The Centurion tank was the South African MBT since 1957, 250 Mk 2 and Mk 3 were purchased bought directly from the UK, but after a later government veto, Mk.5 were obtained from India and Jordan. But in 1970 the UN imposed an ever-more-restrictive arms embargo due to its apartheid practices and repeated human rights violations, forcing the government of Pretoria to develop its own arms industry (with some covered help from Israel, France and the United States) to upgrade the Centurion. The long, protracted Border Wars in Namibia and Angola also gave the impediment to pursue and fund these upgrade programs.
In 1972 already, a SADF (South African Defence Forces) Centurion was experimentally fitted with a 810 hp V-12 petrol engine with injection, coupled to a new three-speed automatic transmission. The Skokiaan prototype program was however halted after only eight further conversions. It was followed by the Semel program in 1974, refurbishing the eight Skokiaan, and converting more Centurions with a modified engine and other improvements. This Centurion Mk.5A/Semel counted a total of 35 conversions, soon used operationally. This was followed in 1976 by the more ambitious Olifant Mk.1, leading to a prototype the same year, and two others in 1977 and 1978. This program was carried out by OMC Engineering (Pty) Limited (Olifant Manufacturing Company), known today as Reumech OMC. Infomations about the Israelis Sho't program (Local Centurion conversion) also helped greatly this firm to achieve its objectives.
The Olifant Mk.1 used the Semel power pack, a V-12 diesel engine developing 750 hp coupled to a semi-automatic transmission. The operational range is raised considerably thanks to fuel-efficiency, and the fuel tanks themselves had more capacity. But the suspensions, turret drives and vision equipments were also all enhanced. The tank commander is provided with a hand-held laser range-finder for the first time. This pre-serie was followed by the standardized Olifant Mk.lA in 1983. This version received the new 105 mm L7 rifled tank gun.
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Yes, this tank is in War Thunder.
I think this tank will be a fine addition to the game and it's something different compared to the tanks we've been seeing coming up. In a sense it is just a centurion, but if they change some characteristics to make it somewhat interesting it would be nice gameplay wise, I think it is a good change of pace. I think this tank would either be a tier 8 or 9 in the game and would rest in the British Tech Tree. I might also be stretching it and saying that Afrikaans voicelines for the tank would also be insane!
We already have the Centurion 5/1…what's stopping the Olifant Mk1 from shoving his tusks into a Russian T55?
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Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/WorldofTanks/comments/wl7jzk/add_denelreumech_olifant_mark_1_mbt/
