Tanks/Vehicles Vijayanta Mk1 (Vickers MBT): Commonwealth top tier tank

[Gerako98 1,217]

As an extension of my Commonwealth branch in British tech tree suggestion, I have decided to single out what I think is the most important tank and give it its own dedicated suggestion.



Historical Background:
Vickers Origins: The Vickers MBT was originally conceived in the late 50s as a 24 tonne 20 pdr armed light tank. It was a private venture by Vickers-Armstrong and was designed as a lighter and cheaper alternative to the Centurion for the export market. However, the introduction of the Royal Ordnance L7 it became apparent that this design was obsolete so Vickers decided to redesign the tank to accommodate twice as much armour as well as the new gun, and hence the Vickers MBT was born. The first Vickers MBT was first produced in 1963 since then it has served a very long career with many minor nations and the Mk3 continues to serve today.

Vijayanta: In 1963 the Prototype Vickers was sent to India for trials, and an agreement was reached to purchase a licence for the tank. Productions started in 1964, with the tanks entering service in 1965. The tank was produced up until 1986 with spare parts produced until 1989, with total tanks produced totaling 2200. It underwent several modernisation programs through its service, and was eventually retired in 2008, being replaced with a T72 variant

First image: A Vijayanta in service with the Indian army
Second Image: The prototype of the Vickers Mk1


Technical Data:
Propulsion:The Vickers and Vijayanta shared some components with the Centurion, but the most noteworthy feature is that it had the same Leyland L60 multi-fuel engine, David Brown Ltd. TN12 gearbox and Coventry Climax H30 Auxiliary engine as the Chieftain Mk2. Despite the L60's bad reputation in terms of reliability, it proved to work without much trouble in the Vijayanta. This has been attributed to the Vijayanta being significantly lighter than the Chieftain, as well as a limit of 535 bhp being placed on the Vijayanta's engine, as opposed to the of 650 bhp that the Chieftain's had to maintain (The maximum that a unrestricted L60 could output was 700 bhp). The gearbox had 6 forward and 2 reverse gears.
The maximum road speed of the Vijayanta was 48km with a limited engine and 55km/h with a non-limited engine.

Armament: The Vijayanta Mk1 was equipped with a Royal Ordinance L7A1 105mm Anti-tank gun in a fully traversable turret with 44 rounds of armour-piercing-discarding-sabot (APDS) and high explosive squash head (HESH). It was also equipped with a 12.7mm ranging gun with 1000 rounds and a 7.7mm light machine gun with 500 rounds, both of which were co-axial to the main gun.

Armour: Front glacis (sloped) and turret front 80mm, 40mm on hull sides. 

Summary:

Dimensions (l-w-h): 6.15 x 2.42 x 2.24 m
Total weight, battle ready: 39 metric tons
Crew : 4 (Driver, gunner, Commander, loader)
Propulsion: Leyland L60 Diesel 535 bhp (399 kW)
Transmission: David Brown Ltd. TN12 semi auto. gearbox
Suspensions: Torsion bars
Top Speed (flat ground): 48 km/h (on road with limited engine),  55 km/h (on road with non-limited engine)
Armament: 105 mm L7A2 with 44 rounds (5 in), 2 x 12.7 mm (0.5 in) HMG, 1 x 7.7 mm (0.3 in) coaxial
Armour: Maximum 80 mm (3.1 in) glacis front, turret front.

A cutaway of the Vickers MBT, the Vijayanta would be very similar.
[spoiler]
[/spoiler]

Gameplay and Implementation:
Being a 1965 tank, the Vijayanta would be expected to fight alongside the L7 armed Centurion Mk10 and the Chieftain Mk1 (Suggestion here) at top tier. Despite all being classified as MBTs, these three tanks are very different; The Chieftain is the extreamly slow, but has very heavy armour and a exceptionally powerful gun, essential a "Heavy tank", The Centurion has decent armour, a good gun and mediocre mobility the "Medium Tank" of the bunch, and finally the Vijayanta has horrid armour, a good gun and good mobility similar to a "Light Tank". What this means is that these three tanks would compliment each other very well.

