- Yes
- No
caid’s suggestion #209
i would like to suggest an interesting vehicle for France, the Lohr VP 90 M
the VP 90 is an extremely small and lightweight tank that is designed to provide support to infantry patrol and reconnaissance as well as support for anti-tank operations. design in 1952, the VP 90 was initially developed by Fouga with the concept of offering the smallest vehicles possible that would be easily deployable. the license was bought by Hotchkiss who built some prototypes in the 70s and then Lohr Industries who bought back the license and built some more prototypes for the export. Lohr improved the concept a lot by offering new armament and variants to the vehicles. they also made the concept evolve into the Lohr VPX 110 and VPX 110M. while the vehicle. the vehicle was marketed actively and were considered by France and Switzerland seriously. but was ultimately not adopted by any of them. In France, the VP 90 competed with the Even ELC and AMX ELC. it turned out to be AMX who won the competition but never went to production. the vehicle was remove from the market in the late 70s in favor of other concept from Lohr.
Firepower
this vehicle does not lack firepower, with the Milan ATGM as the main armament, it would be capable of taking out about any MBT that does not have advanced armor and even some MBTs that have advanced armor. the MILAN ATGM is a SACLOS missile that can easily be controlled by the players in-game. it offers a penetration of 530mm and a velocity of 200 m/sec. the launcher has an elevation of +20° (and probably the same depression) and can turn at 360°. the only flaws of this armament is the absence of secondary armament and the ammunition carried. it is unknown how many missiles this tank carries, but a similar version carries 6x missiles in the chassis for another type of Milan turret. which allows us to assume it can carry as many missiles and one more in the launcher. which makes a total of 7 missiles. it’s not a lot but it is enough for a few kills.
Mobility
the weight of this vehicle is extremely light about 2.9 tonnes. this makes it one of the lightest vehicle of the game. the engine providing 120 hp is powerful for its weight. that gives the vehicle a power/weight ratio of over 40 hp/ton, making it extremely fast to accelerate. the transmission offers 4 forward speeds and 1 reverse, allowing it to reach 85 km/h. for a tracked vehicle this speed is very high. this small tank is a real race car that can easily speedrun the capzone and make vehicle like the R3 T20 FA-HS or the M18 Hellcat been lagging. but the weight has been extremely light making it suffer a lot when it comes to breaking through walls or pushing down trees. the vehicle will be plagued as soon it needs to break some obstacles and lose a lot of its speed. the suspension is also adjustable offering the possibility to raise the back by 4° and the front by 9°.
Protection
this vehicle has almost no protection. the chassis offers very minimal protection against small arms. the small size is what makes it survive. the vehicle is so small the crew can’t sit in it. the driver is lying down on his belly to drive the vehicle. it can easily hide on the battlefield. the chassis only reaches 1.15 m (which is a bit less than 4 feet tall) it does not have a roof or smoke. it just has its small size and high mobility to make it survive. for this specific version, the gunner is sitting by the missile launcher which makes him exposed to the LMG fire. the crew of 2 men does not give the vehicle a lot of chance to survive a volley of bullets.
sources
Jane's Armoured Fighting Vehicle Retrofit Systems 1993 94
Satory VI (1977)
