The Panzer 74 Project ( VZ 67, VZ 71)

Rita Sobral

Author: Mizutayio

After a long time i finally went to the archives again to find more about that mysterious tank that would very likely become the Tier 9 and 10 Swiss heavy tanks.

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First of all this was a project by the Swiss military in order to replace the faulty Panzer 68. Development on the Panzer 74 project began in 1969 and the concept was known as the VZ 67 which stands for Versuchsfahrzeug 67. A later version is called the VZ 71 (1971) and is the VZ 67s hull and the Panzer 68s turret (this version is likely to be the Tier 9’s stock configuration) and would be armed with a licence built RO L7 105 mm gun.

There were multiple guns initially planned to be equiped on this tank, the German smoothbore 105 mm and 120 mm guns. The British 110mm rifled gun, the famous British L11 120mm gun, a French 140mm gun and the American XM150 152 mm gun.

In the end the Project continued with the L11 120 mm gun.

There were also multiple Variantions planned:

2 different hulls:

  • Variante T with Torsion Bar suspension, and
  • Variante H with Hydropneumatic suspension

 

and 6 Turrets:

  • Variante A: Large Turret with fire control systems from AEG
  • Variante B: Proposal from Honeywell
  • Variante C: Large Turret with weapon control systems from Marconi
  • Variante D: Small turret with weapon control systems from SABCA and AEG
  • Variante E: Small turret with weapon control systems from Wild-Bofors and AEG
  • Variante F: Turret like Variante A but fitted with an autoloader.

 

As you can see there would be a good variety of turrets, however all that really matters ingame are the Variante A, Variante D or E, and Variante F

Requirements for this tank called for sufficient frontal armor thickness and sloping to protect itself against armor piercing shells like APDS and APCR, which is why the frontal armour should be very good and well sloped. However the Turret armor is more or less given in the shape of a drawing. Since there was no nominal thickness given, we had to estimate the turret thickness and came up with a Frontal turret thickness of arround 200 mm with good sloping which makes the effective thickness very good, in addition we estimated the gun mantlet to be roughly 400mm.

Overall this tank can be compared to the Chieftain MBT. It has better amour though, the same or better firepower depending on gun options, but with better mobility.

Sideshot on the VZ 67 

xg5eers

 

Here are the stats: 

(note that there were also multiple proposals for modules.

Length with gun forward: 9.71 metres

Chassis Length: 7.06 metres

Width: 3.35 metres

Height: 2.32 metres

Weight (fitted with120mm L11): 46 tonnes

Weight (fitted with 105mm L7): 45 tonnes

 

Main Armarment: 120mm L11 (Variante A + D: Single shot, Variante F: Autoloader

Ammo Count: 64 Rounds

Secondary Armament: Coaxial: 12.7mm  machine gun

Secondary Armament: Commander’s cupola: 7.5mm MG 51

Horizonal gun traverse: 360°

Elevation – 120mm gun: -10°  +21°

Elevation – 105mm gun: -12°  +21°

 

Engines options (two documents give two different hp ratings for the MT883 so we have two options depending which version we use):

  • MT 883, 12 cyl V-Diesel 1000hp 21.7 hp/tonne , and
  • MT 883, 12 cyl V-Diesel 1200hp 26 hp/tonne

 

There is also this engine which was intended to be fitted to the Panzer 58 for testing purposes but was not done:

  • MBX 833 RA-500 6 cyl  V-Diesel: 750 bhp →  16 hp/ton

(this engine was to be equiped in the Panzer 58 for testing purposes, so expect to see the tier 9 medium to be equiped with a completely over the top engine.)

 

Also an option which can be used for balance reasons ( great firepower and armor):

  • 500 bhp Saurer Engine which would give it a heavy tank feeling.

 

Top Speed: 68 km/h

Crew: 4 (Commander/ Radio operator, Gunner, Loader, Driver
Radio: SE-412

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The Panzer 74 Project ( VZ 67, VZ 71)

56 thoughts on “The Panzer 74 Project ( VZ 67, VZ 71)”

    4. Denizhan says:

      so stop this sw+bla lba why on answer the qs with proper answer without whining about it plz guys its 2016 dont get offended by everything

      Reply
  2. Mecha_ says:

    I thought the Emil II would be the tier 9 and the Kranvagn would be the tier 10. Also, what about the UDES 15/16? Wasn’t that going to be the tier 10 med?

    Reply
      1. SMGJohn says:

        +WULFE
        Like, no offence but I literally said “another 70s tank”
        Maybe read more carefully next time?

      2. abusemtex says:

        I generally think SMGJOHN is a turd but he is right this time.
        WoT is WWII era tonk game.
        Not to mention what a big tank building nation Switzerland is.
        Maybe fixing the game after 5+ years of beta is an option?

  7. Kyselko says:

    Is this t10 or t9 candidate? Brcause I expected the m47( I dont remember the swiss designation) to become the tier 9 and this tank seems to me a bit OP even for t10 MT 🙂

    Reply
  8. Kyselko says:

    Is this the T10 candidate or t9? Because i expected the m47 (I dont remember the swiss designation) to become the t9 and this tank seems a bit too OP even for t10 MT.

