Panzer 68

Panzer 68/88
Panzer 68/88
Type	Main battle tank
Place of origin	Switzerland
Service history
In service	1971 - 2003
Used by	Switzerland
Production history
Designed	1960s
Manufacturer	Eidgenoessische Konstruktionswerkstaette
Produced	1971 - 1983
No. built	390 (all versions); 195 68/88; 1 Panzer 68-2000 (prototype)
Variants	Panzer 68; Panzer 68/75; Panzer 68/88; Panzer 68-2000 (prototype)
Specifications
Weight	40.8 tonnes
Length	9.49 m (31 ft 2 in)
Width	3.14 m (10 ft 4 in)
Height	2.72 m (8 ft 11 in)
Crew	4
Armour	up to 120 mm Rolled homogeneous armour
Main armament	1 x 105 mm Royal Ordnance L7 gun with 52 rounds
Secondary armament	2 x 7.5 mm Swiss Pz Mg 51/71 machine gun with 4000 rounds
Engine	MTU V8 engine 485.4 kW
Power/weight	12.3 kW/T
Suspension	plate springs and hydraulic dampers
Ground clearance	400 mm
Operational range	200 km (120 mi)
Speed	55 km/h (34 mph)

The Panzer 68 was a Swiss main battle tank developed by the Eidgenoessische Konstruktionswerkstaette in Thun in the late 1960s.

The Panzer 68 was based on the Panzer 61, which initial development dates back to 1951. The development started immediately after the successful introduction of the Panzer 61. Improvements consisted of wider tracks, stabilized gun, and the introduction of a second machine gun instead of the coaxial 20mm gun of early Panzer 61 models.

In 1968 (hence the name) the Swiss parliament decided to buy 170 vehicles. Deliveries of the Panzer 68 started in 1971. In 1977 a second batch was manufactured. In the years between 1978 and 1983, a third and fourth batch followed. The last two lots were called either AA3 and AA4 or Panzer 68/75. The most important change was the introduction of a bigger turret.

The Austrian army showed some interest in the Panzer 68 in the late 1970s, but decided not to buy the model when the deficiencies of the system became public.

In 1992 the Panzer 68 underwent one more modernization program which introduced a new fire control system which was on a par with the system used in the new Panzer 87 (license-built Leopard 2) This new, improved version was called Panzer 68/88. Despite the improvements in the Panzer 68/88, the model was relegated to secondary tasks after the arrival of the Panzer 87. All Panzer 68 models were retired in the early years of the new millennium. The responsible authorities tried to sell some 200 to the army of Thailand, but the deal never went through and therefore, the remaining vehicles were demilitarized and sold for scrap in 2005.

Some Panzer 68s can still be seen in military museums around the world.

During the summer of 1979, the Weltwoche, then a highly regarded Swiss weekly, published an article regarding the shortcomings of the Panzer 68 that led to a scandal and, allegedly, to the resignation of the minister of defence, Rudolf Gnägi. In this article, the then chief of armoured forces of the Swiss army came to the conclusion that the Panzer 68 was "not fit for combat". A group of experts that was commissioned to produce a report on the matter listed dozens of technical problems. Among others, the nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) protection was found to be insufficient, forcing the crews to wear protective masks inside their tanks, thus greatly reducing the crews' performance. The experts also found that the gearbox did not allow for shifting into reverse while the vehicle was moving, forcing the crew to stop the tank before reversing. To make things even worse, the radios used in the tank tended to interfere with the turret control system, resulting in uncontrolled turret movements whenever the radios were used at full power.

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Wikipedia