NationStates Jolt Archive

T-115 Main Battle Tank

http://battle-tank.by.ru/tank_t-64/t64_img/t64_19.jpg

[Mod: That OK?]


Introduction

The T-115, developed to succeed the T-94B and T-95M, is the next in the line of armoured fighting vehicles from Red Star Industries' Colossus Tank Plants. T-115 is designed to equal and/or better all existing tanks of its class in terms of protection, destructive power and mobility. Equipped with high-quality systems throughout, well-designed protection and a superb main armament, this truly is a next-generation tank.


General Information

Length: 9.35m
Breadth: 3.5m
Height: 2.6m
Weight: 79.5 tonnes
Ground Pressure: 0.295 Kg/Cm³
Ground clearance: 0.8m
Track Breadth: 0.95m

Crew: 3

Vertical. obstacle: 1.22m
Max. fording depth (unprepared): 2.0m
Max. Fording depth (prepared): 4.0m

Max. speed (road): 44 mph
Max. speed (off-road): 36-38 mph

Fuel (onboard): 660L
Fuel (outboard with piping): 440L


Armament

Main gun: The T-115 is armed with the TK-135E/51 (2A83) 135mm 51-calibre smoothbore Electro-Thermal-Chemical gun. This gun was developed from the 2A77 135mm smoothbore gun deployed aboard the navy's warships, and is capable of a rate of fire as high as one round every three seconds.
Elevation is to 37 degrees and depression to -9 degrees. Elevation is hydraulic and
traverse electric.
The TK-135E employs a vertical rotary loading system, which occupies the loader's position within the tank. Its operation can be found in detail at the end of this description. The loader carries 6 ready-use rounds, with the remaining rounds being stored in vertical racks within the tank.
The gun is also encased in a thermal sleeve and provided with a T-76 muzzle reference system.

Main gun ammunition types: APFSDS, HEAT, HEI-T, HE-FRAG, Smoke, ATGM (AT-21 Diamond (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=7205007&postcount=10))

Max. accurate range: 4.7Km
Max. range (indirect fire): 10.3Km

Max. Armour penetration at angle of 30 degrees, range 1,250m: 2,100mm RHA

Secondary weapons: One 12.7mm KORD-T Co-axial MG
One 14.5mm KPVT-1A AA MG.

Optional weapons: In place of the co-axial 12.7mm MG can be mounted:
ATO-135 flamethrower with 70L fuel tank
AGT-17 30mm automatic grenade launcher with 500 rounds



Defensive weapon systems

The T-115 carries a powerful suite of active, hard-kill countermeasures, in the form of the TCM-20 "Splinter" Close-in Weapons Suite. The TCM-20 again uses experience from naval operations in the "Falanga" CIWS, and comprises a large round of armoured launchers carried at the sides and rear of the tank in a ring. The TCM-20 employs a small MMW X-band radar atop the gun turret and a set of six Imaging Infra-red scanners to detect incoming missiles and projectiles. The data from these sensors is then processed by an onboard computer which is slaved to the main fire-control computer, and which employs all the data used by the FCC plus its own sensor data to calculate the object's path and impact point.

Depending upon the range of the projectile and its speed, the TCM-20 will release a flechette burst at varying ranges. For instance, should the weapon be an AT-16 missile, moving at around 500m/sec, at a range of 1,200m, the TCM-20 would fire one flechette burst at the missile, monitor the missile's flight and adjust fire as necessary. If the projectile were an incoming HEAT shell, however, due to the shell's high velocity, the TCM-20 would release one burst towards the projectile itself (with the appropriate deflection) and one along its' predicted flightpath at close range to the tank, increasing the probability of a hit.

The TCM-20's flechette bursts, which leave the launching "pod" in the form of a group of small fragmenting charges launched by small explosive "squibs," comprise on average 50 flechettes, each of 35mm length and 25mm diameter, tipped with a small HEI tip. The high density of the projectiles gives a probability of kill of between 0.65 for low-velocity shells and 0.94 for most ATGMs. TCM-20 is effective to a range of approximately 700m.


Armour

The T-115 carries multi-layer composite-based armouring, which is built as follows:


1) Outer layer of 35mm Tungsten Carbide, designed to deform DU and Tungsten penetrators.

