Indien Panzer

The Indien Panzer (Indian Tank) was a tank designed by the German firm Porsche KG in the mid-1950’s in which the Indian Army showed interest. The first plans were laid out in 1954, but the project was soon abandoned in 1955.

History

Since the end of WW2, Porsche had designed mutliple tanks, the B-PS 102 was one of them. The BP-S 102 was a 39.5-tonne turreted tank, armed with a 90mm gun, and a crew of 4. The Indian Government showed interest in the BP-S 102 in 1954. This became known as the Indien-Projekt, or Indien Panzer. Porsche KG relied on German companies for the components. Daimler-Benz would deliver the engine, ZF Friedrichshafen the transmission and possibly the suspension, and Ruhrstahl would deliver the gun and turret. The tank would be assembled in India by TATA, where optics and sights were to be produced.

Development

The Indian Army requested a tank that weighed 36-39 tons but Porsche envisioned the tank to be ~40 tons. The hull and turret would be made from cast steel with 90mm of armor protection on the front of the hull and 130mm of protection on the front of the turret. The main armament would consist of a 90mm main gun and 2 machine guns. One was mounted to the left of the main gun and the other at the back of the turret. Ammunition was stowed in a rack on the bottom of the turret basket and on both sides of the hull with a combined ammunition storage of 61 shells.

The tank would be powered by a Daimler-Benz MB837A 8-cylinder diesel engine, producing 600-700 horsepower. It would have had a crew of 4; driver, commander, gunner and loader. The driver sat in the right side of the hull. The loader was on the left of the gun, the gunner on the right with the commander behind him. The loader had his own hatch, the commander had a cupola and there was an extra hatch at the back of the turret, besides the machine gun. The project was cancelled as producing it in India was too complicated.

info gathered by - Strv 74#3676 from Defence matrix discord server