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Off centre turrets on vehicles


pkcav39

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Might be silly questions with obvious answers but, Why do IFV's, eg the CV90 etc, have the turrets placed off to one side of the chassis?, Is this so the driver can crawl past the turret if the hatch is jammed?, seems to be a trend with IFV type vehicles so I was wondering what the reason was.

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Several reasons, mostly balance. In order to achieve the best possible trench crossing capability the vehicle must not tilt to one side. If the driver is placed at the front and next to the engine, the driver's compartment is next to empty while the engine compartment is filled with metal. Consequently, that's an imbalance moment. So you shift the turret to the other side of the hull as a counterweight.

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If you look at a Merk 4 top-down, the turret is slightly assymetrical. Not sure if it's offset in the hull, though, or that the shape matters. Just a curiosity.

I would imagine that the turret on an MBT will easily offset that of the power pack, with the large gun, heavy armor, etc.

With IFVs...not so much.

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