Avro Bobcat

     Notes: Post World War 2, many countries were developing full-tracked enclosed APCs, sometimes from surplus wartime vehicles or vehicles based on an improved version of those designs.  In Canada in the 1950s, this vehicle was typified by the Bobcat.  While the Canadian Army during World War 2 had experimented with open-topped versions of the M7 and 25-pounder Sexton-based APCs, after the war they wanted a close-topped design.  Shortages of funds led to a somewhat deficient design, with not much headspace for the troops inside. However, the Bobcat was in service until 1963, when they were replaced by the M113, and later, the M114.

     Initially, the Bobcat was to be a family of vehicles, including mortar carrier, ambulance, LRT (Light Reconnaissance Tank, which would mount a British Saladin turret), and an IFV, with a small turret mounting a heavy and light machinegun coaxial to one another.  However, after some budgeting work was done, only the APC was built.  Many wanted to switch to the M113 as soon as it was available, as the Bobcat had a number of quirks that made it inferior to the M113, while offering a bigger commander’s machinegun and superior protection.

     The Bobcat was armed with a single M1919A4 machinegun in a low turret, manually-rotating.  The Bobcat had a good engine, an early version of what would later power the M113 (a 280-horsepower gasoline engine). The original Bobcats were made of aluminum, but aluminum fabrication were not what they later would be, and the aluminum plates kept cracking, so they were switched to all-welded steel; welding large areas was also not as technologically sound as it would later be, and the Canadians switched to bolts. The Bobcat had a nasty tendency to throw tracks, even in mild turns, necessitating a redesign of the roadwheels and sprockets. The transmission was balky and noisy. There was no room up front for drive gear, so the drive sprocket and gear was moved to the rear. Those, and other problems, meant that the Bobcat was growing more and more expensive (in RL terms), and when the M113 was ready for export, the Canadians jumped on it, as the RL unit cost was much less for an M113 than a Bobcat, and did not have the problems the Bobcat had.

     The engine was at the front with the commander’s turret on the right side and the driver’s position on the left.  The glacis was almost vertical; more slope would have left less space for the engine and necessitating a lengthening, but would ballistically superior. The glacis was in fact, canted forward to a great degree.  It was a fairly small vehicle, but carried 8 troops in individual seats with a low overhead, and much crouching necessary to exit the large rear door. The troops had seats which could be moved up, allowing the troops in the rear to put their heads outside the vehicle for observation or to fire weapons outside the vehicle.