2) Layer of ceramics encased in plastic resins, approx. 70mm thick.

3) Layer of Type 22 composites, comprising titanium alloy rods in a horizontal lattice trilayer with coatings of Vectran spun plastic fibre, set within thermosetting plastics.

4) Layer of 20mm thermosetting foam plastic.

5) Layer of Type 22 composites.

6) Steel main body of tank.

7) Synthetic, lead-based layer for use in elimination of neutron radiation.

Frontal armour equivalent RHA: 2,050mm
Side armour equivalent RHA: 1,500mm
Rear armour equivalent RHA: 420mm
Roof armour RHA equivalent: 450mm
Belly armour RHA equivalent: 100mm


Electronics

Fire-control system

The T-115's main fire-control system for the main and secondary armament is the CTFC-11 IFCS, developed by the Colossus Section's Electronics Lab (CEL).

The CTFC-11 gives very high accuracy to all firing, be it stationary or when in motion, against all targets, be they stationary or in motion. It employs the latest in high-power CPUs to allow it to process even the smallest changes in terrain with extraordinary speed, resulting in near-perfect maintenance or targeting over anything but the most broken of terrain. The CTFC-11 is also slaved not only to the vehicle's onboard GPS system and INS unit, but the commander's own situation computer, allowing the CTFC-11 to respond to changes in terrain as they approach and, and the TCM-20 suite's control units. This degree of integration and cohesion, powered by no less than 10GHz of CPU speed and 4 Gb of RAM, allows the vehicle to maintain high accuracy and effectiveness when when under fire from multiple angles. It is also capable of firing on targets which are not necessarily visible with the AT-21 ATGM, since the missile can be guided autonomously or by another tank. All T-115s can guide up to three AT-21s simultaneously, although the missile's accuracy is degraded by around 40%.

The CTFC-11 also has some 100 Mb of hard disk drives available. This can be used for storing the visual and thermal profile of vehicles, personnel, decoys, and other relevant information on the battlefield. These data can be downloaded to other CTFC-11s or CSC-1 units in order to ensure that the user's intelligence is constantly updated.

Navigation equipment

The T-115 carries the TINS system, but its main navigation aid is the TPS-2 tank GPS system. This has an accuracy of 0.4m.

Commander's Situation Computer

T-115's CSC is the CSC Mk.1 from CEL. CSC-1 is designed to allow the commander to both send and receive information from all other sources on the battlefield under any conditions, and has proven highly useful in exercises. It far surpasses the older and cruder method of radio reporting, in that now a picture can be used in place of speech, removing the inaccuracies therein.

CSC-1 is primarily intended for use by the unit commander to communicate data to his comrades in the theatre. It can both transmit to and receive from the CTFC-11 IFCS. In addition, it can be updated from compatible intelligence assets within its operating range. Data are transmitted via encrypted satellite link or in case this is too dangerous or not available digital radio transmitter. Updates from the GPS system can be delivered by either method at intervals of as little as two seconds (where intelligence must be immediate and accurate) to as much as 20 minutes.

Visual aids

The T-115 employs the A4M1 "Navada" thermal imagine sighting system, which is linked to the periscopes of both driver and gunner and to the tank's . The A4M1 introduces a further level of cohesion to the fire-control system with the introduction of the Wraith warning system. When this system is activated, the tank's six ImIR units for the TCM-20 system are used to detect any vehicle or heat-emitting object moving within range of detection but not within the field of view of ether turret crewman. Should these be recognised as hostile, the turret crew are alerted by a soft buzz and a small yellow arrow that appears on the screen, subscripted with the word "HOSTILE" and pointing towards the target. The CSC-1 is also updated with its position. This feature can be enabled at will, but allows the crew a greater degree of situational awareness than was previously possible.

Radar

The T-115 carries the TR-2 X-band MMW radar, housed in a small, armoured housing on the turret roof. The radar has a range approximately 4Km and can track up to four targets simultaneously.

Countermeasures systems

The T-115 is equipped with the TEC-3 countermeasures suite, which integrates the Shtora-1
optronic jamming system (for use against ATGM lasers, IR seekers and laser rangefinders) with the CrossLoop radio jamming array (for use against ATGM radars and enemy radio).

CrossLoop has a range against most modern radio systems of around 10 Km and can be programmed to track specific code sequences within transmissions.


