Technical Problems
During the summer of 1979, the 'Weltwoche', then a highly regarded Swiss weekly, published an article regarding the shortcomings of the Panzer 68 that led to a scandal and, allegedly, to the resignation of the minister of defence, Rudolf Gnägi. In this article, the then chief of armoured forces of the Swiss army came to the conclusion that the Panzer 68 was "not fit for combat". A group of experts that was commissioned to produce a report in this matter listed dozens of technical problems. Among others, the NBC protection was found to be insufficient, forcing the crews to wear protective masks inside their tanks, thus greatly reducing the crew's performance. The experts also found out that the gearbox did not allow for shifting into reverse while the vehicle was moving, forcing the crew to stop the tank before reversing. To make things even worse, the radios used in the tank tended to interfere with the turret control system resulting in uncontrolled turret movements whenever the radios were used at full power.
A year before the Weltwoche article, another very dangerous fault was found. Switching on the heating system could lead to the main gun firing the round in the gun. This problem was caused by the fact that some systems shared the same electrical circuits. Luck would have it that this problem never led to any accidents. In a sarcastic headline the Blick, a Swiss tabloid, commented: "The Panzer 68 is much more dangerous than it seems!"
Most of the problems were resolved with the upgrade to the 68/88 model.
Read more about this topic: Panzer 68
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