"Tanks" with Vertical Launch ATGMs

Cerebos was a project designed by the 7th Tank Technical Officers (T.T.O.) Mechanical and Gunnery AFV design exercise held at the British Royal Armoured Corp (R.A.C.) School of Tank Technology (S.T.T.) in 1956. In the study, the designers were tasked with coming up with a heavy tank destroyer using guided anti-tank missiles as its primary offensive weapon. It had to be able to operate on the front lines of a European conflict, have relative immunity from Soviet guns at combat ranges, and a very high chance of scoring a direct hit and killing any Soviet vehicle of the day.
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Tank Encyclopedia: Cerebos TD (1956)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKkyDQqPlq4
 
sferrin said:
bobbymike said:
Jemiba said:
I'm not quite sure about the benefits. It lowers the silhouette, ok, but doesn't it use up more
internal volume, than a turnable launcher, so reducing overall versatality of the vehicle ?
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Plus with US Army going to fewer soldiers you have an excess of vehicles with 'empty' back ends and no soldiers to fill them. Why not add vertical launch cells. Seems like a creative and efficient use for left over Bradley's, etc.
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A Striker/Bradley with a back end full of antitank-sized "Quick Kill" missiles. . .
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One would also think that such an arrangement would be less conspicuous on the battlefield - hence less prioritised target......


Regards
Pioneer
 
Wow is that 30 VLS? Military vehicles with large capacity verticals launched missiles.

One of my favourite “what if’s” in military vehicles. I see that big flat deck and imagine.
 
Back in the 2000's i have read in a Greek military magazine that the Germans were projected a "fighting support vehicle" armed with a 50 mm automatic gun and VLS for anti-tank/anti-aircraft missiles.

Any information available on this?
 
KonTim said:
Back in the 2000's i have read in a Greek military magazine that the Germans were projected a "fighting support vehicle" armed with a 50 mm automatic gun and VLS for anti-tank/anti-aircraft missiles.
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First post, third picture.
 
Ultimately vertical launch is not particularly useful for ground attack missiles, and tank chassis is not needed to hold cheap tubes far from the front. Against artillery and top attack threats, the value of armor is significantly reduced.

You can stuff a brimstone launcher on a pickup covered by a tarp and just stress the enemy recon-strike complex with sheer numbers of potential shooters. Unless there is a serious need to save on drivers or something, there is no need for large ammo load either.
 
shin_getter said:
Ultimately vertical launch is not particularly useful for ground attack missiles, and tank chassis is not needed to hold cheap tubes far from the front. Against artillery and top attack threats, the value of armor is significantly reduced.

You can stuff a brimstone launcher on a pickup covered by a tarp and just stress the enemy recon-strike complex with sheer numbers of potential shooters. Unless there is a serious need to save on drivers or something, there is no need for large ammo load either.
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IIRC, the expected combat lifespan of a TOW jeep or humvee was 3 shots.

Might be closer to 5 shots with a fire and forget missile like Javelin.
 
Scott Kenny said:
IIRC, the expected combat lifespan of a TOW jeep or humvee was 3 shots.

Might be closer to 5 shots with a fire and forget missile like Javelin.
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Both TOW and Javelin are inherently LOS dependent weapons so matter little. TOW is even more irrelevant: it's slow and cumbersome, is outright inferior to Kornet, and is only better in terms of optics.
The modern TOW Humvee would be something like the CM-501G and CTL-181 combo.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MilitaryPorn/comments/lr80l5
View: https://www.reddit.com/r/MilitaryPorn/comments/lr80l5/new_pla_cm501_truckmounted_vls_missile_system/


It essentially replicate the concept of NLOS-LS, except the final product is better in every way.
Truck mounted TOW pedestals are obsolete. NLOS is life.
 
Jemiba said:
I'm not quite sure about the benefits. It lowers the silhouette, ok, but doesn't it use up more
internal volume, than a turnable launcher, so reducing overall versatality of the vehicle ?
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With regards to AT-VLS proposals I always envisioned something like a Tor to be a worthwhile layout. A chassis where crew and drive train are seperated. With a (flatter) turret on top which would house the missiles, fire control, antennas and machine guns for self defense (utilizing the turret for horizontal movement of these too). The overall smaller nature of ATGMs compared to SAMs would ultimately lead to a more compact and low profile package I'd assume.

An alternative solution would be that of a payload/trailer module for 6x6 or 8x8 trucks and AFVs. We are seeing similar things being done with drones, and obviously MLRS. But given that ATGMs take up less space than the usual rockets fired by MLRS, a vertical orientation may very well be possible.

Overall however the main benefit of such an arrangement is sheer number of missiles packed into a single vehicle. However usually you don't encounter that many tanks on a battlefield. So what good is it to throw like 30 ATGMs onto a single vehicle. Which is one of several other reasons this idea never really took off. That may change with drones though, which are cheaper than ATGMs.

tor-m2e_29112021_1.jpg
 
One may be able to mix and match cells--a compartment might be for drone intercept. Perhaps a trailer with cells for those and/or offensive strike.
 
A short page about Pereh, with operational infos: https://weaponsparade.com/pereh-anti-tank-missile-carrier-gallery/amp/
It is not a real "tank with vertical launch ATGMs"; the missiles are stored vertically, but the launcher is raised until it reaches an angle of approximately 20° to the ground. In this picture (from the link above) three Pereh are positioned side by side with the launcher in different positions, from the right: launcher not deployed, launcher in raised position, launcher in launch position with a missile cell open (it can be seen the missile head). In this picture the turrets with the guidance system is already raised from the stowed position.

Pereh.jpg
 
Temistocle said:
A short page about Pereh, with operational infos: https://weaponsparade.com/pereh-anti-tank-missile-carrier-gallery/amp/
It is not a real "tank with vertical launch ATGMs"; the missiles are stored vertically, but the launcher is raised until it reaches an angle of approximately 20° to the ground. In this picture (from the link above) three Pereh are positioned side by side with the launcher in different positions, from the right: launcher not deployed, launcher in raised position, launcher in launch position with a missile cell open (it can be seen the missile head). In this picture the turrets with the guidance system is already raised from the stowed position.

View attachment 796129
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I always thought the Pereh were interesting, but they're precision artillery, not tanks.
 

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