Posted on 01/25/2017 7:22:14 AM PST by C19fan
In 1972, the German military embarked on a program to replace its lightweight and air-dropped Kraka quadbikes used to move paratroopers after they hit the ground. The result of this effort was the Wiesel, a cute, unusual tracked armored vehicle and a modern equivalent of the tankette, a type of tank which largely went out of fashion during World War II.
(Excerpt) Read more at warisboring.com ...
It would be a cool toy
We had a platoon of 106MM gun jeeps in ‘73
You get to annoy people with a Wiesel 1 in the game Armored Warfare by My.com
A friend of mine has a genuine 1945 WWII Folding Paratrooper Bicycle. Very cool.
You overlooked “lightweight and air-dropped” as being two of the requirements of the Wiesel. Panther & Tiger tanks were definitely NOT “air-droppable” or planned for it. The Wiesel was used as a reconnaissance vehicle for Leopard tank units. One recon version carried a 20mm cannon. It was also used by their artillery forward observers, at the time when I was running around Germany in my M-151 jeep as my Forward Observer’s vehicle. There were other variants designed as light anti-tank missile (TOW, HOT & Milan) and anti-aircraft missile (Stinger) platforms.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiesel_AWC
Embarrassment?
The Krauts were INNOVATORS, if nothing else.
This is just another innovation that fills a niche that other nations ignored.
As tanks have gotten bigger and heavier, and become larger targets, there was an opening for smaller vehicles. Looks like a good alternative to an armored up Humvee.
How about an unarmed version? Think swarms of them.
That post is meaningless without pics. :-)
That 20mm weapon the Germans use is not a joke.High rate of fire and very high muzzle velocity.
Weisel on the right.
It's also probably considerably cheaper than an Abrams, so you can have a lot of them. Now, visualize a remotely controlled, unmanned version of this, staying in front of the infantry.
Why have small tanks [armored vehicles] when for 5 times the cost, you can have just as many large tanks?
Under the assumption that strategic mobility is irrelevant, who cars if you can deploy small tanks with C-130s? Just replace the C-130s with C-5s. There’s no limit to how much money we can spend to defend foreign countries.
Under the assumption that you don’t need to operate in urban areas or in hilly terrain, that main battle tanks have limited mobility in those places isn’t a problem.
And why use small yet fast armored vehicles in reconnaissance and screening missions? Every battle is against a force equipped with main battle tanks. Who needs reconnaissance and screening.
By this kind of thinking, the Japanese invested in a small number Yamato-class battleships, instead of dozens or even hundreds of destroyers.
The Germans built small numbers of Tiger tanks (and heavier) that totally out-classed our M-4 Shermans and even Russia’s T-34, but were impossible to maintain, simply by-passed on the battlefield, or were swarmed.
And let’s not forget the F-35. A magnificent plane. Designed to achieve air dominance. To kill enemy planes over the horizon when supported by ground, air and space-based radars. But, of very limited range, time over target, or munitions capability (except when its stealth is compromised).
Yes, let’s put all our eggs in that basket and let the Army and Marines figure out how to provide their own fire support now that they’ve lost their organic artillery and tac air. And let’s let the Navy figure out how it’s going to fight in a high threat environment with littoral combat vessel that are prohibited from entering threat environments and carriers that have no stand-off.
Mini tanks, small arms proof that go where tanks or wheeled vehicles can’t mounted woth tow launchers and anti air craft missiles could chew up the rear lines.
Interesting.
Imagine the Luftwaffe doing that with a Me 323 Gigant and a Tiger tank:
It would have been epic, succeed or fail.
since you asked ;)
Imagine having that slung over your neck while you jumped into the darkness. Not for Pajamaboys.
I like it! Thanks!
Kind of a throwback to the Ontos.
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