"Armed to the teeth", the equipment that can intuitively reflect this feature is the fire support vehicle.
The weapons and equipment equipped with fire support vehicles are generally called "strong lineup", usually integrating artillery, machine gun, missile launcher, and grenade launcher.
With powerful firepower, fire support vehicles have gradually become one of the key equipment developed by various countries in recent years.
The vehicle familyization of infantry fighting vehicles provides another development path for the development of fire support vehicles.
Different from the fire support vehicle converted from the tank chassis, the fire support vehicle using the infantry fighting vehicle chassis generally has the characteristics of lighter weight and more maneuverability.
For example, the 120mm caliber fire support vehicle modified by Sweden based on the CV-90 infantry fighting vehicle chassis has a total combat weight of only more than 20 tons.
However, the "Lynx" 120 fire support vehicle launched by German company Rheinmetall in mid-February this year is different.
Its chassis comes from the KF-41 infantry fighting vehicle.
The combat weight of the KF-41 infantry fighting vehicle is more than 30 tons without additional armor, and it can reach 50 tons after "full body".
Moreover, unlike other infantry fighting vehicles that mostly use small-caliber artillery, the artillery of the "Lynx" 120 fire support vehicle is a 120 mm caliber smoothbore gun, which is more powerful.
Some military fans call this type of artillery the new "claw" of the "Lynx".
Why did the "Lynx" change to such a new "Claw"?
What is the combat effectiveness of the "Lynx" turned into a fire support vehicle?
Its appearance also reflects the development direction of infantry fighting vehicles?
Please see interpretation.
What's the difference between "Lynx" and new "Claw"
No matter what kind of weapon, if you want to develop rapidly, it is inseparable from the same "one hand" behind it - the strong traction of battlefield needs.
In today's world, the development of infantry fighting vehicles is in full swing, which is also the result of "this hand".
The probability of fighting in an urban environment is further improved, and tanks on traditional battlefields need to efficiently clear the threat from enemy infantry along the way... These all make infantry fighting vehicles more useful.
The large internal space allows the infantry chariot to perform the "separation method" and be transformed into a chariot with different functions.
The "Lynx" 120 fire support vehicle is the result of the infantry fighting vehicle's "separation method".
To be precise, it is the product of the expansion of the KF-41 infantry fighting vehicle to adapt to the change of "infantry-tank coordination requires stronger fire support".
First of all, the characteristics of the development of infantry fighting vehicles to the car family determine that it will continue to improve and perfect the model lineage.
In the research and development of modern infantry fighting vehicles, a generalized chassis is generally used, and models with different combat functions are derived on this basis.
Such as Sweden's CV-90 infantry fighting vehicle, and later developed a variety of modifications such as armored transport vehicles, self-propelled mortars, command vehicles, and rescue vehicles.
As a "latecomer", the KF-41 infantry fighting vehicle also had such a positioning during development.
According to a data released by Rheinmetall, the KF-41 infantry fighting vehicle has 8 variants including joint fire support vehicle, command and control vehicle, and self-propelled mortar vehicle.
According to the plan, these modifications complement each other and basically cover the main needs of infantry when operating in the land battlefield.
After the KF-41 infantry fighting vehicle was successfully developed and recognized by the market, once the battlefield needed it to provide more firepower, it became an inevitable move to replace it with a new "Sharp Claw".
Secondly, the replacement of the new "Claw" is the KF-41 infantry fighting vehicle's response to the lack of light tanks in the arms market.
Although the KF-41 infantry fighting vehicle has been designed to expand to the fire support vehicle, it is somewhat unexpected to choose the 120mm caliber artillery as the "Sharp Claw".
Because even the Russian "Terminator-2" infantry fighting vehicle, known as the tank support vehicle, is equipped with two 30mm caliber artillery.
Why did the "Lynx" choose a 120mm caliber gun?
Some experts believe that there are two reasons: First, the developers found during the development of the infantry fighting vehicle that the coordination of the infantry and tank requires stronger firepower support. some tweaks.
The second is that the demand for light tanks in some countries in the world today is increasing, but there are not many countries that can produce light tanks.
This makes some infantry fighting vehicle manufacturers, including the "Lynx", attempt to launch some quasi-light tanks in the form of "immediately prepared" by adding large-caliber artillery to the general chassis, so as to win the "arms trade" market. a cup of soup".
