NationStates Jolt Archive

It's already in use on warships, so why not use it on tanks? But what's it, you ask? Armour. Called Alloy Alpha by the Imperial Joint Strategic Command, it was originally jointly developed by the Imperium, Freethinkers, and Doujin to improve protection on warships like the Doujin class. Being only slightly heavier than titanium alloys it provides much greater protection that greatly reduces the chance of a critical missile hit. This got Imperial Army procurement officers thinking, why not use a system similar to Chobham and improve upon it by using alloys instead of hardened steel for the primary armour component?

So, here's the new system:
Two layers of Alloy Alpha sandwich a middle layer osmium mesh and an inner layer of honeycombed Alloy Beta (a derivative of Alpha that uses composites to give the metal a little "give".) On an M-7 Jackson this results in an RHA of 1600mm against SABOT and 2,600mm against HEAT. The armour upgrade, along with IR and radar blinders as well as a tactical system similar to IVIS, will see the tank being designated the M-7A1.

we inquire if this is for Sale. if so, we want 100 to Supplement our Leopard Is.

The M-7 Jackson is currently available for sale using second generation Chobham (called Dorchester) but the M-7A1 will not be for sale because of a standing agreement between the parties who developed the armour.

[The Jackson can be found here: http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=110533&highlight=]

[bump for further comments]

[I would have expected some kind of response other than a single hopeful buyer.]

What would your protection estimates be on a light tank?

It depends on the armour. Our armour, called Kiev after the city in which the Jackson's factory is located, is twice as effective as the Chobham on the M-1A2 Abrams. So, if you use Chobham, just multiply the RHA ratings by two.

[Bump, I want to see what others have to say.]