swiss spaa Mowag Shark Trinity, 40mm SPAA on wheels.

[CaID 8,992]

 

i would like to make a suggestion for an swiss amoured car, one of the best of the swiss armoured car ever built. the mowag Shark with Bofors Trinity

 

The Mowag Shark is a surprising large family of armoured car the was designed by Mowag in 1978 and the first prototype built in 1981. presented as basically a enlarged version of the Mowag Piranha 8X8 with more protection. the Shark was intended to be a wheeled tank and not really a IFV or APC like the piranha. more particularly for tank destroying role but also offer a large versatility of role due to the many turret that could be fitted. the chassis alone weight 16 tonnes and if intended to carry a turret up to 6 tonnes to give a weight of 22 tonnes but the weight was carefully studied to give an optimal agility with a 5 tonnes turret (the centre of gravity would be in the exact centre of the vehicle). the Shark feature a high quality suspension and high protection. but this come to a cost which was the price itself. the Shark was much more expensive than the Piranha who was often capable to carry the same turret. despite of a high publicity campaign, and trial in different country including Germany, Canada and Switzerland, no order came for the Shark. 3 prototype was built from 1981 to 1983 and the mass-production was ready in July 1983 but this production never took place.

 

in this suggestion we will focus more precisely on the Mowag Shark Trinity. this vehicle was built in partnership with Bofors . this version was build from 1984 but at that time it was only a test rig, the true from of the Trinity came in 1985 when the turret was receiving his fuselage to protect the mechanics. the purpose of this development was purely for export as the Shark was at his time the best armoured car offered for export. the demonstration of the Trinity turret on the Shark was giving both the vehicle and the turret a better chance to be exported. Bofors was intending to export this very turret to Austria, Brazil and also produce it for the Swedish army. not on the Shark but on the Steyr 4K 7FA (austria), Charrua II (brazile) and Strv 9040 (Sweden). making the Shark a pure private venture. the test went on and seem to be successful. it was presented to the public in 1988. the Shark was presented as the base on which the Trinity would normally be mounted and often demonstrated as such. but no buyer show real interest.

Firepower

The main armament is a a 40mm Bofors Trinity L/70. this armament is a improved version of the 40mm L/70 who is found on a few vehicles in the game. but feature a Solothurn muzzle brake who greatly reduce the recoil. this increate the accuracy of the gun who would be otherwise ineffective at longer range. the turret is a truly advance one. featuring search radar with a detection range of 20km. tracking of anything with a speed between 0 and 4320 km/h and a Lear Siegler muzzle velocity radar. additionally the turret also featre a laser-rangefinder, night vision, thermal vision, degital computer who can program the proximity fuze of the ammunition while shooting at a moving target to maximize the chance of kill. the turret come with 100 rounds magazine in row of 9 rounds each and the 100th is ready for the barrel. the elevation is  -5° to +85° which is quit good for his purpose

 

+ laser rangefinder

+ night vision
+ Thermal imager

+ Tracking radar

+ search Radar (20 km of range)

 

40mm Bofors Trinity L/70
Capacity (magazine)		firerate	Vertical	Horizontal	Stabilizer	Rotation speed (°/sec)	Reload (sec)
unknown (100)		330	-5°/+85°	±180°	Two plane	90.0	10.00

Penetration statistics
Belt	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
	10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
HEFI-T	4	4	4	4	4	4
TRINITY 3P	5	5	5	5	5	5
AP-T	94	90	77	62	51	41
APDS	120	115	101	87	76	65

Belt details
Belt	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile Mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
HEFI-T	HEFI-T	1,005	0.145	0	0.1	100	79°	80°	81°
TRINITY 3P	HE-VT*	1,015	0.88	0	0.1	190.8	79°	80°	81°
AP-T	AP-T	1,025	0.93	N/A	N/A	N/A	47°	60°	65°
APDS	APDS	1,200	0.705	N/A	N/A	N/A	75°	78°	80°

