Summary
Armour: turrets
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Extract
Fired from under.
There was a time in the mid-1980s, when the main battle tank was still 'King of the Battlefield', when the 'unmanned' turret (remote controlled weapons station is a better description) for these vehicles was seen as a way forward, but later lost its way. In the last ten years the concept has seen something of a renaissance, albeit with a slightly different slant as the focus is now on the lighter armoured fighting vehicles.
While still seen as a necessity, the place of the main battle tank as an army's main weapon has reduced in importance. Consequently, the perceived need for externally mounted larger-calibre 'unmanned' turrets for main battle tanks has taken a lower priority. The main benefits of an 'unmanned' turret or externally mounted weapons station can be summarised thus: a reduction in the vehicle profile, making it harder to acquire and hit, a reduced combat weight so savings can be reapplied as additional armour, a reduced crew size by replacing the loader with an auto-loader mechanism, relocating the crew and ammunition within the hull to increase the protection factor, improved logistics and an easier upgra...See the full content of this document
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