Once again, the "Lynx" has a solid "foundation" for changing from an infantry fighting vehicle to a quasi-light tank.
The universal chassis brings many advantages to the modification of infantry fighting vehicles, such as good economy and easy maintenance in wartime.
In terms of difficulty, this expansion or modification only requires "one small step forward".
Although not all infantry fighting vehicle chassis can carry a 120mm "cannon", for the KF-41 infantry fighting vehicle, there is basically no problem in this regard, because its chassis is like many other German equipment. , leaving a lot of room for power, load, etc., especially its extraordinary weight, which can undoubtedly increase the stability of large-caliber artillery shooting to a certain extent.
This makes it possible for the "Lynx" to be replaced by the heavyweight "Claw".
What's new with the new "role"
Based on the chassis of the KF-41 infantry fighting vehicle, it is not difficult to speculate from this point that the "Lynx" 120 fire support vehicle will not change much in terms of engine, drive suspension system, gearbox, and track.
The design of the large-slope bullet-proof shape, the armored steel plate with modular ceramic armor, and the anti-infrared coating will not be adjusted much.
However, from the infantry fighting vehicle to the fire support vehicle, as the role changes, the "Lynx" 120 fire support vehicle still has some differences from the inside out.
The biggest change is the turret.
Although its shape is "sci-fi" similar to the 35mm artillery turret of the KF-41 infantry fighting vehicle, with the adoption of a 120mm smoothbore gun, the shape of the turret presents the design features of a wedge-shaped large tail cabin. changed.
According to the relevant introduction of Rheinmetall, this 120mm caliber smoothbore gun is derived from the artillery used by the "Leopard" 2 main battle tank.
The performance of the artillery used by the "Leopard" 2 main battle tank is good, and many countries' tanks use this artillery.
The British "Challenger" 2 tank has been reluctant to give up the rifled gun of the same caliber for many years, but in recent years, the 120mm smoothbore gun of Rheinmetall was finally chosen.
However, the total combat weight of the "Leopard" 2 main battle tank exceeds 55 tons, and its original smoothbore gun is unlikely to be "translated" from the tank chassis to the infantry fighting vehicle chassis.
Therefore, the smoothbore gun used in the "Lynx" 120 fire support vehicle is likely to be a low recoil version developed on its basis.
The smoothbore gun of the Lynx 120 fire support vehicle is said to be capable of firing DM11 programmable high-explosive rounds.
The ammunition has three modes: instant, delayed detonation, and airburst, which are respectively used to strike targets such as civil works, light armored targets, helicopters and active forces.
In the introduction of related products, there is no special mention that this type of artillery uses tail-stabilized shelling armor-piercing projectiles, and using high-explosive projectiles to attack composite armored targets is not particularly effective, especially for composite armors made of different materials "stacked" according to a certain rule, Its attack effect is poor.
This may mean that the "Lynx" 120 fire support vehicle still has certain shortcomings in attacking tanks. Its main function is likely to provide fire support to infantry, and it also has certain anti-armor capabilities.
Some experts believe that even if the smoothbore gun equipped with the "Lynx" 120 fire support vehicle can launch the tail-stabilized shelling armor-piercing projectile, it may not be able to replace the tank.
The reason is that the original 120mm smoothbore gun of the "Leopard" 2 tank is difficult to "penetrate" in the face of the increasingly enhanced frontal armor of modern tanks.
To this end, Rheinmetall has begun to develop a 51-caliber 130 mm smoothbore gun.
Another change to the Lynx 120 fire support vehicle may be its sighting system.
The biggest feature of the KF-41 infantry fighting vehicle sighting system is that in addition to the commander's peripheral sight and the gunner's forward sight, the vehicle side is also equipped with a retractable independent sighting system.
The system has functions such as day and night imaging and laser ranging, and the gunner can directly search for targets through it, shortening the time to find targets.
This point was not mentioned in the introduction of the "Lynx" 120 fire support vehicle. Some experts believe that due to the change of the turret, the recoil and vibration of the larger-caliber artillery have increased, and this independent viewing system must have been abandoned.
Among them, those who hold the "removal" point of view believe that the KF-41 infantry fighting vehicle was designed with the consideration of the interconnection of various models in the vehicle family. Since the positioning of the "Lynx" 120 fire support vehicle is highly likely to be "mixed and matched" with the infantry fighting vehicle Using it, the fire support vehicle can naturally borrow from the infantry fighting vehicle on the sighting system to achieve the effect of "you point me to fight".
