curious george
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This guy posted more pics of that EW Ratel,from f/book.
This guy posted more pics of that EW Ratel,from f/book.
curious george said:Yep,deffo based on the mortar carrier.
Apologies from me,it has been suggested that this varient actually carried a AA warning radar and was not EW. Hopefully more info will emerge,even if its now almost 25yrs after the fact.
A new armoured fighting vehicle for paratroops was unveiled in South Africa late last year. It has been developed by Mechem Consultants (a Denel company) to meet the requirements of South African Defence Force (SADF) parachute battalions for an air-droppable mine and ballistic-protected support vehicle to replace a local adaptation of the ageing Ferret scout car. Following prototype testing and adoption by the SADF, which named the vehicle Ysterarend or Iron Eagle after the South African paratroop insignia, the design is now being industrialized prior to production. The initial order quantity is expected to be around 50, and Mechem has started to promote the Iron Eagle for the wider infantry, reconnaissance, and rapid-deployment forces' markets. For logistics commonality reasons, and in view of the very large number of components and spares of this kind held in South Africa, it was stipulated from the outset that Iron Eagles should be based on Mercedes Benz Unimog truck components. It was further stipulated that three vehicles should be transportable in a C-130 Hercules aircraft, which can carry only two ferrets. The Mechem designers have accordingly come up with a 4t 4x5 vehicle, whose monocoque hull is 3,600mm long, 2,100mm wide, and 1,740mm high. Its low profile, and its low centre of gravity which gives good rough terrain and sideslope mobility, have been achieved at some sacrifice to the Unimog's traditionally high ground clearance. Even so, the Iron Eagle improves upon the Ferret in this regard. The front and rear live axles are fitted with coil springs and hydraulic dampers, the wheels being fitted with large 12.5x20 radial tyres to reduce ground pressure.
JFC Fuller said:kaiserbill,
On the truck subject, would that 8x8 SAMIL have been the same one as the gun tractor that is earlier in the thread?
kaiserbill said:Looking at that Albatross vehicle CostasTT posted, the logo on the front grill makes me thing it is based on the SAMAG or SAKOM truck.
I think that these were simplified SAMIL trucks, often without all-wheel drive but not always, that were aimed at rear echelon areas or the civil market. They were fitted with an ADE (Atlantis Diesel Engines) engine.
Still no idea what the vehicle I posted above is though.
kaiserbill said:Hmmmm, those two are different vehicles.
Never seen that before. Do you have other interesting stuff in your files?
curious george said:
panzerskool said:Looks in poor nick. I believe only 2 were built and wonder where the other one is?
Interesting.Dinges said:panzerskool said:Looks in poor nick. I believe only 2 were built and wonder where the other one is?
I recently spoke to someone that has a bit more info on this and was told that there were more than two built , way more than the 3 I was led to believe. But these have left our shores during production.
I was also led to believe it is going to Bloemfontein when I took that pic , but could not get any closer.
kaiserbill said:Interesting.Dinges said:panzerskool said:Looks in poor nick. I believe only 2 were built and wonder where the other one is?
I recently spoke to someone that has a bit more info on this and was told that there were more than two built , way more than the 3 I was led to believe. But these have left our shores during production.
I was also led to believe it is going to Bloemfontein when I took that pic , but could not get any closer.
Where could hey possibly have gone to? In those embargo days, I think only Morrocco used the Ratel.
kaiserbill said:Reply no 2 on the first page on this thread featured a 6 wheeled Casspir. Below are 2 further pictures of this vehicle.
swan101 said:kaiserbill said:Reply no 2 on the first page on this thread featured a 6 wheeled Casspir. Below are 2 further pictures of this vehicle.
This Sesspir is the same as the cammo one in the first couple of threads. The brown one's call sign was 22 and later changed to 17 (with the cammo colours) with B-coy at 101 bn. The nose was later remove as it was deemed unessisary and didn't work as it should. The differentials were ZF as opposed to the normal Mercedes Benz on all the other casspirs. Armemant was a Hispano 20mm cannon flanked by Browning .30 cal machine guns. The photo of the cammo Sesspir was taken by me. Just a pitty I couldn't take more photos. A bit scared in those days. But what an awsome machine. Quick repairable in the field after hitting a mine. Miss those days
kaiserbill said:kaiserbill said:Some interesting vehicles in there indeed, Curious George.
Post 364, the post just above this:
1st picture, the beige vehicle, is a vehicle that was based on the Toyota Landcruiser. I saw one of them deployed in the violence in Kwa-Zulu Natal in around 1990. The cab is armoured and mine-proofed.
2nd photo shows the Hyena. 221 were built from 1972, so don't really count as a prototype. It was the first mine protected troop transporter taken into service.
3rd photo is the Hippo APC as discussed already. About 300 were built from around the same time as the Hyena ie: early 1970's.
4th photo seems to be a development of the Rooikat from 1981, which was a conversion for civilians based on the Ford F100 I think.
This one looks different though, and seems to have features of the vehicle in photo 1 as opposed to the normal Rooikat.
5th photo, the camoflaged vehicle, I'm not sure of. The name Swerwe seems to be distantly ringing bells in my head. I wonder if it was not a full armoured development of the Ribbok vehicle developed during the 1970's?
This camoflaged vehicle appears to be called the Kudu. It was a monocoque design based on Land Rover running gear. 4 seated in the back in staggered outward facing seats I think, with a driver up front. designed for light patrol tasks, I have no idea whether it was actually produced beyond trials vehicles?
Which does leave a similar looking, but larger vehicle out there called the Swerwe or Swerwer, unless my memory is playing tricks on me.
kaiserbill said:CG, as I'm sure you know, your Posts 357 and 359 shows the Ingwe.
I too do not know how many of these were produced.
As far as I can ascertain, Sandock Austral completed development of the Ingwe relatively rapidly in the 1980's, after which a small batch was manufactured for trials with the SA Army in 1986. Apart from this small batch, it has been mentioned that perhaps a small batch was also sold to mining companies as security vehicles. It was a 13 ton monocoque vehicle, and utilised MAN axles and transmission, and a turbo charged ADE352T engine.
So I'd imagine that from these 2 small trial batches, you would have seen some exported when there was an urgent need for vehicles of this type by some in a Middle Eastern country recently?