However, the Australian's, with assistance from the British were working on the Malkara guided anti-tank missile. This too featured a colossal HESH warhead and was capable of splattering an IS-3 across the landscape as well. Several new vehicles were designed to launch these missiles, and one was based upon the Centurion, and became the FV4010. Both vehicles filled the role of heavy tank destroyer, but with money limited, which one should the British Army buy? Major R. S. Beresford of the 13/18 Royal Hussars was asked to compare these two totally different vehicles to find out which was better.
Malkara on its launching arm. |
From 500 to 2,000 yards, and over the Malkara had an 85% chance of a hit, while the FV215 started dropping off, reaching 59% at 2,000 yards. Adding it all together you get the following:
Next vulnerability to enemy return fire was assessed. Instantly the FV4010 has an advantage, it can be fired from a turret-down position, while the FV215 has to fire from a hull-down position. Equally with a dismounted remote controller some 200 yards away from the FV4010 the tank is further back from its firing point. However, due to armour levels if the tank is hit then the FV215 has a much better chance of survival. Another factor to take into account was the smaller size of the FV4010. In summary the FV4010 was more survivable from a static firing position, but when moving the FV215 was more survivable at close range. At longer range the chance of a miss was increased enough that the chance of being hit and killed balanced out the increased armour, but bigger size of the FV215.
Model of the test rig built to trial the FV4010 fighting arangements. Imagine the tracks and engine from a centurion sticking out the front. You can see how it would be hull down when firing. |
The report does give us a estimated cost of the FV4010 as £37,000, however, it fails to supply an estimated cost for the FV215 but does say that you can purchase between 1.2 to 1.6 FV4010's for the same money as a FV215. This gives us an estimated cost for the FV215 of between £44,400 to £59,200. In comparison a Centurion costs £35,000. All figures are 1953 prices, have a 25% of their cost for spares and are fully loaded with ammunition.
The FV4010 test trailer in action. |
This concept would continue to be refined, with one of the first things to be dropped was the heavy armour and vehicle chassis, and suddenly you see something like the light ATGM carriers that feature in most armies.
Would you like to know more about the FV4010, the FV215 and the Malkara, and how they were developed, and projects that followed on? Well I have my new book out, the Dark Age of Tanks. It has a look at British armoured warfare in between about 1945-1975.
It contains all the weird projects and designs I could find in the archives, and how they got boiled down to the tanks we saw in service. Of particular note was to my mind the British starting work on hover armoured vehicles!
Image credits:
www.tanks-encyclopedia.com
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe armour on the fv4010 combined with this missile would have been awesome. But I'm a bias Aussie
ReplyDeleteWas the 500yard rang due to the first version having the missile mounted to the sloped hull? If so would the final proposal of the articulated arm firing from the horizontal have corrected this?
ReplyDeleteThe 500 yard gathering up was for all Malkara,although it may have been lower in reality. The Malkara was flown by a thumb-stick (or joystick, I forget which) on the control unit. Once the missile was fired, the controller had to fly the missile into his sight picture, then start steering from there. There was one case of the controller bringing the missile down to hard, pitching up suddenly and breaking all the wires.
DeleteBut yes I agree, theFv4010 would have been awesome to see in action.
The US had the same issue with the MGM-51 out of the 152mm M81 Gun Launcher on the M551. Using the sight the 'gunner' could not even see the missile from inside the turret until it has reached 800 yards.
Delete500 meters is 546 yards
731 meters is 800 yards