Stabilized turret on a 1952 British Centurion tank - GIF

Stabilized turret on a 1952 British Centurion tank.

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More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centurion_(tank)

Previously:

https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...439#post142707
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...397#post142549
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...173#post141612
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...989#post125173
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...924#post119784

I was once given a demonstration of the Challenger 2 tank. The Tank started a good mile off on the ranges, we were asked if we could spot the tank as the commander on the radio told us we were a target lock. No-one present could spot the tank until they let off some smoke. The gun on the C2 also has an automatic stabilising system that stays on target. The tank then proceeded to basically charge at us, full speed across very rough terrain, at times using a smoke screen. While the tank bounced over the rough ground and down behind dips etc the gun never once moved from pointing straight at us, we looked right down the barrel the whole time until after a minute or so the tank came to stop a few metres of us. It was a powerful and terrifying demonstration of modern military technology.

A bit more modern

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUh2UpiXu2I

Shoot and scoot! That's what the Army does. And it is hard to do both at one time. But that can be a winner.

I remember back in the 60s the first time I saw a film of the Abrahams tank running over a washboard road, going up and down about 10 or 12 feet on every rise and fall in that road, but the gun barrel was pointing at the same angle through it all. It could scoot at a high speed and still aim the gun to shoot an accurate shot. Or, at least, that was what the film was implying. That was many years ago and computers were in their infancy. It is no wonder that the Abrahams is one of the top tanks in the world. I was completely amazed.

I think you may have meant the 80s the first XM1 was going through trials in the mid to late 70s Before that it was the MBT70 undergoing the trials but you are correct in one sense there was a program as far back as 1965 a collaboration between Germany and the USA to develop the next generation tank something like 7 different hull and turret designs were put together and tested you could have been privy to one of those though. Here is an interesting though long read about the evolution of the Abrams
M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank - Tanks Encyclopedia

Hold my beer

Last century I got quite close and personal with Centurions, best gunnery tank of their era.
Detuned RR Merlin (Meteor) power-plants were their weak point.
In fact the the engine manual on the first page, made reference to being rather delicate
for the use they were put to!
The Israelis acquired quite a few and re-powered them with diesels.

Last century in another life I got quite intimate with Centurion tanks. The driver had two graduated spirit levels in his cockpit, indicating lateral & longitudinal status, as long as he keep within those parameters, no matter what direction he took, once the gun had been laid on a target and was reloaded, the target would be hit.
It was a pity the transmission hadn't had the same degree of sophistication: Manual 6 speed transmission, A real shoulder smasher.Best way to change gears was to disengage the master clutch and one steering clutch, and good luck! Then thanks to LBJ, I discovered Yank tanks!