Spanish/German LINCE

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ysi_maniac

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Lince was a paper project, not very known.

In 1974 -Franco still alive- arrived to Spain the first 19 AMX-30, made in France, to be quickly deployed in Spanish Sahara. The agreement with France included the license to manufacture this tank by Empresa Nacional Santa Bárbara. So, AMX-30 became standard MBT in Spanish Army. Since the beginnig of its service this tank showed several drawbacks specialy in movility area.

After Franco's death, Spanish Army got access to Western top suppliers like Germany, the preferred one. In 1983 Empresa Nacional Santa Barbara and Krauss-Maffei began conversations to design upon Spanish Army requirements. The result was an homologue of Leopard 2 adapted to Spanish terrain tactical conditions (Spain is the most mountainous country in Europe, after Swizerland).

See: http://mainbattletanks.czweb.org/Tanky/Lince.htm

Characteristics:
Main gun: 120 mm L44
Weight: 49 ton
Engine: 1200 hp
Length: 9,088 m (with gun) 7,1 m (hull)
Widht: 3,74 m
Height: 2,5 m

Performance:
max speed: 70 km/h
range: 550 km
 
Infantería de Marina
Click to expand...

Tercio de Armada

Congratulations for the model, it looks great!

Regards,
Antonio
 
^^^^^
Spain had serious problems to use US armament in Sahara because US gov considered that a colonial war. In 1956 Spain could not deploy F-86 in Sahara. While this happened with planes, it was not so evident with tanks. Anyway spanish gov was affraid about a spares embargo or so.
Germany did not want to sell weapons outside NATO; with UK, the Gibraltar problem; Sweden would never sell weapons to a dictatorship, ...
 
I found a piece of newspaper dated May 1984 (I was at the Highschool :D when added that to my file)

The Lince was a candidate to Spanish Army MBT for the 90's.

I can add some data to specs from Carlos post:

All terrain capabilities:
Max slope: 60%
Max trench: 3 m

Crew: 4

Cannon max range: 4000 m

Krauss Maffei and Santa Bárbara signed an agreement on April 1984. 400 MBT would have been produced for Spanish Army with provision for export. The Spanish Government allocated a 120.000 Million Pesetas budget for the project.

Offers from France and USA existed but the German proposal was prefered.

I keep on searching for more info. Any help will be welcome, especialy details about why the project was cancelled. (My theory is the Lince was not necessary after Spain entered NATO in 1986)
 

Attachments

  • Lince mockup 1984.jpg
    Lince mockup 1984.jpg
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BTW, Working too in project LEOX.
- AMX-30 and Leopard were designed in response to an international NATO request. During trials, Leopard performed better in mobility parameters, but AMX-30 won in accuracy and fire power. Thus an AMX turret with Leopard hull was proposed. Years later Spanish army studied this possibility as a way to improve AMX-30 poor mobility. None of these projects went to fruition but I have been working in this subjec. Pics soon.
 
Questions- was the turret made smaller than the stock Leopard 2? Does anyone have the projected turret ring size?
 
An old thread, I know....but I've seen it said that a "mock up" of the Line was made, yet seen it mentioned elsewhere that a "running prototype" was made. It's difficult to figure out from that single grainy pic, but it looks more like a running prototype to my eyes.
What is the reality?

Does the " mock up", or " prototype" if it was indeed built, still exist?
Any further pictures come to light in the last few years?
 
pometablava said:
I found a piece of newspaper dated May 1984 (I was at the Highschool :D when added that to my file)

The Lince was a candidate to Spanish Army MBT for the 90's.

I can add some data to specs from Carlos post:

All terrain capabilities:
Max slope: 60%
Max trench: 3 m

Crew: 4

Cannon max range: 4000 m

Krauss Maffei and Santa Bárbara signed an agreement on April 1984. 400 MBT would have been produced for Spanish Army with provision for export. The Spanish Government allocated a 120.000 Million Pesetas budget for the project.

Offers from France and USA existed but the German proposal was prefered.

I keep on searching for more info. Any help will be welcome, especialy details about why the project was cancelled. (My theory is the Lince was not necessary after Spain entered NATO in 1986)
Click to expand...

Looking at the pic,it reminds me of the South African TTD prototype from the same timeframe which also leaned heavily on West German tech influence. In the context of weapons sanctions against SA,we do know that some Super Puma "kits" found their way from France to SA via Spain.
 
Initial idea at early 80's was a new development from scratch but soon it was decided to modify an existing design and build it at EN Santa Bárbara. There were 6 models considered as a starting point:
1) French AMX-40 and later P-48 (AMX-48?)

AMX Leclerc MBT (1990)

French AMX Leclerc Main Battle Tanks (1990)
tanks-encyclopedia.com tanks-encyclopedia.com

2) M1 Abrams
3) Valiant
4) OTO Melara OF-40 Mk.3
5) TAM (Argentina)
6) Leopard II

Leopard II was selected but project cancelled in 1989 and Ejército de Tierra was equipped with the Leopard 2A6 locally produced as 2E
 
ysi_maniac said:
- AMX-30 and Leopard were designed in response to an international NATO request. During trials, Leopard performed better in mobility parameters, but AMX-30 won in accuracy and fire power. Thus an AMX turret with Leopard hull was proposed.
Click to expand...
I've heard similar somewhere over the years, but can anyone supply a stated details of this 'better Leopard performance, but better accuracy and firepower of the AMX-30 and hybrid AMX-30 turret on Leopard hull'

Regards
Pioneer
 
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