Propulstion systems

Engine

The T-115 is powered by an uprated version of the DSO-1400 multi-fuel Deltic-pattern diesel engine in the T-94B and T-95M, this being used to ease logistics and repair. The DSO-1400A is rated at 1,992 BHp and has eighteen cylinders arranged in the "Deltic" configuration of 10.7L capacity.

Transmission

T-115's main transmission is the TTS-45 gearbox. It is a planetary gearbox, with seven forward and three reverse speeds. TTS-45 was noted during trials for high reliability even when subjected to the harshest performance tests in terms of longevity, treatment and climate.


Miscellaneous

The T-115 is fully NBC-sealed, employing filters and an overpressure system to keep contaminants out of the tank.

The engine is surrounded by a small airspace and a layer of foam plastic to help in dissipating heat. The exhaust pipes are wide and narrow and have internal IR mixer boxes.

The tank's major parts are designed for easy removal and replacement, and the tank is provided with a full set of tools for any operation including stripping out the engine and transmission. The tank also carries spare parts for all of the major failure-prone systems within it.

The tank is equipped with air-conditioning systems for both the crew and the engine. It is also equipped with a full backup starting system in case of primary starter failure. The engine is air-cooled.

http://www.aeronautics.ru/archive/armored_vehicles/tank/T64.jpg

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Export Varient T-115Eh revealed (18/1/05)

Export version ready for production following successful armed forces integration

The T-115Eh MBT is now ready for production for any willing export customers. The T-115Eh differs thusly from the T-115 MBT used by our armed forces:

Armament

* AT-21 missile not carried; export variant mounts other gun-fired ATGMs including AT-10, AT-11 etc.

* Main armament can be ETC or powder gun as specified by purchaser.

* Turret ring and mantlet configured to accept M256 120mm smoothbore, L115 120mm rifled or 2A46 125mm smoothbore guns, as well as original gun.

Armour

User may specify armour packages. Composite composition changed; weight slightly increased (1.1 tonnes) but RHA values not compromised.

Powerplant

Diesel engine can be replaced with petrol or gas-turbine engine as required by user.

All other systems in the T-115Eh are identical to those in the T-115.

Price: $ 5,700,000 per unit.

The ERA will blow off your outer layer... may I suggest using NERA/NxRA (Non-Explosive Reactive Armour)

Ta. I did wonder about that, but figured it'd be fairly localised. Nonetheless, you're the expert...or I could eliminate the outer layer which just adds weight.

Well my friend, you can always improve the engine should it prove necessary, but at this point, I'd say survivability is more important. Your outer layer is a good idea and will prevent your ERA/NERA from being eaten up by smaller DU rounds. I think I'll steal that idea, muahahahaha- yeah so anyways. NxRA deals with HEAT and Kinetic weapons pretty well, I'd say >= to Kaktus ERA.

Anyways about your engine, can your tech goto 2020?

[Hmm, I'm not really sure what to say about this tank. On one hand, there are some glaring weaknesses and on the other the tank is pretty decent for what it is.

- The frontal armour is impressive, it's slightly thicker than the armour on my main battle tank.
- The frontal armour is the only thing I'm really impressed with. The side armour would go down with a couple solid hits from an Abrams main gun and the rear armour might as well be paper it's so thin.
- The main gun is middling-fair, it'll take out the side armour of its own tank no problem, but perhaps going with something just a tad bigger might bring you better results. You probably couldn't go wrong with a 135mm ETC or perhaps even a 140mm ETC. However, it's not really important.

From what I can gather of this tank, it's designed to make a head-on engagement with other enemy tanks. The problem with this is that if you know where your enemy's heavy armour is in force, you're either very lucky or you have serious problems becaus they want you to know where their armour is. You also aren't taking into account that 90% of an armoured engagement is scouting, a tank platoon might suddenly find itself behind an enemy tank company. If that tank company happens to be made up of your tanks and the tank platoon happens to be made up of Abrams, it won't matter how much the Abrams tanks suck compared to yours, they got the drop on you and now your tank company is royally screwed.]

Reduce the size of that huge page-breaking image in photoshop, please.

How does it handle a 90mm railgun shot to the front slope?

How does it handle a 90mm railgun shot to the front slope?

