoke if its position was discovered. Scorpion was a highly mobile vehicle and could travel rapidly across rough ground. Because it was light, it was far less likely than most other vehicles to get stuck in soft ground.
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Does it have to be a tank? I mean, Light Tanks are used for recon, aren't they? I would say something like a Ratel with a recoilless anti tank weapon mounted. It is super fast, can go almost anywhere, has run flat capability and is better armored than a bradly, then again, so is my volvo :)
 
I'm seeing two important possible missions for Light Tanks -- nonurban recon and urban recon. I'm not entirely sure that you'd want the same AFV or tank for both missions, but ideally you'd want a AFV to handle both. To fulfill the role of fast recon, it needs to be good on rough terrain. The Stryker probably isn't good enough in that category. It would need to be very fast. The M1 and Bradley are too slow IMHO. The Stryker has very good speed.

Maybe its a matter of developing a downsized version of the Stryker (something that isn't such a big target). Such a version would also need to be more versatile on rough terrain. Seems like an easy enough thing to develop. I'm not entirely sure if that's the direction that the US Military wants to go of course.
 
During the Bush war in Angola and domestic disturbances in South Africa, the SA Police used Ratels, Buffels and Casspirs very effeciently. I know that the Ratel was one of the most feared vehicles during Angola - mostly because the Cubans couldn't nail it - it just moved too fast. It was quiet, could go almost anywhere and had triple mine resistance. The best part of it was that you could mount many different types of weapons on it. It was also resistant to most small arms fire. In this case, I would agree with you, something like a downsized Stryker would go good. The Bradley, I'm sorry to say, is just to slow and lightly armored.
 
I wouldent want to be in any of them during urban fighting. much rather a slower and heavily armored vehicle.
 
The main problem with the Bradley filling such a role is that its big. In the capacity of APC, that's inevitable. The same is true of the Stryker. Both are available in several weapons configurations -- certainly essential for a modern light tank/AFV concept.

I think I'd much rather be in a well armored vehicle in urban warfare than being partly or completely exposed (in a standard Humvee for instance). If the worst happens, you still have a very high probability of survival if I'm in ... something with protection equal to a Stryker or Bradley. If something is sufficient to kill the crew of one of those, there is no Humvee variant on the planet that would have stood any chance at all.
 
Achzarit was meant to be used as a well protected APC, to be used by the prime mech-inf units. its based on the T-54/55.
today its used mainly in Gaza because its so heavily protected.

this is kind of offtopic though, because the Achzarit is not a tank and not light(44 tons)....
 
True, but it fills the need for Urban Reconaissance apparently. For Urban situations, I don't know if your really need a main gun (and that one doesn't have one). It has a low profile and well thought out armoring. An Urban specialized light would probably be best designed similar to that.

Rural recon is a completely differnet matter of course.
 
Actually I think light tansk are ideal for Patrols during peace support/stabilization operations. Think of it; it has the proetection you need, displays force, but at the same time, it's not as intimidating as a 50 tonne MBT.
 
Achzarit cant be used where you wa nt to keep the roads in one peace. It is too heay and it shreads any road it drives on. however, if you dont care about the roads, its very good. It weighs 44 tons, which is 8 tons more than the T-55, even though they removed the turret....that means there is a whole bunch of armor there...If you compare it to the T-55s hull yo find that there are 17 tonns of extra armor on the achzarit.

What i would love to have is an Achzarit version with a 20 milimeter cannon and a ATGM launcher.

Another ideal vehicle for urban warfare is the Nagmachon:
http://israeli-weapons.com/weapons/vehicles/engineer_vehicles/nagmachon/Nagmachon.html

But again, this is not light at all.

All of this proves my pointthat in urban warare there is no place for light tanjks or light APCs.
 
Yes, there is a place for light tanks in urban combat. Namely with light forces. The Israelis don't need light tanks because their strategic deployments are a afternoon's drive to the battle. The US has to fly across oceans to deploy, so having light tanks is very useful.

The M8 Buford in the US development was to give the replace the Sheridans in the 82nd airborne.

Any tank works well in urban combat only if the infantry working with it are good.
 
well, it is light and fast(very fast)....but it is not for urban warfare. light tanks need open terrain to manuver in. 20 mm of steel armour is not enouh for anything. if an RPG hits that sucker its a kill 9 times out of 10.
 
SHERMAN said:
well, it is light and fast(very fast)....but it is not for urban warfare. light tanks need open terrain to manuver in. 20 mm of steel armour is not enouh for anything. if an RPG hits that sucker its a kill 9 times out of 10.
Click to expand...

Referring to the Ratel?

I have to agree, it is more of an open terrain vehicle, but during domestic clashes (Zulu IFP vs ANC) during the late 80's, early 90's, Ratel's and Buffels were used quite effectively. Granted, they didn't come up against RPG's too often.
As for the armor - the nice thing about this vehicle is the superior anti-mine and IED (Why the new term? It's a friggin bomb!) resistance. If I'm not mistaken, the USMC bought a few of these (or was it a caspir?) for deployment in Iraq. Can't remember where I read this, I'll look for the link.
 
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