Proposed outgrowth variants of Spähpanzer Luchs 8x8 reconnaissance vehicle?

[Pioneer]

I've been trying in vain to assertain if there was proposed outgrowth variants of the by Daimler-Benz Spähpanzer Luchs 8x8 armoured reconnaissance vehicle?
I'm particularly interested as to the adoptability of the Spähpanzer Luchs turret ring size and if larger and heavier armaments were studied/proposed?

Regards
Pioneer

 

[stimpy75]

yep, that's one of the things i aslo asked my self...don't know it it would fit (just a hypothesis) but a BMP-2 turret would look nice.....and in the end it would look like a BTR-90...

 

[skylancer-3441]

w/ 35mm from Oerlikon

 

[kaiserbill]

Interesting, Skylancer.
Any idea of when that proposal dates from?

 

[Hood]

The only variants I know of come from a short listing in Jane's Tank Recognition Guide:
Version proposed as Euromissile Roland SAM carrier.
APE amphibious engineer reconnaissance vehicle which was developed alongside Luchs but never put into production.

Connected were Thyssen Henschel's own TH200 (4x4), TH400 (6x6) and TH800 (8x8) chassis.

 

[kaiserbill]

Interesting..
So are you saying there is a family connection to the TH series with the Luchs?

I thought Luchs was Mercedes Benz, not TH.

I too have wondered why the Luchs did not see more development and variants.

EDIT: Nevermind..I see TH was involved in the Luchs too.

 

[monochromelody]

The only variants I know of come from a short listing in Jane's Tank Recognition Guide:
Version proposed as Euromissile Roland SAM carrier.
APE amphibious engineer reconnaissance vehicle which was developed alongside Luchs but never put into production.

Connected were Thyssen Henschel's own TH200 (4x4), TH400 (6x6) and TH800 (8x8) chassis.

AFAIK, APE was based on 4-wheel version of TPz Fuchs.

 

[Hood]

AFAIK, APE was based on 4-wheel version of TPz Fuchs.

Yes it is odd, that's what Jane's says, presumably they made an error?
Likewise how much Luchs DNA was in the TH series maybe open to question.

It is surprising that the hull wasn't used for more purposes, like an ATGW carrier for example. But then perhaps the existence of more multirole chassis like the Fuchs meant that there was little point in developing a specialised chassis for other uses.

 

[GTX]

Was there a linkage with the Radpanzer 90 at all?

 

[chuck4]

Was there a linkage with the Radpanzer 90 at all?

Both were developed by Daimlers Benz, but it appears radpanzer 90’s chassis is much shorter than those or Luchs, eventhough the overall weight was much higher. The suspension also appears to be different. The luchs have pairs of wheels mounted on rocker arms, each wheel appear to be independent on the Radpanzer. So If they were related, the relationship might not be that close.

 

[Pioneer]

The only variants I know of come from a short listing in Jane's Tank Recognition Guide:
Version proposed as Euromissile Roland SAM carrier.
APE amphibious engineer reconnaissance vehicle which was developed alongside Luchs but never put into production.

Connected were Thyssen Henschel's own TH200 (4x4), TH400 (6x6) and TH800 (8x8) chassis.

The Roland SAM carrier sounds interesting and practical Hood!

Regards
Pioneer

 

[Grey Havoc]

Version proposed as Euromissile Roland SAM carrier.

On a tangent regarding the Roland:

https://www.reddit.com/r/TankPorn/comments/1k8m1z0/french_amx30r_roland_showcasing_its_reloading

View: https://www.reddit.com/r/TankPorn/comments/1k8m1z0/french_amx30r_roland_showcasing_its_reloading/

 

[TomS]

Yes it is odd, that's what Jane's says, presumably they made an error?
Likewise how much Luchs DNA was in the TH series maybe open to question.

It is surprising that the hull wasn't used for more purposes, like an ATGW carrier for example. But then perhaps the existence of more multirole chassis like the Fuchs meant that there was little point in developing a specialised chassis for other uses.

IIRC, there isn't a lot of free volume inside the Luchs to stow missiles and such like.

Plus, the availability of the various Raketenjagdpanzer reduced the pressure to field a wheeled ATGM carrier.

 

[skylancer-3441]

> Version proposed as Euromissile Roland SAM carrier.
~late 1970s article from soviet ЗВО (Foreign Military Review) magazine mentions it and provides a drawing -
taken from Soldat und Technik (unfortunately, SuT issues prior to 1988 are, to this day, not digitized and made available online by anyone), seen in this photo of someone's scalemodel of this vehicle

...
Another article on Luchs in ЗВО based on (unavailable) Soldat und Technik article, in 1977-10, claimed that there were ideas to put 90mm or 105mm gun on it or add ATGMs.

 

[kaiserbill]

This from the wiki entry on the Luchs:

In the 1960s, the German Ministry of Defence developed a requirement of an Eight-wheel drive reconnaissance vehicle, part of a series of 4 X 4, 6 X 6 and 8 X 8 military vehicles planned for the German Army. Competing designs were produced by Daimler-Benz and a consortium of Büssing, Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz, Krupp, MAN and Rheinstahl Henschel, with nine prototypes produced of each design from 1968. After extensive testing, in January 1971 the Daimler-Benz design was selected for production.[3]

Does anyone have any images or info on the contenders/prototypes?
Maybe even drawings of the various 4x4, 6x6, and 8x8 concepts?

 

[skylancer-3441]

IIUC it's taking about whole family of vehicles, which included 4x4 APC, 6x6 APC (Fuchs), 8x8 APC (longer version of Fuchs), 8x8 recce (Luchs), as well as 4x4/6x6/8x8 tactical trucks.

Here's Daimler-Benz version of such family,
And 8x8 recce prototypes from competitors (separately listed in Wiki quoted above, but whole consortium was called Gemeinschaftsbüro)

More pictures there:

Luchs prototype

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There's separate thread for Fuchs prototypes

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/german-postwar-4x4-projects-transportpanzer-2-sp%C3%A4hpanzer-3-and-atak.11880/

Motorbuch Verlag's book on Luchs should contain more details, 2nd and 4th attached pictures are from it. Unfortunately IIRC it was out of stock when I've tried to obtain it about 9 years ago, and last I looked there wasn't any official (or unofficial) digital version online.