Cambodian Wildcat - Another great idea from La Rouge Beret's (a mate from the AlternativeHistory.comsite) excellent 12 Minutes to Midnight TL.
Background:
Following the brutal but ultimately failed North Vietnamese Army (NVA) excursions into Cambodia as described in La Rouge Beret’s excellent 12 Minutes to Midnight storyline, the Cambodian Army found itself worryingly deficient in armoured assets. Whilst the procurement of the 120mm armed King Tigers (see my Completed AH AFV Models thread, page 3, post #54 for details) went some way to redressing the situation there simply wasn’t going to be enough of them to go around and, in particular, to equip the Strategic Reserve ‘Naga’ Division. Ironically, however, the Cambodians also found themselves the proud owners of several ‘liberated’ NVA T-72 which were looking for a new home.
The Cambodian Army were only too well aware of the T-72’s credentials – both positive and negative – and whilst relatively simple to maintain and operate it would not be a logistical or tactically simple matter to press them into service without a few fundamental alterations. Essentially, the Cambodians wanted increased turret protection and armament, ammunition, sighting and fire control systems compatible with their existing King Tigers.
As it turned out, the West German defence companies of Krauss-Maffei and Wegmann had already been working together (the first time they had officially joined as Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co. KG (KMW)) on a customisable T-72 turret augmentation package as part of their thriving export department and the ever-increasing demands of the various chapters of the International Pimp-my-T-72 owner’s club. The upgrade was exactly what the Cambodians were after and the Wildcat (Satvaprei) was born.
Armament: The Wildcat is armed with the fully-stabilized Royal Ordinance L11A5 120 mm rifled gun. The L11A5 is a significantly improved version of the Chieftain's gun and is extremely accurate. Like earlier British 120 mm guns, it is insulated by a thermal sleeve. It is fitted with a muzzle reference system and fume extractor, and is controlled by an all-electric control and stabilization system. The Wildcat is equipped with an automatic loading system, eliminating the need for a dedicated crewmember, decreasing the size and weight of the tank. In addition to the 22 auto-loaded rounds, the Wildcat carries 17 rounds conventionally in the hull, which can be loaded into the emptied autoloader trays or directly into the gun. There is also a L94A1 EX-34 7.62 mm chain gun mounted coaxially with the main gun, and a 12.7mm M2 heavy machine gun mounted on the turret roof.
Sights & Fire Control: The Wildcat’s digital fire control computer is from Computing Devices Co of Canada and has capacity for additional systems, such as a Battlefield Information Control System. The Thermal Observation and Gunnery Sight, from Thales, provides night vision and is displayed on both the gunner's and commander's sights and monitors. The gunner has a stabilised primary sight using a laser rangefinder with a range of 200 m to 10 km while the commander also has a panoramic gyro-stabilised sight with laser rangefinder. The driver's position is equipped with a Thales Optronics image-intensifying Passive Driving Periscope (PDP) for night driving.
Protection: The turret is enhanced with Chobham composite armour - a combination of steel and ceramics which provides a much higher level of protection, comparing to any monolithic steel armour. Additional explosive reactive armour (ERA) can be fitted to the hull and turret as required. The tank is fitted with automatic fire suppression and NBC protection systems and on each side of the turret are five L8 smoke grenade dischargers. The Wildcat can also create smoke by injecting diesel fuel into the exhaust manifold.
The model depicts the Cambodian Wildcat as it was first released to the Media at KMW’s headquarters in Munich in 1988 and is made from bits from a fairly dreadful ESCI T-72 kit, an equally dreadful Trumpeter Type 85-II AP kit, a Tamiya Challenger I, some odds and sods and, of course, the ubiquitous plastic card.
(Note: It is interesting to note that in 1989, the Norinco Group of the People’s Republic of China stated that they had developed a new MBT - the Type 85-II. Given that the turret of the Type 85-II was almost an exact copy of the KMW offering (albeit mounting a 105mm gun) it can only be assumed that, true to form, the Chinese had been participating in some gratuitous industrial espionage.)
