A few years ago on television I saw a program discussing an amphibious tank. It was a proto tank that had six wheels with straight axles. In the rear were two propellers. On the outside it looked large in size but inside of it the area was small. This was because the shell of this vehicle was armored with a thick lightweight Kevlar, so that it could float of course. It could be serviced (repaired) in the field. The gun barrel was small in diameter and had a receiver so that it could fire multiple rounds in semi-auto mode....Has anybody seen this amphibious tank vehicle other than me who had once seen it on television?
I do recall a Russian or Chinese tank (the PT-76) was supposed to be amphib. I did sport a prop on its azz end. It had a small caliber main gun (maybe 75mm). There was only one tank-on-tank encounter in Vietnam. It was at the Ben Het Special Forces camp. Three M-48A3 Patton medium gun tanks from the doggie's 2nd Bn / 69th Armor blew the heck out of three NVA PT-76 tanks that attempted to attack the small firebase.
Originally posted by Dissociate: A few years ago on television I saw a program discussing an amphibious tank. It was a proto tank that had six wheels with straight axles. In the rear were two propellers. On the outside it looked large in size but inside of it the area was small. This was because the shell of this vehicle was armored with a thick lightweight Kevlar, so that it could float of course. It could be serviced (repaired) in the field. The gun barrel was small in diameter and had a receiver so that it could fire multiple rounds in semi-auto mode....Has anybody seen this amphibious tank vehicle other than me who had once seen it on television?
Is this what you mean?
It's a LAV. While it can swim, it is not amphibious in the same nature as the AAV.
Below are two thumbnails (click for full size) of an amphibious tank recently revealed by the PRC China Naval Infantry.
Finally, the last thumbnail (click to enlarge) is from the official US Army manual on Japanese weapons. It is an ad hoc modification of a standard Japanese tank so it could be amphibious. The Japanese modified these tanks for an interesting tactic. Basically they would be parked on small islands near the larger islands they expected the US to invade for air bases. The idea was at night they would swim (the would swim inside the atoll where US warships could not operate) over to the island during or after the battle and raid the supply dumps and airfields. Of all the reading I have done, I never have read of this ever happening though. Maybe another member has knowledge of USMC landings encountering this unique armored vehicle.
It seems those first photos of an amphibious tank by China was just a limited production to R&D with and test in the field. Below is the design that the Chinese have settled on for their marine forces. It mounts the same 105mm cannon as used by NATO (ie Israeli supplied).
