Abstract: A combat vehicle with a rear hatch and a track powered by a diesel-electric drive mechanism in the rear. The drive mechanism includes separate motors that drive the track and several current-generating diesel-electric aggregates, each in the form of a generator powered by a diesel engine. The diesel-electric aggregates are positioned symmetrically to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle and above the track cover, leaving a passage between the inside of the vehicle and the hatch. The passage is either open or can be opened or expanded by moving the diesel-electric aggregates.

Abstract: A combat vehicle, in particular a combat tank, with a weapon mounted outside its longitudinal middle axis, that is mounted on a vertical axis rotatable ring mount linked by rotational rings to the hull of the vehicle. Within the rotational rings is a controllable coupling with plural coupling elements distributed on the circumference of the rotational ring. The coupling elements are, in a disengaged position, freely rotable in the ring mount and in an engaged position are unrotatable in the ring mount linked to the hull. During firing of the weapon, the coupling elements are controlled such that after the exit of the projectile from the weapon barrel but before the ending of the free weapon barrel recoil, the couplings are moved to an engaged position.

Abstract: A combat vehicle with a driver's cab mounted on its chassis along with a weapon incorporating a rocket launcher, wherein the rocket launcher rests on a carriage and is elevated and leveled by electrically powered mechanisms between it and the carriage, and the carriage pivots in azimuth on an intermediate structure that rotates on a collar on the chassis. The weapon is an independent assembly incorporating the rocket launcher, the carriage, the intermediate structure, and the collar and is attached to the chassis only by a mount, and by electrical connections if any, accessible from outside the vehicle. To load the motor vehicle onto aircraft, the rocket launcher is rotated at elevation 0.degree. into a position 90.degree. to the length of the vehicle.

Abstract: A device for opening and closing a hatchway on a combat vehicle, especially a tank, by a hatch. The hatch comprises two components, one above the other. The upper component slides back and forth across and above the hatchway. The lower component descends tight into the hatchway. The object is to simplify the generic device to the extent that it can be operated from inside the vehicle. An operations-control rack extends along the upper component in the direction it slides back and forth in. The rack is engaged by a pinion. The pinion is part of a mechanism mounted on the vehicle and controlled from inside the vehicle. A cam track is fastened tight to the rack. A control pin rests against the cam track. The cam track operates by way of the control pin in conjunction with at least one mechanism that locks the upper component in position. The upper component is attached to the rack by a clutch.

Abstract: A periscope at the hatchway of a combat vehicle. The hatchway is closed by a hatch that comprises two components. One component is above the other at least when the hatchway is closed. The upper component is positioned over the upper edge of the hatchway and moves parallel to the plane that the hatch slides back and forth in. The lower component moves perpendicular to that plane. The periscope comprises two sections. The lower section is fastened to the vehicle and extends into its interior. The upper section extends through and slides back and forth along with the upper hatch component. The upper and lower periscope sections remain in optical alignment and contact as long as the upper hatch component is in its hatchway-closing position. A dirt-removal brush is secured to at least an area of the lower surface of the upper hatch component that, as long as that hatch component keeps the hatchway closed, is directly upstream of the periscope in the direction the component slides in when it opens the hatchway.

Abstract: A military tank with a heavy weapon suspended to pivot in elevation in a turret that rotates on a chassis. The turret (2) is on the rear half (1.2) of the chassis (1) and its drive mechanisms are in the forward half. At least the section of the upper surface (1.2) below the turret slopes back and down at a prescribed angle (.alpha.) to the horizontal. The vertical longitudinal cross-section (LM) of the turret is a wedge that tapers together forward with its bottom (2.1) paralleling the upper surface of the chassis and its top (2.2) at another prescribed angle (.beta.) to the horizontal.

Abstract: A rotary-ring carriage for a light weapon on a combat vehicle, especially for the hatchway of a military tank. The weapon is mounted on an undercarriage that rolls on wheels along curved rails. The rails extend along arcs subtending angles greater than .pi. rad and less than 2.pi. rad, a complete circumference. The undercarriage extends along an arc subtending an angle greater than the difference between 2.pi. rad and the angle subtended by the rails.

Abstract: An ammunition bunker rests against a military tank turret. The bunker's outward-facing walls are scored. The bunker wall facing the crew compartment is unscored. The ammunition stowed in the interior of the bunker points away from the crew compartment. The bunker is a separate and totally enclosed housing. The housing rests in a matching niche in the surface of the turret. One wall of the housing faces the crew compartment at a prescribed distance away from its wall. The roof of the housing consists of a number of separate plates resting in the interstices of a stationary grating. When the stowed ammunition explodes and the explosion increases the pressure inside the housing to a prescribed level, the pressure will break the scored walls apart at the scores, mold the wall of the housing that faces the crew compartment against the crew-compartment wall, and lift the plates out of the interstices in the grating.

Abstract: An unbalance-compensating device for a weapon, especially a large-caliber weapon with a long barrel, with a component accommodating the barrel, mounted on trunnions in a stationary accommodation, and pivoting in elevation. The pivoting component's center of gravity is outside the trunnions' axis of rotation. A torque that counteracts the moment of unbalance is generated in that the weapon's pivoting component is attached by a flexible tractioning component to a device on the stationary accommodation that produces a positioning force. The tractioning component travels along a contour of prescribed shape attached to the weapon's pivoting component and determining the effective component of lifting force. The device is light in weight, takes up little space in the vicinity of the angle of elevation, and provides almost perfect compensation for the moment of unbalance while also allowing for temperature compensation.

