Britain, being the birthplace of tanks, for many years produced armored vehicles that could not be called outstanding. Dominating the sea and creating excellent warships, Great Britain used very specific tanks and armored personnel carriers in the interwar period and during the Second World War, while the situation did not radically change after the end of the war. One of the examples of the post-war creativity of British engineers was the armored personnel carrier with the formidable name "Saracen" and a memorable appearance that can cause a smile.
The Saracen wheeled armored personnel carrier, indexed FV603, and various combat vehicles built on its basis, were produced in Foggy Albion from 1952 to 1970. It should be noted that even this machine was a definite breakthrough, considering that during the war the British army used the Vickers Carden-Loyd Mk. VI Troop Transport as an armored personnel carrier, a model based on the Carden-Lloyd tankette that has become widespread throughout the world. This technique could not stand comparisons with the German half-track armored personnel carriers "Ganomag".
Armored car FV601 "Saladin"
Almost immediately after the end of World War II, the British army issued an order to the industry for the development of a whole family of various wheeled armored vehicles built on one base. The British company Alvis became the executor of the order. This car manufacturer was founded in Coventry back in 1919. In addition to civilian passenger cars, the company also produced military products, including aircraft engines. The independent activities of Alvis Cars were discontinued in 1967. But before that, the company managed to present a whole line of armored vehicles, on which Alvis engineers have been working since 1947.
As a result, in the UK at the turn of the late 40s - early 50s of the last century, a new family of wheeled armored vehicles for various purposes was created, which included the FV601 Saladin armored car, its main purpose was to conduct reconnaissance and guard convoys on the march. In fact, it was a small wheeled tank with cannon armament. With the use of its chassis, primarily the power plant, chassis and power transmission units, the Saracen wheeled armored personnel carrier was designed and put into mass production, while the layout of the vehicle was revised. It is worth noting that the need for an armored personnel carrier for the British army was not an empty phrase. The military needed such a machine due to participation in the guerrilla war in Malaya. This colonial conflict, which began in 1948, was completely over only in 1960. It is for this reason that the work on creating a new armored personnel carrier for the British military was a priority.
BTR Saracen FV603
The first prototypes of the new combat vehicle were ready at the very beginning of 1952, and already in December of the same year, the mass production of a new armored personnel carrier began in Great Britain. Serial production was completed only in 1970, during this time, according to various sources, more than a thousand such vehicles were produced (in a number of sources - 1838 pieces), data on the number of armored personnel carriers produced are very different. The machine entered service with the British army, and was also actively exported, not only to the Commonwealth countries, but also to other states: Sudan, Libya, Jordan, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Nigeria, etc. At the same time, a special version of the FV.603 armored personnel carrier was developed for the armed forces of Kuwait, which differed from other open-top models.
The Saracen armored personnel carriers were used in the British army until 1992, but already in the early 1980s, these vehicles performed exclusively auxiliary tasks, receding into the background. For example, armored personnel carriers remaining in service were used in the 1980s in Northern Ireland, where the British military used them to patrol territory and maintain internal security in the region in which members of the IRA (Irish Republican Army) group were actively operating, as well as in their overseas possessions, such as Hong Kong.
In contrast to the Saladin reconnaissance armored vehicle, the designers of the armored personnel carrier from the Alvis company changed the layout of the vehicle. The engine was moved from the stern to the front and installed above the front axle of the armored personnel carrier, from above it was covered with an armored hood. Among other things, the engine in the front part was supposed to protect the crew and the troops, which were located in the stern of the armored personnel carrier. An armored grille was installed in front of the radiator. At the same time, the frontal and side plates of the hull were placed at rational angles of inclination, which increased the security of the vehicle. The armor of the hull's forehead was up to 16 mm, while the armored personnel carrier's armor was bulletproof. The thickness of the armor plates ranged from 8 to 19 mm. The body of the combat vehicle itself was sealed, it could easily overcome fords up to a meter deep, and after special training, the Saracen could overcome water obstacles up to 1.8 meters deep.
The new British armored personnel carrier received the following layout: an engine compartment, a crew compartment with a turret located above it in the middle and an assault compartment in the rear of the armored personnel carrier. At the disposal of the paratroopers there were hatches in the roof of the hull, as well as a double door in the stern, through which it was possible to embark and disembark from the vehicle. In the front of the armored personnel carrier, behind the engine, the driver's seat was located (in the center), behind the driver's left was the seat of the armored vehicle commander, and to the right of him was the radio operator's seat. The crew of the combat vehicle consisted of three people, another 8 people were paratroopers, who were located behind the crews on separate seats along the sides of the hull (facing each other), 4 on each side.
The chassis of the armored personnel carrier had a 6x6 wheel arrangement, the suspension of all wheels was made independent. The steering and the drive to the braking system received hydraulic servomechanisms. A curious feature of the combat vehicle was that two pairs of wheels were steerable. In this case, the middle pair of wheels had a limited steering angle - exactly half of the steering angle of the wheels of the front pair. Thanks to this solution, an armored personnel carrier with a length of almost five meters (it is worth noting that it is quite compact) could make a full turn over a section of 14 meters long. The armored personnel carrier could safely continue to move if one wheel was damaged on each side (up to its complete absence).
The heart of the armored vehicle was an 8-cylinder carburetor engine of the famous English company Rolls-Royce, two types of B80 Mk 3A or Mk 6A engines were installed on the armored personnel carrier, both of which developed a maximum power of 160 hp. Such an engine was enough to accelerate an armored personnel carrier with a combat weight of just over 10 tons to 72 km / h when driving on a highway, while driving over rough terrain, the speed dropped to 32 km / h. The power reserve of the Saracen FV603 armored personnel carrier on the highway was up to 400 km (the capacity of the fuel tanks is 225 liters).
In front of the body of the Saracen armored personnel carrier, an octahedral machine-gun turret was installed, the turret revolved manually. It was installed 7, 62-mm machine gun "Bren", the depression angles of the machine gun in the vertical plane ranged from -12 to +45 degrees. A hatch was located behind the turret, on which a turret could be installed for another 7, 62-mm machine gun, which could be used as an anti-aircraft gun. The designers also provided loopholes for firing from personal small arms. In the sides of the hull there were three rectangular embrasures, which were covered with special armored dampers. There was one more embrasure in each of the aft doors.
The armored personnel carrier was generally successful and met the demands of the British military. On its basis, a number of combat vehicles for various purposes were designed, including the command and staff version of the FV.604, which had an open top. In this version, the height of the fighting compartment was increased, which improved the working conditions of the officers, while no weapons were installed on the roof of the command and staff vehicle. The sanitary version of the armored personnel carrier, which received the FV.611 index in the British army, was also unarmed. Already in the 1990s, as part of work on the modernization of a combat vehicle with the prospect of export deliveries (Indonesia was called a potential customer), the Saracen armored personnel carrier with a Perkins Phaser 180MTi diesel engine, developing a maximum power of 180 hp, was created in the UK.
The performance characteristics of the Saracen FV603:
Wheel formula - 6x6.
Overall dimensions: length - 4, 8 m, width - 2, 54 m, height - 2, 46 m.
Combat weight - 10, 2 tons.
Reservation - bulletproof 8-19 mm.
The power plant is an 8-cylinder carburetor Rolls-Royce B80 Mk 3A or Mk 6A engine with 160 hp.
Maximum speed - 72 km / h (highway), 32 km / h (cross country).
In store down the highway - up to 400 km.
Armament - 7, 62-mm machine gun "Bren" in the tower, another 7, 62-mm machine gun could be installed as anti-aircraft.
Crew - 3 people + 8 paratroopers.
