Summary

In the late 1940s, during the Cold War, the development of new tanks accelerated. The British military considered the IS-3 to be one of the most dangerous opponents on the battlefield, leading to the creation of several projects aimed at countering it. One of these projects was the Vulcan, a medium tank with an unusual hull design and layout. It featured a heavily armored frontal section and a 123mm gun equipped with a loading mechanism. In order to keep the weight within 35 tons, the creators of the Vulcan actually abandoned the turret. Instead, they designed a structure with the gun mounted on top. The gun was fed with single shots from special containers located in a mechanized rack under the turret. The projectile was fed into the breech using a miniature rocket engine at the rear of the container. However, the tank's design proved to be too complex, and the loading mechanism was unreliable, leading to the abandonment of the project in favor of more conventional options.