Abstract: A device for setting fuzes in large-caliber shells, wherein the fuze is coaxial with the point of the shell and has one section secured stationary to the shell and a second section rotatable around the shell's axis. Each section has a groove in the surface which extends along a plane through the shell's axis. The device has a housing which is essentially round and has a handle extending out of it radially. The housing accommodates two concentric rings. A motor rotates one ring by way of a torque limiter. The second ring can either rotate independently of the first ring or be secured to and rotate along with it. The inner circumference of both rings matches the outer circumference of the fuze. The inner surface of the first ring has a pin that slides radially outward against the force of a spring. The inner surface of the second ring has a stationary radial pin.

Abstract: A combat vehicle, especially a military tank, has a hatchway in its armored roof and periscopes in the immediate vicinity of the hatchway. Each periscope has an ocular inside the vehicle and an objective outside it. A channel that accommodates the optical path extends between them. The channel extends through a protective block of neutral material on the roof of the vehicle. At least one section of the channel is completely occupied by optical glass. The ocular extends directly out of that section although the objective rests on the top of the block. The block can consist of a stack of separate sheets. The objective can have an outlook aperture and a direct-view aperture. The mirror in the objective can be semitransparent or moved out of the optical path.

Abstract: A protective cap for the ocular of a periscope in a combat vehicle. A wrapping encloses expanded plastic and leaves a viewing cutout uncovered. Controls and/or electrical equipment are integrated into the wrapping in order to save space inside the vehicle.

Abstract: A miliary tank with a turret accommodating a heavy weapon that can be elevated and that has a barrel mounted in a cradle and extending out through a shield, wherein the optical axis of a sight mounted stationary on the weapon extends through the cradle, paralleling the longitudinal axis of the bore, toward on objective on the outside of the turret. The optical axis of the sight between the cradle and the shield is deflected up by an optical deflector to a point in or on the turret and above the shield, whence it is deflected forward toward the objective by another optical deflector.

Abstract: A manually operated wheel for activating the hatch on a combat vehicle, especially a tank. It comprises an axially solid disk of appropriate anti-fragmentation and/or anti-radiation material.

Abstract: An armored combat vehicle, especially a military tank, with at least one entry-and-exit hatchway in the top. The hatchway closes with a hatch completely covering it. At least two additional moving roof-protection hatches above the hatch that completely covers the hatchway extend in the same plane at least when they are closed, each covering part of the hatchway and both covering it completely.

Abstract: A weapon throughbearing through an armored turret, especially on a military tank, accommodating a heavy weapon that can be elevated and has a barrel mounted in a cradle and extending out through an opening in the turret that is protected by a shield. The shield consists of at least two components positioned adjacently along the axis of the weapon's barrel and in the opening in the housing, with one component secured stationary to the weapon and at least one other secured stationary to the turret.

Abstract: An elevating bearing for a large-caliber weapon accommodated in the turret of a tank, with a slant-ring bearing around the tube. The tube is mounted in a bearing ring that rotates around the axis of the tube and is itself mounted on another bearing ring and rotates around an axis at an angle to the axis of the tube. The second bearing ring rotates in the turret around another axis at an angle to the first axis. The angle between the first and the second axes of rotation equals the angle between the first axis of rotation and the axis of the tube. Both bearing rings can be driven around their axes of rotation. The slant-ring bearing is a subassembly inside the turret and the flange that secures the second bearing ring is secured stationary to the turret. The flange that the tube is mounted on and that secures the first bearing ring is secured non-rotating to the turret.

Abstract: An ammunition magazine for a combat vehicle, wherein the shells are stowed upright and perpendicular to the floor and when they are removed automatically by an ammunition positioner that has an arm with a pivoting pickup at its end, with several magazine shafts, wherein the shells are stowed with their base against a base plate and secured by a shell holder. The shell holder has at least two pairs of tongs-like shell-securing arms that at least partly surround the jacket of the shell, one side of which rests against a stationary guide, on the opposite side, that pivot one above another toward the longitudinal axis of the magazine shaft and, closing subject to a resilient force, around another axis that parallels the first outside the magazine shaft, and that, when closed, can be locked closed by a mechanism that can be unlocked by a component on the positioning arm that activates an unlocking mechanism when the shell is grasped as the automatic pickup removes it.

Abstract: An ammunition magazine for stowing large-caliber ammunition in a miltiary tank. The rack has an intake rack comprising rows of essentially horizontal intake tubes positioned one above and next to another for accommodating shells. The rack can be lowered into the tank's ammunition bunker from above. The intake rack is suspended at the top from an antivibration and shock-absorbing suspension on the bottom of an impact-resistant roofing plate that fits into an opening in the roof of the tank and can be locked into the opening along the edge. The rack has at least one centering pin at the bottom that fits into a receptacle on a base secured to the floor of the ammunition bunker when the rack is lowered in.

Abstract: A rammer for artillery shells with a carriage behind the gun's tube that supports a tray in alignment with the powder chamber, that has a mechanism at the rear to intercept the shell, that travels on slides along a track paralleling the axis R of the tube, that is coupled to a piston-and-cylinder drive mechanism to accelerate toward the tube, and that has a braking mechanism to brake it at a prescribed distance from the rear end of the tube. The braking mechanism has a shock absorber position in the longitudinal midplane of the carriage with a piston that moves against the force of a friction spring inside a cylinder and that has a piston rod projecting forward beyond the front of the carriage with a stop mounted on it, whereby the stop rests directly against the rear end of the tube when the carriage is in the forward and braked position.