ASTRON - Chick & Hen Concept Tank - Tank Design & Theory
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- Опубликовано: 10 фев 2025
- A look at the Chick & Hen tank by Continental Motors, a multipart machine that could be put together or taken apart in the field and was supported by a series of smaller modules that could transform into a variety of combat platforms.
f: / thearmouredarchives
Sources: Firepower: A History of the American Heavy Tank
Book by R. P. Hunnicutt;
Original brochure by Contiental Motors
Liquid guns - Kew
©Armoured Archives
#Astron #XWeapon #Tanks #ColdWar #MilitaryVehicles #Beastssister #tanks #Concept #wtf #experimental #tank #design #Continentalmotors #USA #Amercian
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As spotted by one of our eagle-eyed viewers, the Continental logo is incorrect, that’s for Continental tyres a German firm. The Correct logo for C.M is very different. Well spotted that man!
If you like to I can send you "shit loads" of declassified pics etc about the Swedish UDES and S-tank project with comments. (in Swedish but of course will I help you with the translation)
but where do I send it?
Of should I Contact you om discord?
That said, as a keen cyclist, continental bike tyres are very well made, hard wearing tyres and they could probably achieve the same for tank tracks :^)
-articulated tank
-modular
-reconfigurable
-liquid propelled gun
-ramjet shells
-a literal heavy bolter
-liquid propelled machine guns
-spherical missiles
...
This was a fukken ride
If you didn't say this was a real project, I'd've assumed this was something from a Command & Conquer: Red Alert expansion pack I'd forgotten about. Lots of cool customisation options for players without the need to create many additional art assets. Exactly what you want for a video game. I can't help but think in real life, these modular tanks which can supposedly be gun, AA, MRLS or ATGM vehicles would have ended up costing as much as just making each of the vehicles individually.
I've seen something VERY similar as part of one toy range or another. Can't remember if it was GI JOE, MASK, or StarCom though. It's a very toy-ready design.
@@Vespuchian The Thunderclap Howitzer and the Raider come to mind.
" I can't help but think in real life, these modular tanks which can supposedly be gun, AA, MRLS or ATGM vehicles would have ended up costing as much as just making each of the vehicles individually." - Stryker and Armata chassis vehicles in a nutshell
The idea I believe is based around needing less custom tooling, allowing for more common parts decreasing the load on logistics to cover a wide array of basis. Better production techniques lead to theoretically cheaper tanks.
Technically, if you look at the Sherman in WWII, it was a very multipurpose tank, that while not specifically modular, was able to take part in multiple different roles, from the Jumbo Heavies, Fireflys for Heavy-AT, regular for dual AT/AP purposes, or even the dozer variants for the engineers.
@@D_U_N_E Almost all the Sherman variants required extensive modifications to the hull. The Jumbo you mention basically has a completely new hull. They weren't field-convertable. And a lot of the Sherman-based SPGs had unnecessarily thick armour for arty, so it did compromise their ability to do their primary role somewhat. If you want to have a multirole vehicle and switch roles on the day in the FOB, you need all the parts for all four roles at said FOB, and now you're managing 4 different kinds of ammunition and spares, and you either need a crew trained on 4 different layouts or you need multiple crews. You're also losing some efficiency in the hull as you've also got to reconfigure the hull for stowage of these different ammunition types. Gun-laying and mobility systems are going to be under- or over-specced for some of the roles, as they all have different weights and traverse requirements.
This is the vehicle that makes logistics and maintenance officers eat their service weapons....
Nice.
You’re not wrong, but you’ve also forgotten the instructors having to train the crews, especially for the coupling and decoupling manoeuvres.
@@Courier_6 The instructors ate the crew.
"no no no, look. it's super simple. just bring EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME! I don't understand what the problem is!"
Maintenance officer:Needs ketchup
The only adult on the design team came up with the trailer concept.
"-so basically it's a heavy bolter."
Was not expecting that.
Don't tell the bloody magpies.
for the emperor!
Play a game of spot the tanks gw found cool for warhammer.
"Let's make our new tank fiddly, modular, and easy to dismantle with as many points of potential failure as possible. Because those are things you want on your 'qualities a tank must have' checklist."
The eyes of every engineer in the motor pool just rolled so far back they landed in Julius Caesar's wine.
Rather certain the Logistics Division either had a Foaming Fit, Fainted, or started a Riot.
Never heard of the cannonball missiles before, thanks for digging this up! The thrusters remind me of the Multi Kill Vehicle.