Changes that can be seen are also the position of the Rapid Obscuration System Multispectral Smoke Grenade.
On the KF-41 infantry fighting vehicle, the device is located on the folded surfaces on both sides of the turret.
On the "Lynx" 120 fire support vehicle, the position of the system is adjusted to the sides of the top of the turret.
This adjustment may further expand its shielding range and improve the effectiveness of protecting key parts.
In addition to these, changes are taking place elsewhere.
For example, the KF-41 infantry fighting vehicle used to be used to store ammunition in the passenger compartment; due to the use of large-caliber artillery, the total combat weight of the "Lynx" 120 fire support vehicle will further increase, and the maneuvering speed is bound to decrease.
At present, not much information about this type of fire support vehicle has been disclosed, and it remains to be seen what changes have occurred.
What development trends of infantry fighting vehicles are reflected
The fact that the KF-41 infantry fighting vehicle has expanded to the "Lynx" 120 fire support vehicle, as well as the practice of other contemporary infantry fighting vehicles, shows that the future development of infantry fighting vehicles may highlight the following considerations.
First, pay more attention to "laying the foundation".
On the one hand, this kind of "laying the foundation" is reflected in the continued use of generalized chassis and modular design to realize "one chassis, multiple models".
On the other hand, it adopts an open and extensible design, that is, in terms of software and hardware, interfaces and margins are reserved to leave enough space for future development.
During the design process of the Swedish CV-90 infantry fighting vehicle, it was clearly required that the vehicle should have the potential for further development.
At present, this type of infantry fighting vehicle has launched a version with a 120mm gun.
The "Lynx" 120 fire support vehicle can easily be compatible with some active defense systems to intercept rockets and anti-tank missiles.
This successful practice will undoubtedly strengthen the confidence of more countries to "go down this road" to develop infantry fighting vehicles.
Second, some modifications of infantry fighting vehicles put more emphasis on firepower strike capability.
At present, the development of mainstream infantry fighting vehicles has higher requirements in terms of mobility, flexibility and protection.
For example, the BMP-2 series of infantry fighting vehicles and the CV-90 infantry fighting vehicles all emphasize good air transport capabilities, so the model and tonnage are relatively small.
The KF-41 infantry fighting vehicle is a bit "different" in terms of total combat weight. After being transformed into a 120 fire support vehicle, its tonnage will be more "considerable".
This change precisely reflects another trend in the development of infantry fighting vehicles-in the dilemma of reducing vehicle weight, emphasizing good airlift capability and enhancing firepower, and having more functions, the development of some infantry fighting vehicles began to tend to the latter, In order to use the multi-directional expansion of later functions, especially the enhancement of firepower, to better achieve the combat purpose.
The third is to emphasize the functional complementarity between different models of the same car family.
The development of the family of infantry fighting vehicles has enabled different modifications with their own advantages to maximize their effectiveness at the right time.
At the same time, it is also the original intention of the infantry fighting vehicle vehicle family design to make these models complement each other in function and achieve "fingers and fists".
Compared with the KF-41 infantry fighting vehicle, the "Lynx" 120 fire support vehicle displayed by Rheinmetall does not have an integrated "Spike" LR2 anti-tank missile launcher.
Some experts believe that the use of "fighting tiger brothers" may allow infantry fighting vehicles that appear on the battlefield at the same time to provide this capability.
But there are also different views that the plug-and-play design of the KF-41 infantry fighting vehicle may also enable the "Lynx" 120 fire support vehicle to easily integrate the "Spike" LR2 anti-tank missile launcher, but whether to integrate it requires Depends.
For the fire support vehicle expanded from the infantry fighting vehicle, there seems to be no certain rules for its weapon configuration, and some even have no artillery, only missile launchers.
The emergence of unmanned fire support vehicles makes the configuration of fire support vehicles more "casual".
In short, the pursuit of firepower by the militaries of various countries is almost never-ending.
The emergence of the phenomenon of infantry fighting vehicles carrying cannons is also a concrete manifestation of this pursuit.
However, how much influence this pursuit has on the development of infantry fighting vehicles, and what changes will it cause, it will take time to give more answers.
Wang Xiaoxuan Li Lei