[Would you like to see this in-game?]
- Yes, would love to see it in game
- Sceptical, but I find the idea interesting
- Doesn’t really matter to me
- No
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Short Story
B&W images from Digital Museum
The Ikv 91, a sweedish light tank was created as a supporting vechicle for the infantry in the army. All the other info can be found in the game stats HERE
Due to the challenging terrain of Sweden, the light tank needed to be able to traverse all kinds of terrain such as mud, dense woods, relatively steep inclines and WATER.
Amphibious Capabilities
At some point in War Thunder the amphibious capabilities of the Ikv 91 were removed with little to no reason mentioned. That made some people mad as this machine has no armor or serious defensive mechanisms. One of the main upsides of the vechicle was and will always be mobility. A part of it was lost together with taking away the amphibious capabilities of the Ikv 91.
Specific Information
As stated in the construction manuals of the Ikv 91 it could be equipped with a extension drum over the exhaust to prevent water from going into the engine and causing it to stop working.
Further into the manual we are greeted with a mention of the speed of the tank in water.
Ikv 91 would be propelled in water using its tracks which were adapted to allow it to do so. In the manuals we can’t find exactly how the tank was prepared for traversing water but we know that the preparation could have been done before the deployment into the batte/training.
There are multiple photos of the Ikv 91 traversing water with the same modification which would be the extension drum for the exhaust in the form of a box made out of some sort of metal.
Suggestion for a way to bring the amphibious capabilities back
As for the moment, in War Thunder we only see amphibious vechicles which do not need any outside modifications on site to be able to traverse water. In the situation of the Ikv 91 there could be a way to make it float again.
Ikv 91 had a drainage pumps system
Solve Suggestion
All vechicles in War Thunder have researchable modifications that give them certain abilities/upgrade existing ones such as: laser rangefinder, elevation mechanism, Vismod. In this case there could be a researchable modificiaon which you could equip or remove as any other modification. The consequence, of installing the exhaust drum extension, would be a very slightly lower top speed (due to mass increase) and bigger figure which would expose the tank more than without it.
The instillation could be done before deployment and would not require any actions on the outside except for deploying the front flap but that could be done from the drivers hatch as many other vechicles in game do.
As the Ikv 91 already wandered all the way to BR 7.7, increase in mobility by making a modification that would allow traversing trough water would make the tank both more historically accurate (as the amphibious part was one of its most important features) and mobile but at the same time a little more visible to enemies and vulnerable to HE and similar shells.
If you need any further proof of the amphibious capabilities or how it worked, tell me in the comments. All critique will be appreciated.
