The next generation of tanks that is being developed are extremely flat, the lowest just about 5 feet tall. This is because tank commanders love to hide behind hills and stuff. But then you have to drive out to attack, wasting time. I imagine that instead of mounting the cannon in a turret and bolting that to the hull, you could take the gun out and stick it on a mechanical arm. It's normally folded up, pointing out of the hull like a regular cannon. But when the tank is hiding behind a hill or in a low area of ground it can suddenly raise the cannon 15 feet into the air, aim at the enemy through the gun-cam, and blast away before lowering it back into safety. Should the enemy be prepared and manage to hit the cannon with a grenade, it will still be a lot less harmful to the crew than a direct hit on the hull. When used to attack infantry, a high-powered loudspeaker emits a thunderous "PEEK A BOO" before firing.
-- undercover_neandertal, Oct 13 2004

Chet Atkins album cover http://tralfaz-arch...atkins_popular.html
peek-a-boo nightie [normzone, Oct 13 2004]

(?) Peekaboo http://www.phespiri...otes/peek_a_boo.htm
Golly Jeepers! Where d'you get those weepers? [gnomethang, Oct 13 2004]

Coast Defence Study Group Homepage http://www.cdsg.org/
Shows Disappearing Rifles -- Best pictures at bottom [hangingchad, Nov 30 2004]

Swedish S-type http://en.wikipedia...wiki/Stridsvagn_103
A tank conceived as a defensive weapon [AbsintheWithoutLeave, Feb 04 2009]

[longshot] Tank cannons are exceedingly heavy devices. They're also very complex, and take a lot of machinery - most of the workings of modern tanks go towards rotating the turret or moving the tank itself.

I'm bunning this just for the "peekaboo!" loudspeaker.
-- shapu, Oct 13 2004


Disappointed that this was not a hybrid of the "tank-top" and the "peek-a-boo nightie"
-- normzone, Oct 13 2004


what a bizarre category for that fantasy.
-- po, Oct 13 2004


Not a bad idea - But be more likly to fail.
-- my-nep, Oct 13 2004


Per [Shapu]'s anno, you will blow the arm and cannon off the tank as you fire it. You need a lot of carefully distributed weight to be able to stick a large gun on a movable object. I am sure that all our respective militaries are on the same wavelength.
I thought that 'Peek-a-Boo' was played by Apache Helicopters in "Gulf I" ??
Apart from dear old Siouxie, of course!.
-- gnomethang, Oct 13 2004


I like this just because it would finally make throwing rocks at tanks an effective tactic. Just land one right between the base and cannon while it is popped up, and wait for the rock to gum things up, so to speak.
-- Laughs Last, Oct 14 2004


Gum things up while the gun thing's up. Good plan.
-- lostdog, Oct 14 2004


yeah, stone throwing youngsters are a pest... good thing these tanks don't exist, or certain high tech armies might be tempted to shoot them (what? they already do? Nevermind..)
-- undercover_neandertal, Oct 14 2004


The germans experimented with a similar solution to carry anti tank missiles: A large, telescoping arm mounted on a light tank, with a pair of ATGMs at the top.
-- Saruman, Nov 27 2004


Sort of like the Disappearing Rifles used in the Coast Artillery. See link
-- hangingchad, Nov 30 2004


Brilliant link [hangingchad] Those types of gun mounts have been around since the mid 1800s. A lot of countries in the Pacific installed similar coastal defense batteries around that time in response to the (very inaccurately perceived) threat from Russia.
-- ConsulFlaminicus, Nov 30 2004


:)
-- DesertFox, Dec 17 2004


I once saw a program about new tanks, where some country was developing their own tank with an raiseable turret. I think it got scrapped, because of the cost. I can't find a link at the moment, but I'll post if I do. The country might have been Sweden or Switzerland.

I don't believe the tank said "PEEK A BOO", more's the pity.
-- tiromancer, Dec 17 2004


Helicopters are already being fitted with TADS (Target Aquisition and Designation Systems) which use a cluster of cameras mounted above the rotors allowing them to lock on to targets while hiding behind hills. The chopper can then either hop up, shoot and duck down again, or fire guided missiles over the top. These could easily be adapted to stick up from tanks, control the aiming system and allow the tanks to fire over the hill. Used like this they might benefit from shorter guns that can be used like mortars.
-- wagster, Dec 17 2004


//The country might have been Sweden or Switzerland.//

It wouldn't have been Switzerland; they gave up on building their own tank designs around 1968, for cost reasons I think.
-- pertinax, Feb 04 2009


//It wouldn't have been Switzerland; they gave up on building their own tank designs around 1968, for cost reasons I think//
Perhaps the acoustics of yodelling "peek-a-boo" defeated even their legendary ingenuity.
-- coprocephalous, Feb 04 2009


I like the idea of a lowrider tank. The operators would be semirecumbent, as with the bicycles. You could get down below 5 feet, I would think.
-- bungston, Feb 04 2009


"The operators would be semirecumbent..."
I'm pretty sure they are.

There's also no need raise the cannon to fire. Just raise a camera to peek over the hill, then aim the cannon up to fire over it.
-- phoenix, Feb 04 2009



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