- Yes
- No
Stormer IFV (Helio FVT 900 20mm cannon) (POC Testbed)
Vehicle design history:
The Alvis Stormer was designed as a development of the already established CVR(T) family of vehicles from Alvis. The intention of the design was to introduce a larger, modernized version of the already existing Spartan in order to accommodate additional modular options. In order to achieve this the chassis was lengthened and an extra road wheel was added on either side. Aside from this, it shares the majority of the components of the previous Spartan platform in order to simplify maintenance and have it serve as a successor platform to the previous successful design.
Due to the modular nature of the CVR(T), it has been marketed in a vast number of configurations, in order for it to perform roles from anti-air defence and fire support to serving as an ambulance or command vehicle. Due to the need to fulfil a wide range of battlefield roles, Alvis and I later BAE chose to market the flexibility of the design, and have offered several Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFV) based on the Stormer using existing turrets available on the market, to minimise development cost. One such configuration involved mounting a Helio HVT900 turret, equipped with an Oerlikon KAA 20mm cannon. This configuration offered strong firepower on a highly mobile chassis and was deemed a viable vehicle to be marketed and sold on the export market.
In order to have something to demonstrate, Alvis constructed a proof of concept test bed, for the Stormer IFV. This differed from the later production variant that would be produced in limited quantities for Malaysia (10), in that it had additional Smoke launchers mounted on the Hull, giving it more capacity to deploy smoke. It also lacked all the tropicalization modifications, such as air filters and the air conditioning unit, and can be visually identified due to the different number of rifle ports (Only two on the left side), and the aforementioned missing tropicalization modifications. This test bed was shown off on at least two occasions during trade show demonstrations and would be sufficiently impressive to procure a modest order for the aforementioned modified design for the Malaysian Army. This would be the only sale of the design though, and at some point, the location of the POC was lost, as it was likely recycled into a different modification of the Stormer, similar to how the GKN Simba Proof of Concept was reconfigured into at least 3 different turret configurations during its life time.
Vehicle specifications:
Mass 10.216t
Length 5.27 m
Width 2.76 m
Height 2.49 m
Crew 3
Main Armament 1 x 20mm Oerlikon KAA cannon
Secondary Armament 1 x 7.62 GPMG
14 smoke dischargers (6 x 76mm, 8 x 66mm)
Engine Perkins 6-litre, 6-cylinder diesel 250 hp (186 kW)
Power/weight 24.4 hp/tonne
Transmission David Brown T300
Suspension Torsion bar
Operational range 400 miles, 650 km
Maximum speed 50 mph,650 km
80 km/h
An original sales brochure from Alvis outlining the capabilities of the vehicle in more detail:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/892150435648000070/932296382788812840/Stormer_Helio_20_6.png
Turret profile taken from Janes, Please note that the stormer present in the photo is a more refined vehicle, due to the lack of hull smoke dischargers, and different launchers mounted on the turret, though it is closer in apperance to the vehicles which would go on to be sold to Malaysia:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/892150435648000070/932305397979684874/Stormer_Helio_20_2.png
Additional pictures:
Photo of the Proof of concept being displayed at a military trade show in the hopes of securing export sales:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/932311707102085180/932334959291691148/Stormer_Helio_20_4.png
Cover of the sales card, showing another view of the proof of concept:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/892150435648000070/932296505325420615/Stormer_Helio_20_5.png
Sources:
- Alvis stormer ifv sales brochure posted above in its entirety
- Alvis Stormer - Wikipedia (Wiki for the stormer)
- Alvis FV4333 Stormer Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) / Multirole Armored Fighting Vehicle (AFV) (Additional history of the stormer)