At a random, total shot-in-the-dark, it explodes? Beings as a field-deployable railgun is hardly in the same tech band as this tank is designed to deal with...

[Rail guns are perfectly modern tech, I could make a primitive one that shot a penny a few feet in about three hours. It's the power supply that's the problem, and that's starting to become less and less of a problem.]

[Rail guns are perfectly modern tech, I could make a primitive one that shot a penny a few feet in about three hours. It's the power supply that's the problem, and that's starting to become less and less of a problem.]

*cough* rubbish *cough*

Modern railguns destroy their armatures during firing. If you want to pack a 90mm gun that's only good for one shot, be my guest, but you'd need some nice postmodern exotic alloys to build a railgun armature that lasted for a useful amount of shots.

[Armatures made out of steel, you mean? Or perhaps titanium alloys? In either case, there are so many alloys, synthetics, and ceramics stronger than either that my hand would cramp up into a ball before I could list them all. Regardless of what you migh think, materials research and engineering isn't at a stand-still, just the opposite is the case.]

[Armatures made out of steel, you mean? Or perhaps titanium alloys? In either case, there are so many alloys, synthetics, and ceramics stronger than either that my hand would cramp up into a ball before I could list them all. Regardless of what you migh think, materials research and engineering isn't at a stand-still, just the opposite is the case.]

Which totally fails to account for the fact that modern railguns destroy their armatures during firing. Nice attempt at dodging, though. If material research isn't at a standstill then maybe in the future railguns with armatures that last a reasonable number of shots will be possible. [i]In the future.

How can a rail-gun destroy itself after firing? Isn't there a cooling process? I can understand the debate about this, indeed, but Rail-Guns are only Super-Hot projectiles, if I am correct, and the firing mechanism would only need a substainable Electro-Magentic Field to project the chosen projectile.

It would be a lot of energy, and for me to describe the process here would make a lot of people angry.

Wait....thinking it over now a Rail-Gun does shoot a Super-Hot projectile of sorts, and does use an Electro-Magnetic field for stabilization. However, with known alloys it IS possible that something might turn out to be effective, however I am sure that with the energy cost provided, it wouldn't be able to fit in a tank of that size.

Hell, the only known coolent would be....aw dangit I forgot its name....the substance that freezes stuff instantly? You'd have to have a certian amount of that stuff to balance the heat transition in order to maintain the Metal involved, and there are Metal Alloys that expand when heated. However with the concussion wave of the Firing...

Aw, I'll leave it to the big dogs...

How can a rail-gun destroy itself after firing? Isn't there a cooling process? I can understand the debate about this, indeed, but Rail-Guns are only Super-Hot projectiles, if I am correct, and the firing mechanism would only need a substainable Electro-Magentic Field to project the chosen projectile.

The electromagnetic field acts on the gun's two 'rails' during firing; in any railgun designed to fire a large or fast projectile the forces involved are enormous and lead to buckling, distortion or in some cases complete disintegation of the rails.

The electromagnetic field acts on the gun's two 'rails' during firing; in any railgun designed to fire a large or fast projectile the forces involved are enormous and lead to buckling, distortion or in some cases complete disintegation of the rails.

The extreme preassures involved, yes I see.

And the electro-magnetic field are rails? Wow, didn't see that one coming...can you send me specs via telegram about this? I'm kinda Pro-Modern and could possible use this.

Thanks.

Which totally fails to account for the fact that modern railguns destroy their armatures during firing. Nice attempt at dodging, though. If material research isn't at a standstill then maybe in the future railguns with armatures that last a reasonable number of shots will be possible. [i]In the future.

[See, I actually had to look this up, because I was under the impression that an armature on a railgun was the rails themselves. In fact, the armature of a railgun is the projectile itself. You'd need to accelerate a modern projectile in excess of 50 gravities to destroy it, which is most certainly not possible with any rail gun I've ever heard of.

http://www.io.com/~bolie/Tech/Railguns.html ]

Quick google search on "railgun"+"electromagnetic weapons" should get you some useful stuffs...

Quick google search on "railgun"+"electromagnetic weapons" should get you some useful stuffs...

Don't give me any ideas XD

[See, I actually had to look this up, because I was under the impression that an armature on a railgun was the rails themselves.

