Tank Chats #109 | Scorpion & TV15000 | The Tank Museum

Yey! I was gunner in one during Op Granby. Many memories. Once in West Germany we were on FTX going flat out on a road, - Our left hand track snapped, driver reacted by slamming on the brakes, which sent us in to a spin, and we ended up, upside down in a ditch. Luckily none or us were injured. A passing Brigadier came and asked us if anyone was hurt, I answered ‘yes sir I am. We did a 360, and a summersault - And nobody even clapped’. I think he laughed.

In Ireland we loved them so much we used them until they fell apart and couldn't be put back together. Despite the fumes it was great for the Irish landscape with its weight we could easily get it out to the Glen of Imaal for a shoot and without a county council shouting at them for damaging the roads. It also gave the crews a good experience with tracked armored vehicles which we didn't have much of and without them we were mostly improvising to see what we could come up with as we weren't in NATO but wanted to stay a neutral country that could defend itself either at home in Ireland or overseas in UN Peacekeeping missions. So big thanks to England for the tanks, Suas Sasana agus Éire . (Up England and Ireland.)

The little snippets that Fletcher drops in are what make these chats so enjoyable.

"...crewed by a team of naked men.." That was a strange tangent, David!

The 'Action Man' scorpion tank was the must have toy of the 70's.They even used one in an episode of Dr Who. I would have loved to have the real thing.

brings back memorys, when i was 15 and hiking alone with a Bottle of Boose in the Solling forrest, was 5-6 km deep into the woods when i saw a Tank standing near a loogingroad in front of a tree, the Tank had a crash with the tree and few big Bolts from the first wheel were broken. iknocked on the Tank and 3 belgium /flamish tanker came out, spoke with them and they told me about the crash and that this was the Commanders vehicle, the Commander stopped the next Scimitar or Scorpion took over the Vehicle and left the other 2 crewmen togehter with his own Driver back at the broken Tank but he gave them a bottle of Wiskey. The belgiums invited me into the Turret and we drunk Wikey and my "Jaegermeister" boose, i ask them about this Tank and the told me the Jaguar Engine isnt good/reliable and they didnt really love this small thing, the 2 crewmen from the "other Tank" also told me that they got a Leopard 1 kill the day before near Offensen, then i realised it was the same unit i met a day before in the forrest near my hometown. Later they teached me how to use the optics to get a kill, had a lot of fun in the lil Tank with the crew and the Tank and it was the only time someone explained to me how to Aim with a Tank gun because i served later with 19 in a marinestyle unit in the german Navy. i didnt know how long they stand on this place until a recovery vehicle arrived but they had at least a bit of wiskey left in the bottle to come over all the waiting

My Dad bought me the die cast Scorpion from your gift shop best part of 40 years ago! I remember it came with a little bit of green netting for camouflage. Thanks for a great memory of a day with him and my grandfather who was 8th Army .

alumillium - british response to stallinium!

My father was stationned in west germany in a belgian light armored cavalry squadron. He was commander in Scorpion and Scimitar during the Cold War and as UN blue helmet in Somalia and Yougoslavia. He is now retired after 40 years of duty and I am really proud of him.

