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Curious question, why are there three different Driving positions on Military Main Battle tanks?
On current main battle tanks there are 3 different driving positions. There are tanks were the driver sits on the Left hand side of the tank. Examples: French AMX-30 & 32, Russian T-55, T-62, Swedish Infanterikanonvagn-91, Israeli Merkava, & Japanese Type-74. Then there are tanks were the diver sits on the Right hand side of the tank. Examples: Germany's Leopard 1 & 2 Series, British Centurion, Vickers and Japanese type-61, and Italian Ariete and OF-40. Then there are the tanks with the Center drivers position. Examples are US M-1 Abraham's, M-60 Patton, British FV4201 Chieftain, British Challenger, Swiss Panzer Pz-68, Russian T-10, T-64, T-72, T-80, T-90, and French AMX-56 Leclerc and numerous other tanks.
Why the variations of positions instead of just one?
Of the right hand drive the most curious are the German Leopards & Italian Ariete. The Germans & Italians both drive on the right hand side of the road yet have the Driver of their MBT's siting on the right hand side of the vehicle. any ideas why?
And of all the listed positions which would be considered the least mechanically complex in terms of steering gear arrangement and transmission?
3 Answers
- joe tLv 510 years agoFavorite Answer
It's a design feature,
tanks aren't road vehicles. No tank should spend any more than a few minutes travelling on-road and should rely on transporters or rail wagons for getting about. So mainly, it really doesn't matter.
For the leopard, The reason the driver sits on the right, though, is that some of the ammunition sits on the left. This in turn is because the loader sits to the left of the gun in the turret and needs handy access to the hull-stowed rounds.
- ?Lv 510 years ago
Generally it's left up to the designer of the tank to make that choice. There can be several reasons, placing of various pieces of equipment, ergonomics of the tank, potential visibility issues (what the driver can see), protection of the driver.
There is no set reason or requirement.
- lana_sandsLv 710 years ago
Traditional car driving style is reason one. The other is the configuration of the gun, engine location & loading system.
