Skokiaan

[Griffin7028]

[Would you like to see this in-game?]

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Introduction:
During 1953 South Africa acquired 87 Mk3 and 116 Mk5 Centurion tanks from Great Britain, however by 1964 the UN enacted a voluntary arms embargo on South Africa which made it difficult to obtain the necessary equipment and parts necessary for the upkeep of the tanks, especially for the V-12 Rolls Royce Meteor engines which was prone to overheating in the African climate. In addition to this the rocky terrain was also taking a toll on the Centurion’s road wheels and suspension. In 1973 ARMSCOR would acquire several V-12 Continental engines used in the M46/47 Patton tanks. With some creative modifications, these engines were installed on the Centurion tanks, however the new engines were far from perfect as they consumed a ridiculous amount of fuel and limited the operational range. In addition to the new engines being installed the tiller bars used for driving the tanks were replaced by a steering handlebar system. In total 9 Centurion Mk3’s received the modification, with all 9 being pushed into service as an interim measure and receiving the name Skokiaan. When the Skokiaan were pushed into service, the same modification was also made on 35 Centurion Mk5 tanks, later known as the Semel, however for this post we will focus on the Skokiaan. It is also worth mentioning one example of Skokiaan tanks still survives today and can be seen at the South African Armour Museum in Bloemfontein.

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Specifications:
Main armament: 20-pdr (84 mm)

Shell types: APCBC, APDS, HE

Secondary armament: 1x 7.62mm BMG

Smoke launchers: Yes (12x Smoke Grenade)

Hull Armour: (front) 76mm, (side) 60mm, (rear) 38mm

Turret Armour: (front) 152mm, (side) 89mm, (rear) 89mm

Crew: 4 (commander, gunner, driver, loader)

Engine: Continental-AVl-l790-9 (12 cylinder)

Horsepower: 810hp

Top speed: 50 km/h

Transmission: Alison-CD-850-5

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Sources:
-VEG: https://pantser.cmvo.org.za/docs/VEG%20Issue%203%20-%20Centurion%20Mk5,%20Skokian%20and%20Semel.pdf

-Tank Encyclopedia: https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/coldwar/south_africa/olifant_mk.i

-SA Armour Museum: https://www.saarmourmuseum.com/centurion-mk-5-skokiaan-britainrsa

-South African Armour History written by Dr Dewald Venter (p49)

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[Panzer_ZA]

+1 Very nice

[Bainbridge17185]

Let’s fill that SA branch rank V

[l2ulan]

+1 for independent ZA, an interesting modification of the Cent.

While it’s a viable Premium I’d rather not see it in the UK tree only because sub-tree vehicles limit the space for include domestic vehicles. Independent South Africa TT please.

[Neobushido]

Given rarity and nature of it being a SA tank it could honestly be a mid tier squadron vehicle candidate for UK or event tank tho imo atleast its not special enough for event vehicle. I don’t think it quite fits into the TT but it would definitely be a good addition to the game in some other way and i feel squadron is the most viable given they already have premium/GE around that BR

[KoreanBobSA]

It definitely DOES fit in the TT, it could fill the SA TT rank 5 gap

[Neobushido]

there is no SA TT. There are plenty of good vehicles UK has at rank 5. SA is a SUB TREE you don’t look at it as an independent tree but as a part of a whole and its not even a unified tree as its vehicles are in different branches of the british one

[l2ulan]

It was previously a unified subtree, the vehicles were distributed throughout the UK tree within the last 6 months.