The love of the German military for assigning the names of animals to armored vehicles, especially representatives of the cat family, did not disappear anywhere after the end of World War II. In 1975, the Bundeswehr adopted a new wheeled combat reconnaissance vehicle, which received the designation SpPz 2 - Spähpanzer Luchs (Lynx). This model became the second example of armored vehicles with this name. During World War II, a light reconnaissance tank was created in Germany, the full name of which was the following Panzerkampfwagen II Ausführung L "Luchs". Unlike its relative who had fought, the new armored reconnaissance aircraft was released in a larger series and on a wheeled off-road chassis.
At the first glance at the SpPz 2 Luchs, an association with domestic armored personnel carriers arises in my head. The vehicle has the same wheel configuration, a recognizable hull silhouette, and a similar location of the side exit hatch between the second and third axles in the very middle of the hull. The presence of a turret with cannon armament makes the Lynx similar to the latest Russian BTR-80A or BTR-82 models. In total, 408 Lynx BRMs were assembled in Germany during serial production from 1975 to 1978. The last surviving copies of the SpPz 2 Luchs were decommissioned in 2009, and were replaced in the German army by light reconnaissance armored vehicles Fennek.
SpPz 2 Luchs: from idea to implementation
The German military realized the need to develop a new effective reconnaissance vehicle in the early 1960s. According to the plan of the Bundeswehr officers, the new combat reconnaissance vehicle was to receive two control posts (dual control). Previously, similar combat vehicles have already been created in different countries. Back during the First World War, the White AMD armored vehicle was created in France, which had two control posts. Before the start of World War II, French designers presented another very successful combat vehicle with the same layout - the famous Panhard 178 cannon armored car, aka AMD 35. The second driver's post was also available on the Swedish light armored car Landsverk-185, which was most similar to the Soviet light armored car FAI-M. So the idea with two control posts and two drivers was not revolutionary; it was actively used in some countries, especially in neighboring France, where armored vehicles with such an arrangement appeared after the end of World War II.
The chosen layout, as conceived by the German military, provided the future combat reconnaissance vehicle (BRM) with the highest possible level of maneuverability and the ability to quickly get out of fire, starting to move back at the same speed. Also, the new BRM was supposed to be distinguished by high travel speed and good maneuverability, including over difficult terrain. Based on this, the German military initially insisted on a combat vehicle created on the basis of a four-axle chassis with an 8x8 wheel arrangement.
The largest engineering companies of Germany were involved in the development of a new combat reconnaissance vehicle. The order was accepted and put into operation by a consortium of enterprises, which included Henschel and Krupp, as well as Daimler-Benz. Prototypes of the future BRM were prepared by both participants in the competition already in 1968. Initially, the armored vehicle was tested on the basis of the Trier-Grunberg army center of the Bundeswehr, after which the program was seriously expanded and complicated. Prototypes visited different climatic zones, passing the test path in snowy Norway and hot Italy, where armored vehicles were tested in mountainous terrain. The tests were completed only in 1972. Prototypes of the new combat reconnaissance vehicle had managed to wind 200 thousand kilometers on the odometer by that time.
In total, in the process of testing, competing firms produced 9 armored vehicles, in the design of which various additions and changes were made. Much attention was paid to changing the transmission and the choice of the power plant. After analyzing the test results, preference was given to the sample, which was designed by order of Daimler-Benz. It was this company that was entrusted with the process of finalizing and sending the reconnaissance vehicle into mass production. The novelty received the designation Spähpanzer 2 (SpPz 2) Luchs. An order for the production of a batch of 408 BRMs was received in December 1973, the first production vehicles were ready in May 1975, and in September of the same year they began to enter service with the reconnaissance battalions of the Bundeswehr divisions.
BRM Luchs layout
Externally, the new German armored car was an eight-wheeled lightly armored vehicle, the crew of which consisted of four people. All the wheels of the reconnaissance vehicle were steerable, which provided a turning radius of 5.73 meters for a vehicle over 7 meters long. When driving at high speed, such as driving on a highway, the control of the middle pair of wheels was simply disabled. A noticeable feature of the BRM and its design feature was the presence of two control posts located in the front and rear of the hull. The Lynx was equally mobile when moving forward and backward. At the same time, the driver-mechanic, who was located in the aft post, also performed the functions of a radio operator; in addition to the standard controls, the navigation system equipment and a radio station were installed at his workplace. It is worth noting that this crew member is involved in driving an armored vehicle only in emergency situations. The maximum speed of movement both forward and backward was 90 km / h. The order to change the direction of movement of the combat reconnaissance vehicle was given by its commander.