As was I. Semantics, thank you. The rails are still destroyed, and you are still evading that.

As was I. Semantics, thank you. The rails are still destroyed, and you are still evading that.

XD

[Hmm, I'm not really sure what to say about this tank. On one hand, there are some glaring weaknesses and on the other the tank is pretty decent for what it is.

- The frontal armour is impressive, it's slightly thicker than the armour on my main battle tank.
- The frontal armour is the only thing I'm really impressed with. The side armour would go down with a couple solid hits from an Abrams main gun and the rear armour might as well be paper it's so thin.
- The main gun is middling-fair, it'll take out the side armour of its own tank no problem, but perhaps going with something just a tad bigger might bring you better results. You probably couldn't go wrong with a 135mm ETC or perhaps even a 140mm ETC. However, it's not really important.

From what I can gather of this tank, it's designed to make a head-on engagement with other enemy tanks. The problem with this is that if you know where your enemy's heavy armour is in force, you're either very lucky or you have serious problems becaus they want you to know where their armour is. You also aren't taking into account that 90% of an armoured engagement is scouting, a tank platoon might suddenly find itself behind an enemy tank company. If that tank company happens to be made up of your tanks and the tank platoon happens to be made up of Abrams, it won't matter how much the Abrams tanks suck compared to yours, they got the drop on you and now your tank company is royally screwed.]

Indeed it is, but I was rather hoping to keep the weight doen. Upping the side armour's perfectly possible, but it'd up the weight by several tonnes, and I worry about that. As for the gun, it's mainly for standardisation of ammunition, but it generates the same problem I find with the Navy, in that I have ludicrous numbers of calibres going. For instance, the Navy employs 5.1in, 6in, 8in, 14in, 15in, 16in, 18in and 20in shells, while the ground forces use the 120mm, 125mm, 130mm, 135mm, 152mm, 203mm and 240mm shells. Bit of a bugger, really. It could sustitute a 135mm ETC into this tank easily enough, I should think.

- The frontal armour is impressive, it's slightly thicker than the armour on my main battle tank.
- The frontal armour is the only thing I'm really impressed with. The side armour would go down with a couple solid hits from an Abrams main gun and the rear armour might as well be paper it's so thin.
- The main gun is middling-fair, it'll take out the side armour of its own tank no problem, but perhaps going with something just a tad bigger might bring you better results. You probably couldn't go wrong with a 135mm ETC or perhaps even a 140mm ETC. However, it's not really important.
ALL RL tanks can be killed on the rear armour by 30mm guns. Many can on the side, and they certainly can be killed on the side by 120mm smoothbore guns firing APFSDS. Your tank is just godmodded, as it has a massive amount of armour all round and it goes faster than any tank in existance in RL.

[See, I'm not even going to go there because frankly I don't want to sidetrack DPUO's thread again. I would suggest that if you can come up with a better reason than that a handful of RL tanks can't do something my tanks can, then let me know over telegram.]

Thanks SS, much appreciated. :) Just a quickie: can I summarise your recommendations as increased armour (at least on the sides; I don't think I can do much with the rear or roof) and a 135mm gun?

[No, you need to up it in the rear a bit, the side armour is adequate to protect your crew to a reasonable degree, I think. As for the gun, yes you can assume that. I did the math last night and assumed a penetrating rod with a density similar to that used in the US SABOTs and a projectile velocity of 2.2 km/s. Assuming all that, a 135mm ETC would have 2.28 times the hitting power of a SABOT fired from an Abrams main gun. Something to chew on.]

DPUO, once more, can your tech level goto 2020, cause I might have something to offer to you...

Eep! Art! Sorry man, forgot that. Um, Not really, since AFAIK that's post-modern and in any case going that advanced opens a whole new can of worms for me. Just for my curiosity, what is this mysterious "something"?

SS: Man...wow. Well, I can probably do a 135mm ETC easily enough (in NS realism terms) since I already have a 135mm smoothbore in service, so thanks for that. And OK, I'll do work on that rear armour. Thanks very much for helping me out!

It would be the QNFR Engine, a halnium powered engine for your tank (read: nuclear) that would easily power it. We've been using it for a long time now.. actually upon recommendation from New Empire & SS.

