- Yes
- No
caid’s suggestion #146
I would like to suggest a nice tank for the US tech tree, the T7 light tank
the T7 light tank was a project of 1941 to create a light tank to replace the M2A4 and M3 light tank. the tank was design to be superior in all aspect. the armor was improved, the mobility was in theory better, and the firepower improved too. but the most important was the ability to easily change the engine and transmission on the field to ease the maintenance.
The project was split into 5 different designs. the T7 and T7E1 being closely related are the first of the family to be ready for trial. while the T7E1 never came to completion, it was the same as the T7 but with cast armor, a different engine, and a torque converter. overall, the mobility of the T7E1 would have been better but this is only theoretical and the improvement would have been significant but not exceptional.
the T7 was finished in January 1942. the tank featured the turret of an M3 Medium tank without a cupola. by them, it was not considered for production anymore as the tank was overweight and the mobility was not any better than the M3 or M5 light tanks. the 37mm was also officially discarded as the gun was unfit to fight armored targets and the fire support was too light. the tank was still finished and tested to compare it to the current model and the future one, such as the T7E2 was near completion. the T7 was later disassembled to use the parts in other tanks in service since it used mainly parts that were already used by other tanks.
Firepower
the main armament for this tank is the 37mm M6 gun. the gun is well known to the players of the American tech tree. this one will feel better as the gun has a vertical stabilizer. this give the player the capacity to fire on the move as long it’s not going too fast. it will make it feel much more comfortable on the offensive than most tanks armed with the same gun. the turret elevation is exceptionally good. with -7° to +60° this would give the player a good chance to hit an aircraft coming toward you, such as the Ju 87 which is common in the BR the tank should fall. the turret rotation is not that great. with 18°/sec it would feel a fair bit slower than the other turret from the light tank with the same gun. it is unknown how many rounds are carried. but it would be easy to over a hundred rounds for the 37mm which would be more than enough for a whole match. the tank was supposed to have a sponson machine gun but was decided to not have it due to the difficulty of hitting anything with it. a coaxial machine gun was still planned but since the prototype was not going to be produced, they never installed it for the trial.
Mobility
the tank have a decent mobility but not as good as promised. the tank was 16 short tonnes (14.6 metric tonnes) and was overweight. it’s still lighter than the M5 but heavier than the M3. The mobility would be comparable to those 2 tanks but not substantially superior. powered by a Continental W-670 engine providing 262 hp and a GM Hydramatic transmission. the tank was expected to reach 56 km/h on the best condition (max grade 3°) but some sources are stating 48 km/h was achieved (max grade 10°).
Protection
the tank was more protected than the M2A4 or M3. it was in some instances more armored than the M5 light tank as well. with 38mm of armor at the front and 25mm everywhere else and the turret having 51mm on the front, the tank can take more hits than the other light tanks. in theory, the 20mm auto-cannon should not be a real threat to this tank as they would not be capable of penetrating it in normal conditions. the slope also allows the armor to be more effective. while the other aspects of this tank aren’t an improvement, the protection is offering a decent improvement over the vehicles it was intended to replace. the crew includes 5 men which is offering a pretty decent survivability.
Sources