Abstract: A locking mechanism for hatch or hinged covers of vehicles, especially military vehicles, allows the simultaneous locking or unlocking of all locking elements of the hatch cover or a hinged cover actuating one handle or push button, thus providing a secure and well-sealed closure. The movement of the plurality of locking elements arranged on a hatch cover or hinged cover takes place by means of an actuating device disposed on the outside and/or the inside of the hatch cover or the hinged cover. By actuation of the actuating element, a mechanical transmission element arranged to rotate in a guide on the circumference of the hatch cover or the hinged cover and cooperating with slide rods and corner hinge elements can be displaced in its longitudinal direction.

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 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: 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 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: 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: An ammunition bunker for the main battletank turrets which is arranged behind the tank turret and whose walls are designed by predetermined break lines such that, in the event of an explosion of ammunition in the bunker, its outside walls are hurled off the sides of the tank thereby protecting the crew of the tank.

Abstract: A combat vehicle, especially an armored vehicle, with a rotating turret on a hull and with an entry-and-exit hatch that can be closed with a cover and that is mounted in the roof of the hull. The parts of the roof of the hull in the vicinity of the hatch consist of a circular plate that rotates on an axis perpendicular to the roof and in which the hatch is positioned in the plate eccentric to its axis of rotation. To make the hatch as small as possible, while permitting exit from the vehicle at all turret positions, the position of the hatch can be varied.

Abstract: In ammunition-stowage systems in which the shells are stored in storage tubes, the shells are to be prevented from being able to slide out of the storage tubes when severely shaken while on the other hand being easy to grasp for removal and withdrawal from the tubes. A securing and ejector device is positioned at every storage tube for this purpose. The device contains one stop each, which rests on the front of the rim of the shell and is subjected to spring force in such a way that the springs are compressed when the shell is inserted. A hook that can be shifted transversely against the force of a spring engages behind the rear of the base of the shell when a shell has been inserted. To remove a shell, the hook is shifted transversely until it releases the base of the shell, upon which the stop, which is subject to the force of a spring, thrusts the shell out at least as far as the length of the spring allows.

Abstract: A gun barrel mount for a battletank in which the gun barrel and its cradle roller may be horizontally inserted into a relatively small aperture in the armor of the battletank turret and maintained in that position with a few threaded fasteners, the entire assembly being easily removable for replacement and/or repair. Insertion of the gun assembly into the turret horizontally obviates the need to separate the turret armor vertically which weakens the armor.