    Reply

      1. Terminator is in no way op. it is a great AFV and other light vehicle killer, but has a difficult time countering mbts. I guess the same could be said about the O-Ni, where it can reliably bounce rounds when top tier but struggles against any higher tiered target. Yet that isn’t op at all

      2. and if u r whinning about overtiering, what about the maus? it is a WWII vehicle fighting 1970s tanks, some tanks developed 25 years later. They go by balance WoT and AW both have their quirks, but in the end, don’t point out the minute issues with the games

      3. pixywing says:

        The terminator is OP in PVE, but that goes for EVERY tank with an autocannon and every tank with lots of armour ie: Challenger series. Even most TDs are OP due to their DPM and can rack up tons of damage. The only tanks that are not OP are light/afvs without autocannons and the only bad ones are arty due to their low DPM and shell travel time as every NPC that spawns dies within three seconds during the last half of the match. In PVP its awful as you can’t pen any of the MBs and the players aren’t stupid and don’t show you the side of their tanks like bots.

      4. “Mizutayio says: so you’re prefering a game where, the chieftain is massively overtiered,same goes with the merkava, and the Terminator is OP as all hell #norussianbias”

        Believe it or not… Its all getting fixed. Might take some time but its all on the docket. Does AW need more Russian Bias? Because I know who to contact to add in more Russian Bias. =)

      1. pixywing says:

        T-54, Obj 140, T-22, T-62a, IS-7. Must be using Russian math to get two, and everyone and their dog has a T-54 that they use to spam HEAT with.

      2. pixywing says:

        Also saying only the best players use the best tanks is bad as that puts them even farther ahead and thus shows how poorly constructed the game is.

  11. italian_tech_tree_ffs says:

    Mizutayio stop pushing forward the fantasies of your country,nobody wants to se a Swiss tree filled with paper bullshit. STOP DISGRACING THE ITALIAN TANKS! We need to end the projection of blueprint scribbles and sketches being implemented into WoT. And stop talking like you’re the head developer of WG.

    Reply
    2. Blockhaj says:

      Is this guy a troll? Well from my war thunder experience i can tell u that italian tanks are generally very bad. For ex their best tank design of the war the m16/43 wasnt even mass produced. And they dont have anything for tier 8-10. In WT they will get a leopard ore m60 as a top tier just to fill the gap. And if they where to add an italian tech tree to wot it would generally consist of paper tanks above tier 5. Switzerland has a lot of cool tank designs. Generally way cooler than the bolted pre war italian tanks. And what is generally wrong with paper designs? Wot is like the most unrealisitc tank game on the market. Its tanks with health bars capping circles on the ground. I used to think wot was a game about tank model kits fighting eachother on a large diorama. Actually shen i think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Its meant to be fun and balanced. Not a realistic tank sim. For the moment i can only imagine italian tanks as premiums in the german tech tree ore possible together with a future international tech tree.

      Reply
  13. James k says:

    Interesting however I doubt wg will DD a swiss line as they will have a hard time filling it with actual tanks other then their higher tier mess 58 61 etc.

    Reply
  15. ndiver says:

    Thanks for this new article. From the side view, it is interesting to see that it looks a lot like the Panzer 68. In overall, it looks like a larger or flattened Panzer 68.
    If i understand, the big turret is the one visible on the first picture, and the small turret the one of the Panzer 68?
    What is the Variante B? What are the differences in term of weapon control systems?

    Reply

    1. weapon control systems only matter for real life, ingame they don’t matter which one we pick except for Variante A (large) D (small) and F (large autoloader)

      Reply
    1. Blockhaj says:

      The t-72 has composite armor so it cant be in the game. But it is a second gen mbt like the leopard, m60 and chieftain. And i know that the prototype didnt have composite armor. I think it was completely made out of aluminium which means it doesn’t have any armor at all. So the t-72 prototype could easily be in the game as a tier 10 light.

      Reply
      1. Blockhaj says:

        Wg generally avoids smothbore cannons since a lot of them only fire high penetration rounds like apds, heatfs and apdsfs which on most guns have around 350-450mm of penetration. But if a smothbore had the ability to fire oldschool ammunition with balanced penetration it wouldnt generally be a problem. For ex the swedish tier 9 and 10 heavy tank has a 155 mm smothbore gun. But since it fires convential aphe and heat ammo it wouldnt be game breaking. And if Wg where to implement the t-72 prototype it would generally get the same gun as the t62.

  17. So you wanna add some tank nobody has really heard about (wild exaggeration, don’t get your patriotism in a twist plox) and make it better/same as Chieftain MBT? Seems like a big no-no.

    Reply

  18. I would rather love to see this tank implemented with 110, 140 or 152mm gun, instead of just another clone with 120mm.
    Sadly WG will unlikely let us choose any guns… They’ll just give a gun of THEIR choice…

    Reply
  19. Wombat says:

    I hate paper tanks. No tank that was built ever reached the glorious abilities they had when they were on the design board. There were always reason why it got heavier, slower and the armour was reduced, the engine for it didn’t work so something else had to be used. So this is better in all aspects than the Chieftain MBT. By the way there are Fairies at the bottom of the garden.

    Reply
    1. Teknokraatti says:

      Because the Polish really don’t have indigenous tank design? The few tanks that they designed and actually fit WOT are already on supertest, though their release date is likely not near. The Polish tech tree would be even more of a copy fest than the Chinese one is, and I’d hope you remember how much whining that caused.

      Reply
      1. Blockhaj says:

        Nothing will beat the Chinese when it comes to copying tanks but the polish actually has quite a few cool paper medium/heavy designs that i think will reach tier 6. Above that it will be a copy and modify fest though.

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