could WW2 tanks be modernized?

[Roysalipuran]

Just a question that popped into my head while i was sleeping last night.. before i went to sleep i played a game of Panzer Front.. (a tank simulation game for the PSX which still rocks in terms of gameplay) and that got me thinking.. If (lets say) a King Tiger was Refitted with a new engine, A Lazer-range finder and some thermal-imaging and a lowed profile... "COULD IT BE SENT TO THE GOLAN HIGHTS AND SURVIVE FOR 10 DAYS? and if it did could it stand up to some modern tanks?
:confused:

[General Nuke Em]

If you mounted a railgun on it as well I'd give it a 50/50 chance unless the IAF engages in some friendly fire.

[Roysalipuran]

lol....

lol.... i meant being serious (and yes I'm aware that there are functioning rail-guns now.. but they are still to big...) any other tanks you think would be good?

[Fire and Steel]

I would imagine it would not be terribly hard to penetrate the armor of a King Tiger these days.

Your average RPG-7 could probably tear the thing apart since it's designed to have some armor piercing ability against modern tanks. Against a modern tank, I imagine it'd have no chance at all.

[Roysalipuran]

Yeah.. unless you upgrade it with composite armor (or something similar to the british challengers armor.. then i think it would stand a chance)

[Fire and Steel]

Then you'd just be building a new tank. So why use the old one in the first place? :D

[Rischer]

or something similar to the british challengers armor..

You must be referring to Chobham armour.

What's the point of upgrading a King Tiger? It's speed would render it effectively useless in today's high-mobility battlefield and it's gun has been superseded.

And as FaS pointed out, if you added anything new, it would be a new tank.

[Roysalipuran]

well i was just theorizing on what could happen if you did... and what would you do?

[Worf]

Could this forum be upgraded into a fiction board?

The answer is no. Given that this forum is dedicated to WWII history and not wether some 70 years old equipment could be upgraded I'm locking this thread.

Plus, "what if"-threads rarely lead to a good discussion since it's pure speculation that can hardly be backed up by facts.