- Yes
- No
FV721 Fox-AA
Design and service history:
The Fox-AA was a variant of the Fox armoured car fitted with an anti-aircraft turret that was first displayed in 1982. This vehicle took the form of a basic fox hull mated with a turret housing an Oerlikon 20 mm KAA-001 Cannon. The turret was mounted to a rotating platform that housed the cannon, along with its ammunition though an external feed. This configuration allowed the gun to elevate to 70 degrees, allowing it to effectively engage and take out aircraft up to 6800 meters. The KA-001 cannon had a rate of fire of 900-1000 rounds a minute and a muzzle velocity of 1050 meters a second.
The gun had a 200-round feed of ammunition, giving it a fire endurance of around 12 seconds before the additional ammunition stored in the hull would have to be used to reload the weapon system, which could be done from inside the turret. A light would warn the gunner when he was nearing the end of his current belt, and spent shell casings would be expelled from the breech on the other side of the gun. The gunner had an adjustable seat and a single-piece hatch at the back of the turret that would open to the rear.
In order to engage ground targets, the gunner, who also served as the commander could make use of an optical sight, with 6.5 times magnification. Unfortunately to effectively engage ground targets the gunner would have to expose himself to the potential of enemy fire, and even with 3 sights being tested this was deemed insufficient, and unfortunately, no orders for the Fox-AA were placed, leaving it a unique one-off SPAA in the Annuls of British AFV development.
Vehicle specification:
Mass 6.75 tonnes (7.44 short tons; 6.64 long tons)
Length 5.08 m (16 ft 8 in)
Width 2.13 m (7 ft 0 in)
Height 2.2 m (7 ft 3 in)
Crew 2
Armor Aluminium
Main armament Oerlikon 20 mm KAA-001 Cannon
Engine Jaguar J.60 No 1 Mk 100B Petrol 190 hp (142 kW)
Power/weight 28.1 hp/tonne
Operational range 434 km (269.675 mi)
Maximum speed 104 km/h (64.6 mph)
Additional historical photos:
Sources:
- https://youtu.be/Ull0ng9zhHI?t=352 (Armoured archives video mentioning the armoured car, which is the best readily available source for this variant)
- Fox armoured reconnaissance vehicle - Wikipedia (Wiki page for the fox)