The presence of two control posts forced the designers to turn to a layout scheme unusual for most models of modern armored vehicles, in which the power plant was placed in the central part of the combat vehicle. At the same time, the workplace of the main driver was preserved in the front of the Luchs BRM. At the location of the main mechanic, there were three devices for monitoring the road and the terrain, one of which could be replaced with a night vision device. The driver got to his workplace through a hatch in the front of the hull, his lid does not fold back, but turns and opens to the right.
The crew of the Lynx, in addition to the front driver and the rear mechanic-radio operator, also includes the commander and gunner, whose jobs are located in the fighting compartment, above which the TS-7 turret rotating 360 degrees is installed. The gunner's place is on the right, the commander's is on the left. The turret was installed slightly closer to the front of the combat vehicle in order to reduce the "dead zone" in front of the BRM. The main armament, located in the rotating turret, was the Rheinmetall Rh-202 20-mm automatic cannon (375 rounds of ammunition), with which armor-piercing subcaliber, armor-piercing tracer and high-explosive fragmentation ammunition could be used. The rate of fire of the gun was 800-1000 rounds per minute, the effective firing range was up to 2000 meters. On top of the turret, directly above the hatch of the vehicle commander, there was a 7.62 mm MG-3 machine gun (1000 rounds of ammunition). The vertical guidance angles of the automatic cannon were impressive - from -15 to +69 degrees, which made it possible to use the cannon for firing at air targets. The vertical guidance angles of the machine gun were slightly more modest - from -15 to +55 degrees. On both sides of the tower were blocks of smoke grenade launchers (4 grenade launchers on the left and right sides of the tower).
Technical features of the Luchs combat reconnaissance vehicle
Since the vehicle was a reconnaissance vehicle, it received quite sophisticated equipment, one might say unique for the 1970s. At the disposal of the second mechanic was the onboard navigation equipment system FNA-4-15. The designers placed a path sensor and a gyro-course indicator system on board the combat vehicle, they were associated with the BRM transmission. The incoming data was processed using an onboard computer and displayed on liquid crystal screens, allowing the crew to always know the coordinates and course of the vehicle. Naturally, in the course of operation, BRMs were repeatedly modernized, in particular, they were equipped with GPS receivers.
The heart of the reconnaissance "Lynx" was the multi-fuel V-shaped 10-cylinder OM 403 VA engine, which digested diesel and gasoline equally well. The engine developed by the designers of Daimler-Benz received a turbocharger and could develop a maximum power of 390 hp. (when operating on diesel fuel). The engine was part of a single power unit together with an automatic four-speed gearbox ZF 4 PW 96 H1. Also in the power department there was a place for an automatic fire extinguishing system. The engine power was enough to accelerate an armored vehicle with a combat weight of almost 19.5 tons to a speed of 90 km / h when driving on a highway. The power reserve when driving on roads was estimated at 800 kilometers.
The designers of the Lynx combat reconnaissance vehicle paid great attention to the issue of its invisibility on the battlefield. The engine compartment was insulated with special gas-tight bulkheads, while the engine received not only an exhaust gas suppression system, but also an air intake silencer. This solution made it possible to seriously reduce the noise of the machine, it was not easy to hear the SpPz 2 Luchs even from a distance of only 50 meters. In addition, the designers brought the exhaust pipe into the aft compartment of the car, where a strong fan worked, which mixed the exhaust gases with clean outboard air. This decision made it possible to greatly reduce the temperature of the exhaust gases, reducing the visibility of the reconnaissance vehicle and for enemy thermal imagers.
Another feature of the SpPz 2 Luchs reconnaissance vehicle was the ability to swim. For a combat vehicle with such a role on the battlefield, this was a useful option. But in general, for Western armored vehicles, the ability to independently cross water obstacles was a rather rare characteristic. The maximum speed afloat was 10 km / h. The car was afloat with the help of two propellers, which were hidden in the aft niches. To be able to pump out sea water that could get inside the hull, the crew had three bilge pumps at their disposal, which could pump up to 460 liters of water per minute. Later, in the process of modernizing the combat vehicle, installing new equipment and additional booking, which led to an increase in combat weight, the possibility of independent buoyancy was lost.