The Vijayanta is a 'glass cannon', its armour is probably only enough to protect against coaxial guns and perhaps some SPAAs. It's lack of armour is, however, made up for with is reasonably good mobility (The best of any top-tier British tank, but not as good as the likes of the Leopard) and the reliable L7A1 gun, which is essentially the same as the guns on the other tanks that it would be facing.

The way I see it there is 3 possible ways to implement this tank.
Firstly: It could be added as the endgame for the Commonwealth Tank Line (See top of post). This is obviously the most desirable option from a player standpoint and the most fitting seeing as this is an Indian tank.
Secondly: It could be added in the Cruiser line after the Centurion Mk10. Not a bad option if a commonwealth line does not materialise.
Thirdly: It could go at the end of the light tank line. This option is not ideal as, although a lighter MBT, it was still Classified as an MBT. The light tank line will also probably be very sparse, so there will be a huge gap to the Vijayanta.

Pictures:[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

Edited June 11, 2015 by Gerako98

[Smin1080p 60,444]

Open for discussion  :salute:​ 

[Taurevanime 1,888]

I like the idea a lot, I often forget about this tank and Vickers' export only oriented tanks.

 

One point I would make though is that your little analogy of light-medium-heavy MBTs kind of fails a little bit. Compared to the Centurion 10 which had the 105mm gun and increased armour, this thing is indeed lacking in armour. But the base Centurion without the increased armour, this tank actually has better armour. It is however faster than both Centurion versions. But then so is the Chieftain. It has a top speed of 45 kph, but worse power to weight ratio while using the same gearbox, so acceleration will at least be worse for the Chieftain.

 

Honestly I just don't see the Centurions being top tier tanks, they just don't compete with the likes of Leopard, M60, T-62 and Chieftain. As such you could put this tank as the Vickers MBT as the end tank on the Centurion line if you decide to put the Chieftain on the end of the heavy tank line. (As silly as I think that idea is).

 

With that said. Personally I would love to see a Commonwealth line (And the UK faction renamed to Commonwealth).

 

 

PS. You keep misspelling Chieftain as 'Chiftain' in your post.

[Gerako98 1,217]

I like the idea a lot, I often forget about this tank and Vickers' export only oriented tanks.
 
One point I would make though is that your little analogy of light-medium-heavy MBTs kind of fails a little bit. Compared to the Centurion 10 which had the 105mm gun and increased armour, this thing is indeed lacking in armour. But the base Centurion without the increased armour, this tank actually has better armour. It is however faster than both Centurion versions. But then so is the Chieftain. It has a top speed of 45 kph, but worse power to weight ratio while using the same gearbox, so acceleration will at least be worse for the Chieftain.
 
Honestly I just don't see the Centurions being top tier tanks, they just don't compete with the likes of Leopard, M60, T-62 and Chieftain. As such you could put this tank as the Vickers MBT as the end tank on the Centurion line if you decide to put the Chieftain on the end of the heavy tank line. (As silly as I think that idea is).
 
With that said. Personally I would love to see a Commonwealth line (And the UK faction renamed to Commonwealth).
 
 
PS. You keep misspelling Chieftain as 'Chiftain' in your post.

I am going on the assumption that only the Mk1 Chieftain will be added, and this has even less bhp than the Centurions despite being much heavier, however the gearbox does allow a fairly high speed to be achieved when going down hill or when you have a decent stretch of flat ground, but I don't see that as being that useful in game.

I will fix the typo when I get the chance.

Thanks for support 07

[Tzalafim 695]

Put the centurions please an add the vijayanta which served so good in India, very nice tank.

[mistomaxo 446]

although the vehicle is claimed as being active during the 1971 indo-pakistan war, i have difficulty finding specific mention of it in articles about tank clashes. centurions are mentioned, perhaps these were confused for centurions, or did india send its t-55s and old centurions forward first before any vijayantas?

