| Contents 1 Development history 2 Operation 3 Notes and references |
Development history
Result of increasing mechanization of forces between the world wars were the pioneers compete with the spearheads not to allow this, the crossing of terrain obstacles. Moreover, the erection of a temporary bridge in an area where enemy weapons was dangerous and costly.
When the Red Army were manufactured in 1933, a prototype bridge-laying tank based on the T-26 and had at the beginning of World War II some 60 vehicles of this model ST-26 (ST = Saperny tank sapper tanks) in its portfolio.
When the war started we had in the UK have long been working to develop a bridge-laying tank with scissors bridge, made it here first, the project provisionally due to lack of resources. The experience of the Dieppe landing in 1942 but underlined the need for such vehicles.1943 developed Percy Hobart with the Armoured Ramp Carrier based on the Churchill an amazingly simple interim solution to the war, were variants of Covenanters - and Valentine tanks with-scissors bridges in use.
The rapid advance of the German armored forces during the invasion of Poland means that even the High Command recognized the problem. To solve one awarded after campaign end yet in 1939 the company Krupp and Magirus contracts for advanced development of armored vehicle launched bridges. The submitted designs based on the Panzerkampfwagen I , II and IV , which prevailed last because it due to its greater stability could build the longest bridge. Of the bridge-laying tank I and II few prototypes were built, the bridge-laying tank IV was indeed in series, its construction was halted after only a month and producing twenty pieces already returned since the model fell short of expectations and the Army Command production the of battle tanks prioritized, and the already-made armored vehicle launched bridges were partially dismantled to battle tanks. The army followed the development of this type of vehicle is no longer so.
Examples of Brückenlegepanzer from the period after the Second World War are now discarded the M48 AVLB , German Biber , the planned successor PSB 2 and the AmericanM104 Wolverine and the British Armoured Ramp Carrier . Furthermore, the Russian are MTU-90 and BLG 60 and BLP 72 to name the NVA. In Poland, the PMC-90 in Czechoslovakia and the MT 72 developed.
Operation
Bridges put armor equipped depending on the model with folding or retractable bridge segments with the help of a hydraulic device are brought into position. Thus allow other vehicles to cross wide and deep obstacles quickly and safely. Advantage of the foldable version is the rapid deployment, disadvantage is high silhouette: the bridge halves project to build more than 10 meters up, so the tank can be easily identified and targeted. Many modern Brückenlegepanzer therefore take the bridge segments horizontally.
