Armoured Snowmobile Mk.II, Mudcat and Muskrat
These versions of the Armoured Snowmobile were, of course, designed to meet a British requirement for an amphibious armoured vehicle for use in tropical conditions (indeed the Army Technical Development Board's report on the Mk.II calls the project "Jungelization of the Snowmobile"). The Armoured Snowmobile was considered suitable for adaptation because it performed so well in marshy terrain, and it was believed it could be made amphibious with a few modifications. It turned out to be not quite that simple and Mk.II was essentially an interim development pending development of the fully amphibious Mudcat and Muskrat versions - once their pilots were ready, the ATDB terminated the Mk.II project on 30 November 1945. The final status report on ATDB projects - before it was would up at the end of December 1946 - state that the Mudcat, the Muskrat, (and the tracked Jeep) were undergoing performance and reliability trials in northern terrain.
Does anyone know the outcome of these trials? Did the Penguin design owe anything to the Mudcat/Muskrat development?
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