I love the Panther tank so much, but I must admit it's not very good.
How would /k/ improve it?
I love the Panther tank so much, but I must admit it's not very good. How would you improve it?
I love the Panther tank so much, but I must admit it's not very good.
How would /k/ improve it?
find a way to make it weight 35 tons at most
i would add girls who have big boobs
Could you fit a Sherman's engine and transmission inside a panther hull? I imagine somebody would have done it postwar if it was possible.
panthers engine was both bigger and more powerful
the best sherman engine, the ford GAA, could only output 500hp nut only weighted a bit under 700kg
the panther had a beefy 1200kg engine with an equally large output of 700hp
you could put the M4 engine in a panther, but it would result in sluggish output and way too much empty space in the engine bay
>way too much empty space in the engine bay
That's where the skittles will be stored
Yeah, with the Panther being an extra 13 tons over the M4A2, that would not go over well. I still think I was onto something with finding an alternative transmission though, even if it's not the shermans.
Why's that? The Panthers transmission issue is just contrarian hype from the 2k tens.
It biggest issues where lack of proper resources and being made by an industry that was constantly being bombed. You can't improve it without changing the course of the war.
It's absurdly good wtf
bigger turret and bigger turret ring plus better crew ergonomics and better sights in the space
Panther with the Skoda 75mm autoloading gun and the GT103 Turbine plus the modified turret might have been an okay design until the L7 starts rolling out.
If nothing else it's a fun what-if, even if there was no plans to do all of these in one tank, they where all considered separately for the Panther.
Also remove the hull mounted machinegun and let the Radio operator focus on being a radio operator.
>Skoda 75mm autoloading gun
huh?
The KWK 44/2 was an experimental gun with a 4-round cassette autoloader.
Panther seems more like a tank destroyer than a proper medium tank
>How would /k/ improve it?
Assuming it's during post war usage, I would replace the transmission and engine with something more efficient and reliable, also maybe add one of those early two-plane stabilizers and maybe swap the main gun for the 17 pounder too if it can fit.
How is the 17 pounder an improvement over the 75mm it already had?
Because it can fire APDS? And also why would you want to use the guns and bespoke ammunition from a defeated enemy nation?
The British empire strafe'd itself though.
The logistic point is a good one, however do consider that the 17 pdr likely had a short barrel for its powdercharge (or if you turn it around, overcharged propellant for the barrel length). Also, early sabot was inaccurate as frick.
I would put the 20 pounder in the Panther.
The sabots were inaccurate due to the the muzzle break not the round itself
That's a load of bollocks. The same round (projectile) fired from the 77mm HV had no stabilisation issues and that thing did have a muzzlebreak too. Canadian pot sabot had no stabilisation issues either.
The Bradley (and most other autocannons with muzzle devices) have no issues with sabot separation. C'mon, man, it's not 1995 when the "muh muzzlebreak makes sabot inaccurate" shit can fly.
It was most probably the huge flash and unburnt propellant flashing away (famously causing very high concussion) is what destabilised the early variants of sabot.
I think the 76mm was nearing the limit it could practically do. Don't get me wrong, it's plenty good enough to deal with a T-34, but the heavier soviet tanks may be an issue. (also, since this is a fantasy excercise: the 76 would look wimpy in the Panther turret and looks matter)
>Why didn't they do thsi from the start?
wdym?
>Or at least the periscope and loader hatch
The periscopic sight, noone really knows why they stuck with coaxial sights on tanks specifically when most TD's and assault guns had periscopics, and loader's hatch, well, the bigass round hatch in the back was kinda sorta the combined loader's hatch and shell ejection/replenishment hatch
You fricker, you tricked me into calling it a muzzlebreak instead of a muzzlebrake. Dishonorabru
the biggest problem were height and weight, easiest way to remedy that would be to use a rear drive transmission
but this is already complete fiction since there was basically zero development in that regard
the whole thing is fricked tbh, I don;t see a point trying to improve it it's just a bad design, sexy looking but bad ...
panther was designed and put in to production in a year it resulted in unreliability, germans put some work in to it and late war models were much better in that regard. One also need to remember that mechanical parts of the time were unreliable just look at shermans first deployments, what trully matters it's logisticks and how easy is to repair tank in the field.
Melt it down and use the metal to make one and a half Shermans
>How would /k/ improve it?
If you are in Germany during the war time, its impossible to, Germany was suffering from resource shortages for all its vehicles, resulting in shitty parts/components for almost every single military vehicle.
That's not remotely true. You're acting like it was maps China or Theodore Roosevelt's America.
Mao's*
Let's assume Operation Unthinkable has arrived or nearly arrived and I have let a bunch of american and british enginneers loose at MAN to streamline the process. Supply them with some proper raw materials so their armour plate is not dogshit. Other than that, a few changes:
Delete the ballmount for the hull MG, delete the radioman's position. Bulge out turret to the rear, install radio, let cmdr handle it.
Cut the hull front up, make it detachable like the nose of a Sherman for better access to the transmission. While I'm here, either thin the upper front plate to 6,5cm (will still stop an 85mm at 500 metres) or thicken it to 10cm (stands a chance against the 122 at 500m and is almost completely immune to the 85 frontally), go back to 40mm sides, thin rear to 30mm. While I'm at the back: cut a rampway into the rear plate and put the engine on rails so you can pull it out whole like on a Hellcat. Not sure I can do much else about the engine and the transmission in a pinch, other than make them fricking quick change because they're bound to wear themselves out. Get about re-engineering them for better durability.
Drag up the F type turret from the wreckage of the factory, adapt a Sherman style periscopic sight, give the loader his own top hatch and periscope and otherwise bulge it out back as described above. Also change around the layout to put the gunner and commander to the right and the loader to the left (so that the motherfricker actually has the breech on his strong arm side). Keep the gun if the production lines are going on, otherwise shift to the 17 pdr, or if I can fit it, the long 88 (which I'm absolutely not sure about). The 75 is plenty good enough, if the production line is going and if we can make sabot for it, all the better.
Oh and make sure there isn't a minor modification every 20th vehicle that fricks with my parts interchangeability.
This could be a fun kitbash, ngl.
>let cmdr handle it.
Correction: or loader
Why the 17 pdr and not the 76mm? I assume the logistics for the 76mm would be better, and its plenty effective.
>Drag up the F type turret from the wreckage of the factory, adapt a Sherman style periscopic sight, give the loader his own top hatch and periscope
Why didn't they do thsi from the start? Or at least the periscope and loader hatch.
Simply road wheels, expidite final drive fix that only made it to the jagdpanther.
More periscopes because visibility out of every panther variant is shit.
Change armor scheme, less frontal, more side armor like was changed on the Panthers I believe G model.