Nice one. Few snippets: The Scorpion was built of 7039 aluminium alloy rather than the 5083 type used on the M113. This actually WAS lighter than either steel or 5083 for a given level of protection, as well as reducing the requirement for internal stiffeners and frames as David describes. At the time, the only other use of 7039 was the in the hull of the M551 Sheridan, but not the turret, making Scorpion the first AFV to be entirely made of the stuff. Welding techniques had to be carefully researched and developed for the 7039 to make sure it didn't become brittle during manufacture and end up cracking in service. As it was, Scopion 90s, upgunned with a Cockerill 90mm weapons, have suffered turret cracking from the increased recoil anyway. When the spec was being written, worldwide deployment in the world of the mid 1960s was being considered, and so the width of the hull was actually set by the distance between trees in a Malaysian rubber plantation of all things! This in turn set the hull length due to skid-steering ratios, which explains the small size. I've heard the 'fumes' reason for withdrawing the Scorpion, but I've also heard an alternative, or possibly complimentary, explanation, namely that the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty (CFE) defines THREE categories: 'Main Battle Tank (MBT)', Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV)', and 'Heavy Armament Combat Vehicle (HACV)', the latter being a catch-all to cover things like the Scorpion, AMX-10RC etc. The treaty then defines TWO sets of numerical limits, one for MBTs and one for IFV+HACVs. The Scorpion's 76mm gun got it classified as a HACV, but the Scimitar was completely unregulated, in fact it doesn''t even appear in the tables of existing vehicles in the treaty's appendix. This meant that every Scorpion which the UK kept would cost NATO a Bradley, Marder or Warrior, but we could keep as many Scimitars as we liked. Given the choice between Warriors and Scorpions, and given the huge numbers of RARDEN 30mm cannons entering service on the Warrior, the Army decided to standardise on the 30mm across the fleet, and as it happened, a handy solution presented itself. At about the same time, the Fox armoured cars were being withdrawn due to their nasty habit of rolling over, so their RARDEN-equipped turrets (similar but different to the Scimitar) were salvaged and refitted to Scorpion hulls to make Sabres. In some respects the Fox turrets were better than the Scimitar ones (better night-vision), but they did require an awkward adaptor to make them fit the Scorpion's turret ring. NOTE: comment rewritten 29/04/23 to reflect actual research I did after posting it, rather than just 2nd hand info.

I remember being overtaken by 3 scorpions on the A1 lol.....Never forget that!

As EX RAF Regiment, I have a great affection for this vehicle, loved whizzing around in them, happy memories , of Catterick, Germany and Cyprus.

I was trained on scorpion and spent 5 years in spartan and striker. They have their pro's and con's. During an international exercice I was being evaluated by a German umpire in a Luchs ( a slick 8 wheeled reconaissance vehicle with drivers front and rear) and I had to make a dash to an OP. I got there in time, the umpire didn't. He estimated my speed at a good 68 mph and he didn't dare following us because of stability reasons ( the Luchs officially only reaches 56 mph anyway). To be honest, at moments like that you put a lot of trust in the tracks and even more so in the skills of your driver and keep your fingers crossed. So speed and maneuvrability? Definitely! Reliability? Muh... Protection? Paper thin aluminum, right... Discrete? ( it's a reconnaissance vehicle after all). Well, it's not big of course but a backfiring engine ( with its exhaust next to you so you are deaf within 10 minutes) and tracks that rattle so much you can hear us coming from at least a mile away didn't give me the impression I was 'sneaking my way in'. Armament? The 76 mm handled more as an artillery piece, the 30mm was rather decent. With the striker you could effectively deliver a good punch up to 2,5 miles depending on training and skills of your pilot. In short, the CVR-T series could play an interesting role on the battlefield due to its speed, maneuvrability and low silhouette and to a certain degree their armament but much would depend on the role they were given but due to their vulnerability the crews have to be extremely good trained in all aspects of their trade.

How to avoid people complaining about aluminum or aluminium? Just say alumillium.

Toxic fumes? We had these also in our Marder APC, but they were mostly discharged by the crew itself.

The comments section is gold dust - loads of ex-crews of these wonderful vehicles sharing their experiences. Don't miss it!

Ohh the memories. My action man sitting in the top of his tank.

Scorpions seemed pretty big when I saw them used in the New Zealand Army. Mind you, I was only ten years old at the time

Indonesia and the Philippines have used this tank quite well for years. It was quite a nimble and effective vehicle in mountainous jungle terrain. Indonesia had a version that was equipped with a Cockerill 90mm gun. We loved these tanks. Thanks for the video, Sir Fletcher.

Ahhh...brings back memories of being on my Scimitar cruising round Hohne ranges....obeying the speed limit of course....