page_title: Schützenpanzer Lang HS.30
section_title: Design and doctrine
hierarchical_section_title: Schützenpanzer Lang HS.30 / Design and doctrine
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Schützenpanzer (lang) (Zugtrupp) „Hispano-Suiza HS 30“ Besatzung: 1 + 5 Soldaten Gewicht: 14,6 Tonnen Motorleistung: 168 kW (229 PS) Bewaffnung: 1 Maschinenkanone 20 mm L/85 und 1 MG 7,62 mm Baujahr: 1958–1962 Stückzahl: 2176
context_page_description: The Schützenpanzer Lang HS.30 was a West German infantry fighting vehicle developed from 1956 to 1958. It was a Swiss Hispano-Suiza design, with a Rolls-Royce engine. After some early mechanical problems, only 2,176 were built of the 10,680 planned. It was armed with a 20-mm cannon, which was an unusually powerful weapon for an armoured personnel carrier of the period.
  Its design proved to have many flaws and drawbacks, and the construction was followed by a great political scandal in West Germany in the 1960s. 2,176 SPz HS.30 and variants were built until 1962, for which the German government paid 517 million DM, or about 238,000 DM per vehicle. The HS.30 first entered service with the Panzergrenadier battalions in 1960 and was replaced by the Marder infantry fighting vehicle from 1971.
context_section_description: Rejecting American doctrine that an armored personnel carrier should serve as a "battlefield taxi" and not as an assault vehicle, the Germans developed the HS.30 as a vehicle to fight alongside tanks and from which their mechanized infantry could fight from under cover. The German military came to this decision as a result of its World War II experience with Panzergrenadiere (armored infantry). German doctrine saw the SPz 12-3 as part of the squad's equipment, and the squad was trained to fight with the vehicle in both offense and defense. Unlike the American M113, the HS.30 could not float, but as German doctrine envisaged the HS.30 as a component in operations combined with main battle tanks that also lacked such a capability, this was not seen as a grave disadvantage.
  The HS.30 mounted a small turret with a Hispano-Suiza HS.820 20-mm autocannon and a 15×15 periscopic sight. The role of the 20-mm autocannon in German doctrine was to engage helicopters, anti-tank weapons, and light armored vehicles, thus freeing tanks to concentrate their fire against other tanks. Even with the turret, the HS.30 was fully two feet (~0.6 m) lower in height than the M113 - no small advantage on an armored battlefield. The vehicle had an onboard supply of 2,000 rounds of 20 mm ammunition.  Frontal armor provided protection against 20-mm projectiles, which was stronger than comparable vehicles of other nations.  The additional armor made the HS.30 four tons heavier than the M113, even though it could only carry half as many troops.  For the squad members to fire their personal weapons while mounted, roof hatches had to be opened with the soldiers sticking up out of the hatches.  The Germans considered this a significant disadvantage as their likely opponent, the Soviet Army, was expected to use chemical agents in any war between NATO and the Warsaw Pact.
  Despite the German army's insistence on a true infantry fighting vehicle rather than just an armored personnel carrier, the Panzergrenadier brigades included an infantry battalion that was carried initially on trucks and later with M113 APCs. This force composition likely resulted as much from cost considerations as it did from doctrine that called for one third of the Panzergrenadiere to be a motorized force.
caption: HS.30 as presented in the German Tank Museum in 2008
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