Firepower - War on Wheels (Part 2/3) 

What's your source on that mate? Many of the senior commanders of the Armoured Corps are veterans of the SADF and the Border War. The current commander of all armoured elements, Brigadier General A. Retief and his predecessor, Brigadier General B.C. Gildenhuys, both served in SWA and Angola during the final years of the Border War and are perfectly aware of the difference between the tactical use of armoured cars and tanks. Do these people sound like commanders who would make such a grave mistake? P.S. the Rooikat 76 can penetrate the frontal hull and turret armour of any rust bucket our neighbours can throw at us at a longer range they can engage us with.

danieb52 I live in Bloemy near Tempe where 1 SSB is based. Last time we were down there I spoke to a kat crew commander who said that was all they did the last time they were at Lohatla (frontal assaults across open terrain, etc). According to the textbook, engaging other armour and suppressing infantry should be the responsibility of the Olifants. For example during the Border War we killed those bloody useless T-55s with Ratel 90s and even the poor noddys, but they still weren't designed for that role.

Hermann Pretorius I get what you are saying, but I don't think that these frontal assault maneuvers are meant to replace the role of the Olifant. Instead I think they are meant to provide fire support and armoured reconnaissance to a mechanized unit that lacks a heavy armoured unit (like most battlegroups that saw combat north of the border in the 70's and 80's). For most of the war our main anti-tank vehicle was in fact the Eland 90 and Ratel 90, since the Olifants only saw action during Op. Modular and Packer in '88. Most likely we'll never actually face tanks in our corner of the world and if we do it will most likely be poorly trained motley T-55 crews using extremely old Soviet era tactics (which are easily outflanked). As far as I know the Rooikat can actually penetrate the frontal armour of a T-55/62 from over 2 km away (which is further than their max. engagement range). So you know what, as long as they don't face a more modern MBT and use the classic SADF hit-and-run armoured car tactics, the Rooikat can act as a supplement to the Olifant MBTs.

maybe they wanted to develope their own industry? if south africa was still a protectorate they probably would have

Your absolutely right, we see again and again that our generals and politicians are complete idiots just goog at spending money to invent the wheel again and again.