FV600 Family

[Yellow Palace]

Surprisingly, we don't seem to have a thread on the Saladin, Spartan and their relatives already.

The principal models are of course, and drawing reasonably heavily on AFV Weapons Profile No.27:

• FV 601(A) - prototype armoured car with 40mm 'Pipsqueak' gun
• FV 601(B) - prototype armoured car with 76mm L11
• FV 601(C) - Saladin armoured car
• FV 601(D) - Bundesgrenschutz armoured car without machine gun and changes to other equipment
• FV 602 - proposed armoured command vehicle, cancelled by 1949
• FV 603(A) - Saracen armoured personnel carrier
• FV 603(B) - proposed unit & subunit command post, later redesignated FV 604
• FV 603(C) - proposed ground-to-air communications vehicle, later abandoned
• FV 604 - production armoured command vehicle
• FV 605 - armoured ambulance based on FV 603(A), sometimes called FV 606 but this seems less likely
• FV 610 - Royal Artillery battery command post with high roof
• FV 611 - armoured ambulance based on FV 610

There are of course also the Stalwart load carrier and Salamander crash tender using the basic automotive components.

A couple of interesting concepts seem to have fallen by the wayside early on: a self-propelled gun mounting a 25-pounder with 260 degrees of traverse, which may have been an 8x8 derivative of the basic platform, and a recovery vehicle seem to have been planned.

Later, there was also apparently a study to put a 30mm RARDEN into a Saladin turret for export, which wasn't taken up. I've also seen a photograph (not sure where) of a Saladin carrying a new turret with a 90mm gun, presumably aimed at competing with the AML-90. A Saracen was also tried with a ZB.298 ground surveillance radar.

 

[A Tentative Fleet Plan]

View: https://youtu.be/3dYQHuVzNz4

 

[smurf]

Long time later, but: Saladin with MECAR 90mm 46.
Many years ago, I was told a photograph or drawing of the 25pdr SP had been found in the Tank Museum libray, but I never did manage to get a copy (they were in the middle of reorganising storage, and it seemed to have disappeared again)

 

[smurf]

Memory comes slowly these days, The SPG was based on the Saracen APC, which makes the layout easier to understand - I assume turret where the troop space is, with room for the driver in the 25pdr turret as Centurion version, but smaller.
I guess something like:

 

[CJGibson]

Smurf? Where ye bin?

Chris