Warrior upgrades

I wonder why it has taken the MOD so long to use this technique on what is obviously an important military vehicle

I was surprised on reading the article on the Warrior armoured vehicle that it was to have an upgrade which included the provision a 40 mm cannon with fire-on-the-move stabilisation.

I joined REME 60 years ago as a national serviceman and was trained as an electrician (control equipment) to service and maintain the gun stabilisation equipment as then fitted to the Centurion tank. Although it was simple equipment using two gyros to generate signals into an amplifier which then passed compensating signals to the motors driving the turret and the elevation control on the gun, it was very effective. One of the tests we used to demonstrate our skill at setting up the equipment was to get the driver to undertake a ‘neutral turn’ that is to drive the twin tracks in opposite directions causing the tank to rotate about its central axis. The gun would remain pointing in the direction set before the start of the manoeuvre.

This tank was used during the Korean War and I understand that one of the tactics employed was to lay the gun on an enemy target and then lay a smoke screen and drive the tank back into the smoke screen and fire onto, and hit, the target. I wonder why it has taken the MOD so long to use this technique on what is obviously an important military vehicle.

Peter Lucas, Staines, Middx

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