Author: Vollketten

Part 1: here

So, having looked at the personnel carriers, we get to the weapons platform variants (watch the designations; ‘CC’ here denotes a Conventional [non-articulated] Vehicle with main armament and ‘AC’ denotes an Articulated Vehicle with main armament). Some of the images are scattered in the paper, so I have cobbled them back together.

Cobra AC-1 – 3 crewmembers, armed with 4 recoilless 105mm rifles with 180 degrees of traverse

Cobra AC-2 – 3 crewmembers, armed with 4 recoilless 105mm rifles with 180 degrees of traverse

Cobra AC-3 – 3 crewmembers, armed with 3 recoilless 105mm rifles with 60 degrees of traverse, 18 rounds

Cobra CC-1 – 2 crewmembers, armed with 4 recoilless 105mm rifles with 180 degrees of traverse, 12-14 rounds

Cobra CC-2 – 3 crewmembers, armed with 2 or 4 recoilless 105mm rifles with 180 degrees of traverse, 20 rounds and one .50cal MG

Tracked Jeep – 2 crewmembers, 8mm of armor, one 105mm rifle (60 degree traverse, 6-8 rounds) and a 60hp engine

Modified Universal Carrier – 3 crewmembers, 19mm of frontal armor, two 105mm rifles (180 degree traverse, 19-20 rounds) and a 60hp engine

Other Projects

We’ve seen the ‘family’ of Cobra vehicles, the armoured personnel carriers and the existing Canadian designs for a Modified Universal Carrier and Tracked Jeep, which, compared to it, are inferior in terms of mobility and firepower, but you may recall I mentioned earlier another Canadian project called ‘Groundhog’. Other platforms are part of these early cross-country mobility trials as well, included the ‘Goliath’ and the ‘Laurentian Beetle’. This is a sadly scarce summary of the entirety of what is known about them (apologies in advance but the image quality is very low).

Groundhog – tested at Maupusesing, Ontario during Winter 1949-1950, it resembles a flat bed cargo carrier tracked vehicle and was envisaged at some point to have a rigid body for it.

Goliath – cca 1949

Laurentian Beetle – prior to 1950/1, an improvised conversion of a commercial tractor which is artificially high due to the lack of relocation of the transmission.

Unidentified project from 1950/1951

Part 3 will conclude this project with discussions over the armament and World of Tanks

Sources:
TM9-329 105mm Rifle M27, 105mm Rifle Carriages M22 and T47 Modified and 105mm Rifle Mounts M75 and T143 dated Aug. 1951
ORO DocRef: 149375 ORO T-119 – June 1951
Engineering Design Handbook – Recoiless Rifle Systems, January 1976
T/O&E 7-15 1/9/52 M27 105mm Recoilless Rifle
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ … 27rclr.htm
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ … 40rclr.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M40_recoilless_rifle
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/sh … -105mm-M27