Mobile Gun System
Encyclopedia : M : MO : MOB : Mobile Gun System
The Mobile Gun System is an eight-wheeled armored fighting vehicle mounting a 105 mm tank gun, based on the Canadian LAV III light-armoured vehicle, which in turn is based on the Mowag Piranha. It is being considered for adoption into service by several countries, including the United States and Canada.
Following the end of the Cold War some theorists believed that the existing suite of U.S. Armoured vehicles, designed largely to fight Soviet mechanized forces in Europe, were not well suited to the lower-intensity missions U.S. Armed forces would be tasked with.
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This wheeled vehicle would mount a tank gun like the 105 mm gun used in the previous generation of NATO tanks, like the M60 Patton, Centurion, and the Leopard. But, while it would take on some of the roles of tanks, it is not a tank replacement. Its armour, for instance, is much thinner than that of the tanks it is slated to replace. While it is unlikely to encounter another tank on the modern battlefield, its cousin the Stryker has encountered rocket propelled grenades in Iraq.
Because the Mobile Gun System uses the same chassis as other Piranha derivatives, it would have the same mobility, and could be rescued or salvaged by a Piranha-derived recovery vehicle. But without a radical redesign, it too would require some re-assembly before it could drive into combat, after being delivered by a C-130.
The turrets proposed for these vehicles have been low profile, remotely controlled, and autoloading.
See also
External links
- SFU web page [describing a Canadian Mobile Gun System -- with pictures].
- SFU web page [comparing the MGS with competing systems].
- SFU web page [with an interesting discussion of alternative thinking about the design of an MGS].
- Mowag has an [.avi movie of a MGS firing its gun].
- General Dynamics Canada [video of the MGS firing while on the move].
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