Here's the real kicker on those things: they actually built and test fired them. The 50's really were a wild time.
"Ramjets are pretty cool, lets make a bullet out of it" - Some Detroit Arsenal engineer mid 50's
Scary part is i could see it working... course it'd have to cost better than 2 mil a round...
2 mil of what? WWII radio proximity fuse cost dropped from 782$ to 18$ a round. And jet engines are one of the simplest combustion engines out there.
@@Paciat Sure Ram jets are pretty simple. Now design ones that'll take car crash levels of acceleration work 100% of the time and only explode where you want it to. Can it be done yup would it be cheap nope. And how long before some braniac says he this thing really is just a missile let's put guidance on it. Wait now you have the Navy’s Extended Range Guided Munitions at 191K a round estimate as of 2006... Or the Zumwalts Long Range Land Attack Projectile at around 800K-1mil a round... And they were just rocket assisted something even simpler than a Ram-Jet. Yeah 2 mil might be high... But by how much...
Edit looked up artillery round shock loads and my car crash estimate was low... Like OMG low... at least one spot mentioned 10,000 G's others mentioned more (don't even look at railguns 100k) even easing things down if its only 1k thats still an insane amount of shockloading...
@@Paciat not saying you wrong but materials needed for a ram jet are still expensive even in today’s standards
The Hen actually kind of makes sense even on it's own. If any unit breaks down, it would only take out 1/3rd of the whole thing, and you might just put together 1-2 new tanks from 3 damaged ones. If we assume that it would have 3 completely isolated crew compartments, then a direct hit to one of them would also leave the Hen able to retreat and/or fight on.
The auxillary Chick units however...
Let's assume that a unit gets 1 Hen-, 2 Chick- 1 AA and 1 MLRS Module along with 4 automotive units. You thus saved 2 propulsion systems (at the cost of 2 modules sitting unused at base). So far it seems economical.
But the Automotive units will either be severely under-armored for use in a MBT or severely over-armored for an AA vehicle. Not to mention for an MLRS platform, which is a piece of ARTILLERY and thus shouldn't ever come under fire.
Add to that the increased complexity from the attachment system(s), and I'd say the whole system costs just as much as 1 MBT, 2 light support tanks, 1 AA APC and 1 MLRS Truck would have, if designed independently. The only savings is that you save the transport VOLUME of the 2 automotive units. You might save a bit of the transport weight, but just maybe - that entirely depends on how much yarmor you would have slapped onto the standalone vehicles. And as a slight benefit, you'd only need spare parts for a single line of propulsion units, (but still for all 5 different weapons systems).
God I never realized how I love 50's and 60's design drawings.
The design is absolutely bonkers, and I love it. It would have been great to at least get video of a fully built series of prototypes. Sad it never got that far.
Glad to see more ASTRON designs getting covered. It seems to be hard to find info on them, or at least the info isn't easily Google-able. Hopefully the ASTRON Rex series will get a video soon too.
yup il do rexes for sure
Hell yeah it is a Heavy Bolter I’ve been getting into 40k lore
The concept of the bolt pistol exists as well, developed for the Vietnam war, but proved too complicated and problematic.
Ed don't give any more ideas to Wargaming.... They will sell each module from this tank as a separate vehicle. And you can unlock the hen only when you have all the modules.... 🐔
Sell the Hen first. That way you have to buy the Chicks, individually, in order to use it. For US$300.00 you can get it as bundle.
Lol
I'd still buy it...
It's such a cool concept vehicle
I call them Wargambling with their love of loot boxes in World of Warships.
Some Warhammer models are literally made of two smaller ones, rearranged. The exalted seeker chariot is two regular seeker chariots in a trench coat
We already have AE Phase I , look similar to it
Senior Designer: "This design is great, but it needs ramjets, and lots of them. Just work them in somehow."
And a legend was born.
This looks like a GI JOE concept toy, not a logical weapons system. Awesome video.
17:03
I think that I have a clue about how this one was intended to be operated.. We can see a wee periscope at the front of the turret assembly and the giant prism in front of it (probably intended to protect the rockets from damage on the march) is transparent. So probably there actually was a second crew member - he just had to ooze himself inside the vehicle in order to operate it.
'oooze' indeed - lol
In modern terms the driver would just have to drive the vehicle into range then flip the arming switch and the system would fire on targets digitally handed off. What that translates to in terms of early 1950s tech, I don't know.
I love this project, impresive !