The other thing is Hyland-Nikolaas' MAYHAM Armour package. I won't give away its details, but it can add around 2000mm of RHA equivilent protection to your tank. That would be why our M88 HBT has around 3,800, but simply because of its size it can fit more.

Sounds good, although I'm somewhat sceptical (as always)...btw, I know of the QNR, I use a variant to power all my big warships. I just don't (IC and OOC) quite trust it for powering tanks yet.

Aye, I'd chaulk that upto Tech level maybe? Because Im 2020, we've been able to cram them into tanks. But anywho, I'll find you the link to MAYHEM description and TG it to you.

[See, I'm not even going to go there because frankly I don't want to sidetrack DPUO's thread again. I would suggest that if you can come up with a better reason than that a handful of RL tanks can't do something my tanks can, then let me know over telegram.]
It's called common sense. Your tank has rear armour higher than the front of the Abrams, yet your tank goes twice as fast. Excuse me if you think that it is unreasonable to think it is odd.

Anyway, I like DPUO's tank. Perhaps a small raise in rear armour, but no higher than say 500mm.

[Er, the M-2 Vampire does no such thing. The commonly quoted top speed for an Abrams is 40 mph but that is its governed speed, its actual top speed is around 60 mph. Top speed is about how much horsepower per ton your engines can deliver, a lower HP/ton rating will give you a slower tank while a high value will give you a faster tank. Obviously the tradeoff here is internal volume, but given the size of the Vampire and most of my other tanks, there's plenty of that to play around with.]

Edited it. Hope the extra weight looks right.

OOC: Ok whatever I cant be bothered to argue anymore. Have your amazing tank.

Edited it. Hope the extra weight looks right.

Are you gonna offer any of those for sale?

Bump

Seriously now, do you sell those?

Egad! Sorry, missed that post...yarg, me and my blind eyes...

To answer yer question, not for the moment. I want to get it integrated into my own army first, get any problems sorted. Might sell it soon though.

Egad! Sorry, missed that post...yarg, me and my blind eyes...

To answer yer question, not for the moment. I want to get it integrated into my own army first, get any problems sorted. Might sell it soon though.

TG me then you do. You don't usually see a good russian based designed tank on this forums. Everyone likes abrams, although they're not as good. Okay matter setteled then.

*cough* rubbish *cough*

Modern railguns destroy their armatures during firing. If you want to pack a 90mm gun that's only good for one shot, be my guest, but you'd need some nice postmodern exotic alloys to build a railgun armature that lasted for a useful amount of shots.

Which is why my 'railguns' are actually linear guns. I said railgun because if I said linear gun most people don't know what I'm talking about =p

A linear gun is a weapon which, like a railgun, uses electromagnetic forces rather than gunpowder to fire its projectiles. However, the conductive projectiles fired from a linear gun don't come into physical contact with the firing mechanism, and are instead accelerated using attractive and repulsive magnetic forces, as in a maglev train. Although the acceleration produced is relatively small compared to that of a railgun, a linear gun can yield similar muzzle velocities if its barrel is long enough, and the lack of physical contact eliminates friction heat and wear on the barrel.

So I basically need a somewhat longer barrel and slightly more power, but in return, I don't have to deal with the annoyance of friction and heat, and can even sustain a decent refire rate.

[Not that it would matter, there are plenty of heat resistant alloys now that are at least as strong as any titanium alloy. They're primarily designed for jet turbines and the larger turbines of municiple power plants, but the stresses in those aren't any smaller than those placed in combat railguns.

What GMC also didn't make note of is that unlike the lab railguns, which were aiming for accelerations in the thousands or even tens of thousands of gravities, the accel of a combat railgun would be significatly lower, probably no more than 500 gravities and more than likely fairly lower than that. GMC also did not note that most railgun tests aren't conducted with anything more high-tech than aluminum, some neodynium magnets, and a tungsten bullet of some kind. That's called setting yourself up for failure.

DPUO: I don't know if you know if or not, but most ETCs don't need autoloaders. The heaviest part of any normal main gun round is the shell and charge inside, which is eliminated with an ETC. Just thought you should know.]

Hmm. That hadn't occurred to me; I was figuring I'd still need a small autoloader for the round itself. Still, it's not too big a problem, but I shall edit it accordingly and think up an alternative version.

Bump - export version added.