Search for Japanese SUPER TANK underway

‘Panther’ seems a logical successor to the preceding ‘Leopard’, but as far as animals are concerned, ‘panther’ isn’t a separate species - it’s a term often used for black leopards. And the official Latin names of all the big cats start with Panthera, including Panthera tigris. So from that perspective, a Tiger is a Panther.

This story brings out my charitable side. I would like to assume the burden of storing these pieces free of charge to all parties involved. I would be willing to provide safe storage of these pieces indefinitely. If need be I would even cover the financial cost, of having the proper documentation drawn up, to tranfer ownership to me. In his advanced years the owner shouldn’t have to deal with the strain of fighting the government. My charitable act would also save the German tax payers money.

… showing your age!!  I’ll show you some AGE! …

Paul McCartney … Bass
Billy Joel … Keyboards
Paul Simon … Guitar
Phil Collins … Precussion

Four lead singers that’ll never get along, but I’d have a tough time finding more talent in four musicians. - Dino

really, it’s a bug!

@M36:

There is life on other planets, it’s called bacteria.  :wink:

But seriously, the question is completely irrelevant, because there is nothing we can do if aliens do in fact exist, since space travel is simply too slow. lets worry about the guys who want to harm us on our own planet before we worry about other planets attacking us.

agree with, i think this whole story is just being used to draw attention from real problems which the World has, so they bomb the media with some noncence

The gap in the turret IS the issue.

Most notably the overhang of the turret cokmbined with the gap.  Shrapnel, debris from moving through obstructions, etc. are going to be an issue, especially while in transverse since things can catch the bottom of the overhanging turret and be dragged into the tighter space between the main body and teh turret as it transverses back.

The skirting issue is 2 fold.

The first is that the back appears to have a different skirting configuration than the front, with a much longer skirt over the tread than is true in the front.  It has also been squared off instead of angled as it is in the front.  While this is good for treat protection (voering more tread with the skirt), it creates movement problems in uneven or boggy terrain when operating in reverse.

Second, the skirting is too squared off.  There is no deflection angle in the skirting.  This means you are either going to have to go with VERY heavy skirting in order to protect the treads, or you might as well leave the skirting off since it is vulnerable to even low-grade weapons like a LAW that could penetrate the skirting more easilly since the rounds can hit 'square" and penetrate to damage the treads beneath.  If you add a deflection angle, you reduce the force of impacts on the skirting by an order of magnitude, increasing your tread protection at no cost of weight.

Lastly, following up on the transverse overhang…  Imagine a simple IED going off next to the tank while the turret is transversed and the underside of the turret is exposed to the ground below…  Explosive force going UP and hitting what is certain to be a very thinly armored portion of the vehicle.  I’d call this an Achilles Heel on the modern battlefield.

My recommendations:
Angle the skirting
Re-engineer the rear skirting to allow for reverse movement in rough terrain (same config you used in the front would work)
Shorten the turret to elliminate the transverse overhang issue

@ncscswitch:

Now all I have to do is remember more of my Russian than just being able to say “Good morning Major, class ready for instruction” in order to make it practical for me :-P

Its an LCD keyboad……meaning you can use it for WHATEVER you want.  You can always change it too.  If you want it to remind you that the spacebar is jump in an FPS, then you can do it!!  Or if you want a quick shortcut to open firefox on your keyboard.  I never thought id actually be excited for a farkin keyboard to come out, but with this one is like WOW!  :-P

You need to have the Japanese expand into Asia ASAP. They must build IC’s in Asia to achieve this. Send armor into the Russian capital as quickly as you can…