Thank you! Cheers!
This is completely insane. Let's figure out how many things could possibly go wrong in the field and then build a vehicle that combines them all!
WW2 Germany:
Government: **Gives a near infinite budget to the military**
Military: **Absolute fucking insanity**
Post-ww2 US:
Government: **Gives a near infinite budget to the military**
Military: **Absolute fucking insanity**
🤔
Hahaha Paperclip goes BRRRRRRRRR
What is worth more than a gold pot at the end of the rainbow?
A defence contract 😀
Germany got infinite budget to the military as early as a world war away (6 years) from WWII. USA lowered its budget on military drastically after WWII witch can be seen at the Korean war.
@@galahad3195 you imediately made me visualize military research as paperclip maximizers for "absolute fucking insanity"
@@Paciat The Korean War was a wakeup call that kicked us in the ass and made sure that we never let our defense budget lessen, though letting that run on forever will be a future problem that Eisenhower already warned us about.
I tought the drawings of these I saw here and there were complete fiction...
Even if they didn't reach the wooden mockup or prototype stage, the work on this project and the level of details is very impressive !
Still crazy for me though ! :)
The French got it right with their amx-13. A small tracked thing able to do tons of stuff. Without being bizarre, costly and/or hard to maintain/repair...
My dad worked on a boosted Rocket project for the F-89 Scorpion interceptor. The project lost out to the Folding Fin Aircraft Rocket 2.75 Inch. Interesting idea accurate as all hell. Full auto burst all rounds into a 36" diameter target at a 1,000 Yards. Bloody expensive in machining time for full production. Air Force wanted a bit more spread thus the rockets also easier to make in bulk..
Ramjet tank shells might just be the coolest thing I've heard of this year
This sounds like something Clan Hell's Horses would design in BattleTech.
Was thinking the same!
phew, that is a crazy design! Thanks for the informative video, ed! I'm enjoying the series very much!
>A 105mm Heavy Bolter..
I didn't know you could even fit a Vulcan Megabolter into a vehicle that small. :^)
Leave it with an ork for 30 minutes and he'll have 5 of them fitted... no one else will be able to work out how the damn thing works or doesn't fall to bits every time it moves let alone firing.
This channel is so underrated this is a great channel to tank history with so much detail love your content
Much appreciated! im hoping it will grow more
Excellent ideas, great analysis and a really stimulating programme. More yet please. Juices flowing
Looks like this tank is what inspired many of the 80's GI Joe toys.
There WAS one...Cobra got it...
They recently added the Yoh tanks to World of Tanks, now we need this lol.
If modern cgi was made of the vehicle, it would not take many modifications to the narration to seem like this was made for a video game to be portraying a 2055 tank instead of a 1955 design
Seems like anything produced by Seibu Kaihatsu (the Raiden series of games), Capcom, or Video System / SNK.
I like your comment on the trailer unit. Well made video, and even though the project was a predestined failure, it's still really interesting!
First of even archive videos to really get me going WTF multiple times. Nice and keep it up!
Love the modularity of this design. Something that will become more common, although not quite as extreme as this example.
The Chick part of it seems to have been brought into the future in the form of the HMMWV variants.
Thank you for sharing this.
a ramjet round
I love it!
I just love you historical stories about tanks!
Some how this reminded me of a road train concept, Wonder if that will ever become a thing... not just trucks with lots of small containers, but a proper train setup that could be ridiculously long but still drive on normal roads.
That's the coolest looking tank I've seen in a long time
I like this idea, instead of shipping thousands of different vehicles, only ship 1 vehicle type with different modules
Checks the release date of the video to ensure that it isn't April 1st.
Conclude that this was a publicity stunt development that looks flashy, but would gain as much traction as a passenger sedan in the Florida Everglades.
This reminds me alot of the weapon platforms that Zeon used in the original Gundam series.
I love this stuff!!! Well done!!
Thank you! Cheers!
If the disk in the center acted as an axis for turning between the 2 track section, allowing for easier city/forest maneuverability around obstacles, with the turret sperate but interior/above that center piece, I'd actually think this would make a good infantry support vehicle in urban and woodland combat, possibly even in rocky terrain like mountains. 360 turret access of the field with the ability to turn on a dime, with two engines for faster speed and greater torque? You'd have to stick with medium armoring for mobility, making it more a support than a tank, but that's huge right now. Infantry support vehicles and infantry transport are overcoming tanks right now as modular weapon systems are being made more compact and easily equipped to vehicles. I'm down for it. The smaller models I'd simply replace with APCs, but still.
