World of Tanks: Cobra, Upcoming British Medium Tank

World of Tanks will see some brand new British tanks introduced soon, but for now, we can confirm that a brand new Premium medium is incoming: Cobra. No details were leaked, but looking at the official information about this tank, we can guess it will most probably be a Tier VIII medium tank.

Aa set of criteria were set by the British School of Tank Technology to design a new medium gun tank, and work on the Cobra started in November 1954. The criteria specified that the weight was not to exceed 36 tons and have a stabilized gun that could penetrate 150mm of armour at 60º at a distance of 1,8km. Additionally, the vehicle should be well protected, with armour no less than 120mm at 60º and the crew would have to be three-man with the commander doubling as the loader.

Due to the limitations of normal ammunition used at the time and the requirement to penetrate 150mm of armour, it was decided that a 120mm QF gun would be used with HEAT rounds as its main offensive munition, HESH as secondary, mounted in an oscillating turret. The main gun depression would have been of -10º and elevation of +20º.  The turret armour was 120mm at 60º in the front, with a curved compound angle in excess of 300mm in some places. This would result in a spaced layer between the two plates offering up to 600mm effective armour. The vehicle would also be equipped with an autoloader with a capacity of 6 rounds per minute.

Cobra’s hull would be rather simple, has the base was of the Comet medium tank but modified. Powered by a Meteorite engine with 495bhp, giving it the potential of 43km/h forward speed, and 14 km/h reverse speed. Various types of armour were considered but in the end, it was designed with a 120mm at 60º frontal armour, offering 240mm effective armour on the upper and lower glacis plate, while the sides were much thinner with on 25mm armour. The rear decking plates were to be taken from a Centurion tank, with 20mm armour thickness. The vehicle weight would have been of 32.2 tons, giving it a power/weight ratio of 15.4 bhp.

The Cobra did reach the stage of a wooden mockup, but it was ultimately cancelled due to not be able to operate on contaminated ground.

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Harkonnen

Tank Nut and Gamer Wannabe! Huge fan of tanks and World War II history. Playing video games since I was six years old, from Streets of Rage on my Sega Mega Drive to World of Tanks, I’ve never stopped since and will always love games.

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