- Yes
- No
caid’s suggestion #106
i would like to suggest a pretty interesting light tank for China, which could be a peer to the XM800T the CM-21A2
the CM-21A2 was a proposed upgrade of the CM-21A1. offering a few improvements over the previous model, It was also offered as IFV version by mounting the French Dragar turret on the regular CM-21A1. the CM-21A1 has been by himself a modified version of the M113 built under license by Taiwan. the design was tested in the late 80s but remains a prototype. the reason it wasn’t put into services was simply this vehicle was not needed in the Taiwanese doctrine and also because they were already satisfied with their current APC and IFV. while never had been into services, i believe the CM-21A2 to be an interesting peer for the light tank of his type, while most aren’t yet in the game, it would offer a game-play equivalent to the M114A2, Sabre, and XM800T. The CM-21A2 offers decent firepower and mobility which make this vehicle offer a rather flexible use in the battlefield. but would make a poor choice for the front line to face MBT.
Firepower
the main armament was a GIAT 25mm M811 , which would be more than good enough to engage the armoured target. capable to use APHE, APDS, APFSDS and HE rounds, the penetration range from 40mm (the APHE) to 90mm (APFSDS). The armament is a auto-cannon with adjustable fire-rate of either 120rounds/minutes or 400 rounds/minutes . the M811 is a dual feed cannon with 220 rounds belt ready to use (175 rounds on belt #1, 45 rounds on belt #2). the gun can switch between 2 types of rounds without the need to reload, they need to switch belts. the elevation reaches -7°/+45°, making it great against air vehicles. furthermore, the turret is electrically powered making it fast to rotate and the gun fast to elevate. the rotation and elevation speed of 60°/sec will make it great in urban combat and capable of fallow aircraft. to improve the vehicle’s combat capacity in the movement, the gun is also two-plane stabilized which is a huge advantage in combat.
day/night vision sight are also installed have a 1x/7x sight , Fire control integrates a laser Rangefinder and Infrared .
a **coaxial 7.62mm ** is installed with a 200-round magazine and 200 more stored inside the turret.
while the turret already has enough ammunition to be enjoyable to play with, more ammo could be carried inside the hull without difficulty, only the actual number of ammunition is unknown. The ammo load includes 220 rounds for the 25mm ready-to-use
Mobility
the weight is not specifically stated, but knowing the CM-21 is 11.9 tonnes and the Dragar turret is 1.250 kg, we can easily guess the total weight is around 13.3 tonnes, in which case the 210 hp engine would give a bit less than 16 hp/tonnes which is not so impressive. the Gearbox having only 3 speeds would also make the acceleration a bit difficult as the regime before reaching the next gear would need to be quite high. the tank was still reported to reach 66 km/h and it is amphibious.
Protection
the armor of this vehicle is nothing to be crazy about. it’s the M113 with spaced armor on the side. the side is protected by a float which creates a space compartment that allows the Chemical energy rounds to be absorbed on hit. but the 4mm of structural steel would do next to nothing to kinetic rounds. the chassis by itself is made of steel and the turret is as well. the turret is designed to be immune to 12.7mm at 500m and 14.5mm at 1000m. which means it has about 20mm of RhA armor. the crew of 2 men is pretty small and offers no chance for a mistake. the tank features a total of 10 smoke launchers, 4 on the turret rear, and 6 on the hull front.
Sources
Spoiler
- CM-21 AIFV Amphibious Armored Infantry Fighting Vehicle
- https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/CM-21裝甲車
- Army Guide
- CM21 Armored Vehicle
- https://m.xuite.net/blog/c301/c301/21040392
- https://m.xuite.net/blog/m1a2tankusa/twblog/155981531
- https://blog.xuite.net/m1a2tankusa/twblog/155981531
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