Now I know where Hasbro got it’s ideas from for my 1980’s G.I.Joe and Cobra action set pieces, and vehicles from. 😃
Its a decent way to come up with unique items for a toy (and cartoon) range really. GW have done similar numerous times with one of their first tanks being based on the fv432.
Next time someone claims engineers have no imagination, show them this.
Makes a Mk V Ogre Cybertank seem positively plain and dull!
Absolutely bloody bonkers I’d love to know what they were snorting/Smoking when they came up with this! Must be some bloody brilliantly stuff, still they deserve an award for “out of the box thinking” its so out of the box I think they threw it away.
Thank you for the great finds!
If I blur my vision, I am sure it be something I seen from command and conquer renegade or some generous action toy line.
"Please stop showing us these nutty science fiction tanks, folks."
-Gen. Joseph Collins
I like the idea of interchangeable platforms.
if war thunder add this game im going back to that game
Gaijin please
This went down the rabbit hole.
*Well made video , it's really interesting !!!*
Glad you enjoyed it
I can somewhat see the chick module having a C-RAM style system installed,
That would sorta give you the mobile ability to knock out incoming rockets as long as they can still be locked on. But you would definitely need more than just the driver in it.
And some sort of MLRS might be nice to have. Portable power that is still near the rear and could put rounds down range and leave artillery batteries freed up to move to another location, granted it would need more than 6 rounds or it would be pointless. But you would still need the logistics and teams to refit it.
Definitely thinking outside the box.
A 105mm heavy bolter... FOR THE EMPEROR!
I wonder if we don't see rough echoes of these ideas with the Abrams supported by the Bradley? Obviously both owe their concept to the Battleship and Destroyer escort plans that came from the RN thanks to Beatty and Fisher in the years post-Dreadnought and prior to the Great War.
Modern military vehicles also use the modular design. This is one of the earliest examples I've seen of such an idea.
Finally , the AE phase 2
Every toy company in America sighed in sorrow when this wasn't adopted.
That never stopped Hasbro before. It wouldn't stop an imaginative Toy line today. The Chick-n-Hen would be some crazy toy kit where you would need to buy two chicks, which would come with weapons modules, and then the main gun or different gun sections (it's a little confusing by you get the idea, I hope). Canons, missile racks, AA batteries, and so on.
@@DocWolph Nah, you sell the whole thing as a box set, just in time for Christmas.
1 Hen, 2 Chicks (all pre-assembled), plus one each of the other modules.
Plus throw in a set of army men figures.
@@station240
That would be the big box. But yo could do the smaller sets as well.
These would be so much fun in a tank computer game.
The ramjet version, driver only would make perfect sense as part of a satellite / drone overview targetting connected to multiple the tanks to coordinate a strike from dispersed positions
...Look outside the box... "However, this team seems to chewed their way through a PHARMACY box to it..." OMG Coffee out the nose eyes crying LMAO for 5 minuets moment!!! Thank you for the best laugh of the week
That was a fun episode, interesting to see what new thinking there was around in the 50s. Altho if this concept had been brought forward in the 60s, it would have been, no doubt dismissed out of hand, as being a result of the designers taking too much LSD! Lol.
Great to see new stuff from this channel, as always. Keep em coming & toodle pip!👍🏻🤗
While commonality of parts and thus design is not a bad thing, if it is designed to be taken apart it has places where it will fall apart. This is nuts. And Im now scared- showing this means that people in the DOD who love buzwords like "modular" and "adaptable" and "future proof" will dust this idea off.
*Watching Gundam Seed's Striker packs: Cool looking but stupidly impractical
USA: We tried, even planned to make it shoot miniature planes
Its quite nostalgic because there are tanks that looks like this at red alert 3
It's kind of just describing a modern armoured division with all of its needs.
Indeed, I concur that a lot of these concepts will likely become viable technologies before too long but maybe some already have...
I don't just mean the chicken and the hen concept which could conceivably use unmanned ground vehicles these days but also the ball missile.
It is similar to suspected unidentified aerial spy vehicles which have harrased and stalked US Navy assets in the Eastern Pacific over the last twenty years. Official reports and expert testimony suggest they could belong to a near peer nation (according to some in the Pentagon). Some sort of air pressurisation without another propellant may be the means of powering these spinning spheres.