 

nevertheless, it was produced in significant numbers and does not seem to mount any technology that is declared forbidden by the game.

 

events of the indo-pakistan conflicts may make good inspiration for events, missions, scenarios, etc. both sides employed a blend of equipment tracing from numerous sources: pakistan mostly u.s. and chinese vehicles, india old u.s., brit/commonwealth, and soviet machines.

 

but of course, it would be no good to take such inspiration without having the correct vehicles implemented to take part.

[Gerako98 1,217]

although the vehicle is claimed as being active during the 1971 indo-pakistan war, i have difficulty finding specific mention of it in articles about tank clashes. centurions are mentioned, perhaps these were confused for centurions, or did india send its t-55s and old centurions forward first before any vijayantas?

 

From my research, being brand new it did't serve in 1965, but it did fight alongside Centurions in the 1971 was and also saw some service in the war of 1999.

[Gerako98 1,217]

 

events of the indo-pakistan conflicts may make good inspiration for events, missions, scenarios, etc. both sides employed a blend of equipment tracing from numerous sources: pakistan mostly u.s. and chinese vehicles, india old u.s., brit/commonwealth, and soviet machines.

 

but of course, it would be no good to take such inspiration without having the correct vehicles implemented to take part.

That's an interesting idea, maps would be the only problem though.

[_TomokoAnabuki 8,995]

I support this suggestion :)

nicely done

[Th3hadyn 5,881]

[Z3r0_ 4,127]

I don't see why not.  Now the question is where would it be on the tech tree?  Would it be on a Commonwealth branch that would include tanks like the Sentinel, Ram, and Grizzly?

Edited March 1, 2015 by Z3r0_

[Gerako98 1,217]

I don't see why not. Now the question is where would it be on the tech tree? Would it be on a Commonwealth branch that would include tanks like the Sentinel, Ram, and Grizzly?

Take a look at the link at the top of the OP :)
Or you can click on on my sig, that works too. Edited March 2, 2015 by Gerako98

[Z3r0_ 4,127]

Take a look at the link at the top of the OP :)
Or you can click on on my sig, that works too.

 

Neat!

 

Note that Commonwealth vehicles could be on lines other than just a Commonwealth branch (on a hypothetical British ground forces tree I posted on War Thunder Live, I made the Skink into the rank 5 SPAA on the tech tree, as the British didn't field a lot of SPAAs, and the vast majority of the ones they did field were a modification of the Morris C9 truck, which is at rank 2 on said tree)

[_TomokoAnabuki 8,995]

Bump

[Naam54673 1,537]

Will be a good partner for the challenger.

 

Add a poll.

[Gerako98 1,217]

Will be a good partner for the challenger.
 
Add a poll.

Poll of what?

[Z3r0_ 4,127]

Will be a good partner for the challenger.

 

Add a poll.

 

Challenger?  No thanks, WAY too advanced for the game (unless you mean the wartime Challenger - based on the Cromwell - rather than the Challenger MBT)

[Gerako98 1,217]

Challenger?  No thanks, WAY too advanced for the game (unless you mean the wartime Challenger - based on the Cromwell - rather than the Challenger MBT)

He must have meant the Chieftain.

[Z3r0_ 4,127]

He must have meant the Chieftain.

 

Probably, though I have seen people suggest crazier ideas before...

[Gerako98 1,217]

Probably, though I have seen people suggest crazier ideas before...

True :p

[Th3hadyn 5,881]

Probably, though I have seen people suggest crazier ideas before...

He means this 

 

Challenger A30

 

 

not this

 

Challenger 1

 

at least i think he does...

Edited March 21, 2015 by Th3hadyn

[Orlunu 6,863]

He means this 

 

Challenger A30

 

 

 

not this

 

Challenger 1

 

 

at least i think he does...

 

Njet

[spoiler]Challenger 2

[/spoiler]

[Gerako98 1,217]

Any new thoughts on this tank now that the Leopard has been added? 

[crixy2312 779]

+1

 

A tank from my nation? You can have my money sire.

[Stryker232 174]

Gibs +1