Originally posted by tankee1981:
Very impressive, i particularly like the snorkel. It enables the tank to hide underwater and yet able to know what is happening around it. Keep the specs and pics coming pls.
Water operations
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Most tanks water operations are limited to fording. The fording depth is usually limited by the height of the air intake of the engine, and to a lesser extent the driver's position. Typical fording depth for MBTs are 90 to 120 cm.
With preparation some tanks are able to ford considerably deep depths. The West German Leopard I and Leopard II tanks can ford to a depth of several metres, when properly prepared and equipped with a snorkel. The Leopard snorkel, is in fact a series of rings which can be stacked to create a long tube. This tube is then fitted to the crew commander's hatch and provides air and a possible escape route for the crew. The height of the tube is limited to around three meters.
Some Russian/Soviet tanks are also able to perform deep fording operations, however unlike the Leopard, the Russian snorkel is only a few inches round and does not provide a crew escape path. Russian snorkels are also fixed in length, providing only a couple of metres of depth over the turret height.
This type of fording requires careful preparation of the tank and the ingress and egress sites on the banks of the water obstacle.
However if properly planned and executed this type of operation adds considerable scope for surprise and flexibility in water crossing operations.