The objects in question can also apparently dive beneath the waves and transit under the water. A lot of people call them UFOs and suggest extraterrestrial origin but it is worth noting that both Russia and the US had projects along this line of thought during the Cold War. So, maybe the funding slowed but somebody's project dragged itself from concept to completion none the less?
note it could also be the US testing its own assets on its own assets, as if it breaks down or gets shot down it wouldn't fall into enemy hands that way.
Hell yeah heavy bolter. For the Emperor
Every time you called the .30 caliber machine gun a .30 inch machine gun or a .30 inch gun, the first thing that popped in my mind is just call it a .30 caliber machine gun because that's what everyone calls it you don't see or hear people calling the fifty-caliber machine gun a .50 inch machine gun or a .50 inch gun
It is how such things are typically called in the UK though a lot of the time.
this is unironic genius
I was in the process of typing, "is this tank designed by Hasbro?" when you said the same thing in the video lol.
SO WHAT CAME FIRST AN EGG OR A CHICK , VERY GOOD EXPLANATION 👍.
It’s like a transformer , and if one half gets damaged the other half swaps to a smaller caliber canon and continue to fight .
I actually like this concept .
I think the Hen is kinda stupid, but if they decided to NOT include the weird Liquid propellent or gyrojets it'd be fine. because we've been already been working on apfsds at that time, which is far better.
They should have named this thing the "How Much Dumb Design Decisions Can We Cram Into This Chicken Coop" tank.
🤯
ramjet powered shells?🧐🤷♂️
out of the box thinking alright
not really, the concept is being aproached again today
Man I love
I’ll start right away
man those long tracks and the advantage is more turning
First thing I think of when seeing the thumbnail was the Tsunami tank.
That Yoh tank video is interesting.
A modular light vehicle able to be configured for any mission is a great idea, but the layout of the Chick seems like it would be pretty back heavy and unable to depress the gun very well since weapons systems and ammunition are mounted in the rear and the motor is mounted and fuel are mounted in the middle with nothing in the front to really counter the weight. Also if the Chicks are meant to be able to be put together into a Hen to serve as a proper medium tank, how thick would the Chick's armor be? Seems excessive to have exactly the same amount of rear hull armor as the front.
Sooo is this the tank that inspired Westwood to create the Apocalypse tank?
Love the Warhammer reference
engineer: who ever said missles need to be missle shaped?
tanker grunt: fires rocket propelled cannon ball with skull and crossbones spray painted on the side
Somehow in the 60s they seemed to be frequently dreaming up very expensive and complicated weapons.
That are still cheaper than a single missile our current military uses. :P
So this where the UNSC Scorpion tanks idea came from.
still like the design, im a sucker for quad-track tanks
Great video. I have one remark related to the logo with the horse at 3:50. I think that's not a Continental-Motors logo.
I assume the one you included is from the german tire manufacturer Continental that was founded in 1871.
ahh dang, you are right, i went though a lgo site and stuff, but yes it appears this is for the tire firm, il add a sticky note - cheers
A side shot to the Hen would go straight into the Turret basket. Had it been made, I bet that the Hen would have needed to have been built up on the side adding extra modules. Which defeats the purpose of the entire thing. “Hang in Commies, we haven’t finished assembling our tanks yet..”
Sounds like filling for the "Christmas Loot Boxes" for World of Tanks 2022!!!
Very interesting indeed. I suppose that the 2021 version would be all armour at the front, then the projectile device, then everything else behind that. If nothing else, it would confuse the hell out of the opposition!
Well looked here. The f35 isn't the first multipurpose boondoggle in us history lol
Ramjet artillery is the latest thing (but clearly not a new idea!)
'Box? What box? I don't see any box--do you??'
The hen would allow for bigger tanks given the load is distributed more (why someone wants gigantic tank aside they are if you want style awesome is the other question)
But if one wants to have a very mobile big gun not used for the very front line but mobile enough to stay just behind and quick reposition as things change...
I know the finnish army has an concept of 4 artillery pieces on an terrain able truck that fires volleys and then runs that can lay waste on an big area and not be where it fired from when the first round hits.
When i a World of Tanks player think that they are just printing out joke tanks and such then i finde these videos .
Starcraft Siege Tank detected!
Interestingly enough, this design looks a lot like the BOLO/OGRE concept from a series of sci-fi books (I can't remember the author), at least a predecessor to those ludicrous ideas.
I was facepalming within the first minute ahahaha. The guys on the Astron team must have been high.
We almost had the closest thing to a combining mecha IRL.