candian spaa Mowag Shark Crotale, Huge missiles for the predator

[CaID 8,996]

 

 

i would like to make a suggestion for an Swiss armoured car, one of the best of the Swiss armoured car ever built. but for the Canadian. the mowag Shark with Crotale

 

 

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 center of gravity would be in the exact center 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 Crotale. the fact the suggestion start with a Canadian flag and not a Swiss one is no mistake. By the rules of the suggestion, this version fall to a Canadian branch and not a exactly a Swiss one because it was officially tested by the Canadian army. this version was built in 1984. this vehicle was first built in Germany as a private venture them it was tested in Belgium by the Canadian who saw interest in this vehicle. in 1984 Canada was opening a competition for a low-level air-defence on which many industrial bid. those industry offered different concept of air-defense for the Canadian army who was proposing a 600 millions dollars contract to be sealed in 1986. Thomson-CSF with General Motors Canada, General Electric and Litton Systems Canada offering the Crotale SAM and GAU-13/A turret which could be mounted on the Piranha who was license produced in Canada or the Shark as well. this vehicle was heavily marketed and presented as the favourite of the competition. the Canadian seem to really like it during the trial as well. other company was also in competition. Euromissiles offered their system in partnership with Krauss-Maffei. this concept was coming in 2 elements. the first been their Roland SAM system mounted on a MAN truck. this system was providing coverage on medium range from the rear and for the front-line, offering the close defence, their system was completed by either a Fuch or a Shark mounting the Wildcat 30 turret build by Krauss-Maffei. British Aerospace in partnership with the Italian OTO Malara who proposed the Rapier system on a tracked vehicles and a SIDAM 25 turret on the M113, Oerlikon-Contrave teaming up with Martin Marietta and Raython with the ADATS turret on M113 and a Twin 35mm GDF-005 towed AA. . so basically this competition was offering a lot of good concept. but one winner could only come out victorious and this was Oerlikon-Contrave with the ADATS on the M113. while the Wildcat 30 turret was still proposed for export and tested in other nation, the attempt with the Shark pretty much ended there as Mowag soon gave up their hope to sell the Shark a few years later (i recall it was in 1985 or 1986) to focus on the Piranha. while the Shark Crotale was fiercely marketted and appeared to be the first choice, it didn't win the competition. the price was probably in cause. if it was to be adopted, this vehicles would mainly serve in Germany where Canada had a whole brigade in order to show their presence in-front of Russia (like many nation of the NATO)

 

Firepower

The main armament are Crotale Launcher. those aren't exactly the same as the Crotal NG as found on the Ito 90M but they are of the same family. this version is older and from 1972. despite of been older, it was quit good in his time. with a missile speed of 750 km/h (or Mach 2.3) it could engage about any planes. the missiles measured 3m long and contained 15 kg of explosive which allow for a certain kill on successful hit. the chance of hit was 80% which mean it was normally shooting two missiles at the same time. on the down side, having huge and powerful missiles come with a reduction of ammunition. only 4 missiles are carried. the turret have a good rotation speed and elevation, but it wasn't intended for the front line. at least not for the ground combat. the turret come with no actual sight and only rely on the radar. this make this vehicle only good for the anti-aircraft role. but if you manage to hit a ground target with it, the powerful explosive that the missiles contain may wipe anything out.the radar have a low detection of 18.5 km of range for any target at the speed of 35-440 m/s and altitude limits between zero and 800 m. and an high detection of altitude 15 km with a limits between 1 800 and 4500 m. this make the radar have a pretty easy blindspot of not been capable to detect aircraft above 4500m. the missiles are TV and IR guided and two of them can be fire at the same time but against the same target.

 

+Tracking radar
+Radar (18.4 km range)

 

4x Crotale missile launcher
Capacity (magazine)		firerate	Vertical	Horizontal	Stabilizer	Rotation speed (°/sec)	Reload (sec)
4 (4)		0	-10°/+85°	±180°	N/A	85.0	120.00

HE-FRAG

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
Crotale	60	60	60	60	60	60

84.5

Shell details
Ammunition	Guiding type	Velocity (m/s)	Range (m)	Projectile Mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
								0%	50%	100%
Crotale	TV and IR	920	12,000	0	0.1	15,000	80°	82°	90°

Mobility

the Shark is powered by a General Motors Detroit Diesel 8V-71 T developing 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 rough terrain with a top speed of 80 km/h off-road and climb 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 centre 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 centre 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 oscillating arms connected to torsion bar.  the first and last are steerable and hydraulically assisted. they are having suspension by wishbone, oversized helical spring and hydraulic damper. the prototype was fitting Michelin 13.00 x 20 tubeless tires

 

the turret weight is not know, but the R440 crotal weight 4.400 kg and it's basically a 8 missiles version of this turret. that allow us to assume the weight to be lighter. probably 400 kg lighter (85 kg for each missiles, plus their tube, that should be around 400 kg) which led to a weight around 20 tonnes for the whole vehicles. which is not ideal for the shark agility but still good.

 

Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
Forward	Reverse		530		26.5
100	20 ?	Ca. 20

 

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 protection against 14.5mm KPV armour piercing round or 155mm HE round at 10m on all side. the armour was build with high-resistance armour plates and sloped on all side to improve the protection while retaining 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 except certain tank like the Russian BMP who have rather terrible armour. in the case of the turret, the armour is not know, but there is no one inside the turret. giving it a minimal protection would not really affect the vehicles protection since the crew is bellow the turret. 

 

* this fallowing armour thickness is estimated based on the protection efficiency 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 (60°) top 20mm (60°) bottom 30mm (0°) under the tower	20 mm (50°) bottom 25 mm (20°) top	12 mm
Turret	8 mm ?	8 mm ?	8 mm ?	6 mm ?

 

 

Specifications
Mass	20 tonnes (assumed)
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	4x Crotale SAM
Secondary armament	None
Engine	General Motors Detroit Diesel 8V-71 T developping 530 hp at 2500 rpm
Suspension	varipous, 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/

http://www.military-today.com/missiles/crotale.htm

https://root-nation.com/en/articles-en/weapons-en/en-crotale-sam/

https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Crotale_(missile)

https://ftp.idu.ac.id/wp-content/uploads/ebook/tdg/ADNVANCED MILITARY PLATFORM DESIGN/Janes Land-Based Air Defence 1992-93 by Tony Cullen, Christopher F. Foss (z-lib.org).pdf

 

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[Thatz 637]

Open for Discussion

[Rambolf 371]

Jesus caid you don't half arse with the amount of suggestions

[Milocat 4,857]

+1 for British or a future Commonwealth tree.

[hydroxideblue 88]

Yessir o7. Of course there was also the Bofors Trinity system trialed by Canada. Lots of cool kit.

 

Thanks,

 

Hydroxideblue 

[hydroxideblue 88]

Quick question, would you happen to have any information on the Crotale/GAU-13/A system offered on the licensed produced Piranha/LAV for LLAD? Any photographs, or textual references I can follow up with?
 

Thanks,

 

Hydroxidblue

[CaID 8,996]

38 minutes ago, hydroxideblue said:

Quick question, would you happen to have any information on the Crotale/GAU-13/A system offered on the licensed produced Piranha/LAV for LLAD? Any photographs, or textual references I can follow up with?
 

Thanks,

 

Hydroxidblue

saddly i dont.

 

for question like that do not hesitate to send me private message, this function is there for this purpose and i read all my message as soon i can connect (but sometime it can take weeks before i connect)