Mobility

the Shark is powered by a General Motors Detroit Diesel 8V-71 T developping 530 hp at 2500 rpm. this was intended to give a power weight of 25 hp/ton at the weight of 21 tonnes. the shark is designed to offer a high speed on rought terrain with a top speed of 80 km/h off-road and cimb very sharp slope of 70% angle. that mean that the Shark was basically capable to hunt his target on any terrain. the Allison automatic box model HT-750 DRD off a 5 forward speed and 1 backward. it is coupled with an auxiliary two-speed transfer box and four self-locking differentials that can be coupled, two to two or all four, pneumatically by the driver depending on the terrain conditions or driving needs. the center of gravity with a 5 tonnes turret was carefully studied to be placed at exactly 1.25m from the ground right between the 2nd and 3rd axes, which is basically the center of the vehicle. each wheel have independent suspension. the two middle axes aren't steerable; their suspension is build with shock absorbers and their wheels beign mounted on oscillaing arms connected to torsion bar.  the first and last are steerable and hydraulically assisted. they are having suspension by wishbone, oversize helical spring and hydraulic damper. the prototype was fitting Michelin 13.00 x 20 tubeless tires

 

Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
Forward	Reverse		530		25.24
100	20 ?	21

Protection

The protection of the Shark was intended to allow it to be used fairly close to the battlefield. but retaining a good weight which was carefully studied to give a perfect balance on the vehicle. the armour was offering a protectiong against 14.5mm KPV armour piercing round or 155mm HE round at 10m on all side. the armour was build with high-resistance armor plates and sloped on all side to improve the protection while retainign a light weight. this make the chassis have a a protection similar to the Italian Centuro B1 (without add-on armour). this make this vehicle have the protection similar to a light tank exept certain tank like the Russian BMP who have rather terrible armour. in the case of the Trinity turret, there is no data about the armour. i assume the army is aroudn 12mm, but that is a long guess based on the impression and no real evidence.

 

* this fallowing armour thickness is estimated based on the protection effiency reported and knowing the armour been made of HHRhA

 

Armour	Front	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	20 mm (30°) upper glassis 20 mm (40°) lower glassis	20 mm (30°) top 20mm (30°) bottom 30mm (0°) under the tower	20 mm (50°) bottom 25 mm (20°) top	12 mm
Turret	?	?	?	?

 

 

^{Shark with trinity turret during the early test of 1984 (the armour of the turret wasn't installed and the vehicles was remotely controlled for safety)}

 

Specifications
Mass	21 tonnes (with Trinity turret)
Length	7.52 m
Width	3.00 m
Height	1.90 m without turret
Crew	3
Armour	against 14.5mm AP round on all side (chassis)
Main armament	1× 40 mm Bofors L/70
Secondary armament	None
Engine	General Motors Detroit Diesel 8V-71 T developing 530 hp at 2500 rpm
Suspension	various, depending of the wheels
Ground clearance	450 mm
Maximum speed	100 km/h (60 mph) , off-road: 80 km/h (48 mph)

 

 

source

https://www.defensa.com/ayer-noticia/mowag-shark-8x8-tiburon-dientes-agudos

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/mowag-shark.3948/

https://cmchant.com/the-bofors-gunpart-iii-modern-developments/

 

 

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Edited February 25, 2023 by CaID

[Thatz 635]

Open for Discussion

[Milocat 4,848]

+1 for a future Swiss/Alpine tree.

[TheGamer033310 46]

+1 because I love the bofors autocannon and I love Wheeled light vehicles

[Miraz05 255]

+1.Swiss sub tree for sweden?

[CaID 8,992]

On 22/02/2023 at 13:30, Miraz05 said:

+1.Swiss sub tree for sweden?

based on the turret 's design and the fact that the chassis wasn't in services by anyone and Switzerland is not having a tech tree on his own, this very vehicle have a little more reason to end-up in the Swedish techtree than any other.

 

But

Switzerland have more vehicle to offer than Sweden. If Switzerland and Sweden endup in the same tech tree, it will be Sweden that would be a sub-tree of Switzerland and not the other way around.

https://caidwarthundertechtree.neocities.org/swiss_tt

 

but the idea behind is to add a Swiss tech tree as independent nation and quit likely add Austria as sub-tree about a year after Switzerland get added.

https://caidwarthundertechtree.neocities.org/swiss-austrian_tt

Edited February 24, 2023 by CaID