Ufo looking tank

[Beatmaster]

Hello peepz,

In do not know or there is a freakshow for tanks but iam sure that this tank might fit that show.

I do not know or this is some kind of photoshop joke but its sure looking weard.
If anyone knows what tank this is then please let me know because to me it looks like a mix between a oversized frog and a ufo.

:rel:rel
Lol

cheers

 

[Falstaff]

Hello peepz,

In do not know or there is a freakshow for tanks but iam sure that this tank might fit that show.

I do not know or this is some kind of photoshop joke but its sure looking weard.
If anyone knows what tank this is then please let me know because to me it looks like a mix between a oversized frog and a ufo.

:rel:rel
Lol

cheers

Check this out: [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_279"]Obyekt 279 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia@@AMEPARAM@@/wiki/File:Object_279_(heavy_tank).jpg" class="image"><img alt="Object 279 (heavy tank).jpg" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a9/Object_279_%28heavy_tank%29.jpg/300px-Object_279_%28heavy_tank%29.jpg"@@AMEPARAM@@commons/thumb/a/a9/Object_279_%28heavy_tank%29.jpg/300px-Object_279_%28heavy_tank%29.jpg[/ame]

Your ufo-tank is an object 279...

 

[Feanor]

It's a real experimental Soviet heavy tank developed not too long after wwII.

 

[EnigmaNZ]

If you do a youtube/google search on experimental Russian tanks or similar you find all sorts of oddities, including a rocket tank. It doesn't launch rockets, it has a rocket to boost its speed. The tank above was a heavy tank designed to have a light footprint. If you search for similar german ww2 tanks you will find details of tanks with battleship guns amongst other things. There is a lot of wild and wacky equipment out there. How about a Russian flying submarine that flies to the target, then lands and submerges to attack. Or nazi flying saucers etc. Have fun.

 

[Beatmaster]

Thx for the replies,

So this is the object 279 experimental tank, what strikes me right away is the compared to other tanks little body, 4 sets of tracks and a huge muzzle.

Iam wondering what the idea behind this tank is because for example if you look at the 4 tracks
then you probably will notice that if a section of the track breaks (Something not uncommon to older tanks) then it would be a nasty task to refit it.

Also the shape is very weard, lower part armor in such an angle and shape would probably bounce of small arms fire and direct straith hits, but what about high curving artillery shells?

The wiki link does give tons of info but its not totally clear how the engineers where thinking when they did comeup with this creation, because on yourtube you will indeed find several weard looking tanks but none of them comes close to this design.
So why the "ufo" lower shape?

 

[Marc 1]

Also the shape is very weard, lower part armor in such an angle and shape would probably bounce of small arms fire and direct straith hits, but what about high curving artillery shells?

With tanks, particularly back then as artillery was an unguided area weapon, it was more important to shape your armour to deflect direct fired projecties - such as the main armament of the US tanks of the time.

The reason Artillery is used against armoured formations isn't because they think there will be a whole stack of tanks taking direct hits, rather it is because of all the shrapnel flying about. This forces the tanks to fight closed down (with the extremely poor situational awareness that brings - particularly in tanks designed just after WWII). The schrapnel can remove a tank from the battle by jamming or destroying the running gear (tracks/ wheels as a mobility kill). The optics and sights can also be damaged (operational kill - tank that cannot fight is useless) or killing the crew before they get under armour or destroying their morale when under armour.

Of course with smart payload rounds and guided 155 shells artillery these days can inflict a much greater number of direct kills.

 

[Falstaff]

Thx for the replies,

So this is the object 279 experimental tank, what strikes me right away is the compared to other tanks little body, 4 sets of tracks and a huge muzzle.

Iam wondering what the idea behind this tank is because for example if you look at the 4 tracks
then you probably will notice that if a section of the track breaks (Something not uncommon to older tanks) then it would be a nasty task to refit it.

Also the shape is very weard, lower part armor in such an angle and shape would probably bounce of small arms fire and direct straith hits, but what about high curving artillery shells?

The wiki link does give tons of info but its not totally clear how the engineers where thinking when they did comeup with this creation, because on yourtube you will indeed find several weard looking tanks but none of them comes close to this design.
So why the "ufo" lower shape?

IIRC the shape was selected because the engineers wanted this tank to survive an atomic blast. If you do a google-search on this tank you'll come up with a lot of different sources that will answer all your questions.