NationStates Jolt Archive

A memo circulated throughout the Juumanistran defense community with regards to a multibillion procurement project turns up in your inbox. Being curious, you open it...

With the introduction into Juumanistran service en masse of the JBT-31 Centurion, it has come to the Army’s and Department of Defense’s attention that the introduction of this new vehicle has caused more problems than it has alleviated. It is worth commending the designers at Himou Defense Labs and Minaduki Arms for taking our complaints to heart in their design of the JBT-31 and producing a vehicle that remedies the Army’s complaints about the JBT-14's cross-country performance and the temperament of the tank’s main gun. However, the JBT-31's successes have caused a whole new raft of problems. First and foremost is the fact that the improved survivability brought on by Aegis III, JuSRA, and Three Speed have caused disruptions in the traditional balance of forces that constitute the Juumanistran Army in that it is as survivable as the JBT-35 Minotaur heavy tank whilst retaining the strategic mobility inherent in the ABT concept. Similarly, the computing and communications improvements brought upon by JILWOA have, on more than one occasion, created a good amount of discord between JBT-31 crews and other, non-JILWOA armored crews in that they are hours ahead of their unitmates in terms of information processing. A final problem that has garnered much attention from crews has been the great diminishment of the JBT-31's open-field capabilities, due largely to the shrinking of the main gun’s barrel in order to better accomodate Juumanistran urban and suburban doctrines.

To this effect, the Juumanistran Army has drawn up its plans for a decade long research, development, and procurement project entitled the Future Force Initiative. The FFI is intended to revamp and modernize the Juumanistran Army in order to take advantage of the leaps in technology generated by the five-year Centurion Development Project. The overall goal of the program is to create a better armed, better equipped, and better integrated Army that is capable of responding to any and all conflicts at home and abroad at the behest of the Juumanistran government.

To that end, the FFI shall entail a four legged development plan during its lifetime to achieve its goals of greater efficacy and integration:

Future Land Warfare Superiority System

The Future Land Warfare Superiority System(FLWSS), to replace both the JBT-24M2 and JBT-35 MBTs. The FLWSS is the compliment the JBT-31 and JBT-31A1 and is expected to deliver comparable performance to both the JBT-24M2 and JBT-35 with weight not to exceed 70 tons. Such a system will deliver a main gun of with a breach of at least 120mm and length of 58 calibers or the equivalent there of if the breech is larger, at least two MOSWES hardpoints, and at least two MAPEN hardpoints. Such a system will incorporate Aegis III, JuSRA, and Three Speed as well as any and all advancements made to each system during the development cycle of the FFI.

JCV-3A1 Centaur FFI

Whilst the JCV-3 Centaur has been the workhorse Juumanistran AFV for close to twenty-years, technology has made the development of an upgrade package a necessity. The Centaur FFI program will renovate the existing JCV-3 frame to incorporate as much of Aegis III, JuSRA, and Three Speed as possible, as well as the integration of JILWOA, MOSWES and MAPEN, as well as advancements in sensor and optics technology. Existing system problems, such as torque issues and drive train fragility will be addressed in this upgrade, as well.

Neo-JMWWS

With the proliferation of the concept of modular hardpoints throughout the Juumanistran military, the largely-shelved Juumanistran Modular Wheeled Weapons System has been deemed of worth to begin experimenting with once more as an alternative to off-the-shelf LAV derivatives. The Neo-JMWWS program is merge the system with MOSWES and MAPEN, as well is intended to integrate JILWOA and Three Speed into the system and Aegis II.V wherever possible.

JBT-31A1 and Sentinel Family Rotation

With the flaws in the JBT-31 becoming apparent, an A1 upgrade package has been deigned a necessity. Of particular note are ways to ameliorate the system’s downrange killing problems, though the concept of hybrid shells or a crew-served barrel extension have piqued the Army General Staff’s interests. In addition, the JBT-31A1 project shall be used as a test bed for refining Aegis III and JuSRA, in-particular the addition of an “active” component to JuSRA similar to ALSERA in nature. In addition, this leg of the FFI shall endeavor to rotate out the JBT-14 family of support vehicles and replace them with JBT-31/A1 derived units.

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Whole hell of a lot of information to absorb? I’d think so. Basically, this is essentially a meandering R&D thread that will, at times, be prone to me going on-and-on about something or another as I RP the development the next generation of Juumanistran vehicles, as well as the first that will be fully public domain. It is also an open forum for criticism and feedback and is, generally, OOC though there is plenty of room for IC tech development role-playing.

Now then, for all of NS’s various arms merchants, the Juumanistran has not gone soliciting bids for replacement equipment or designs, as it wants to keep the development process domestic. There are, however, nine major land system defense contractors and another dozen minor ones in the game all vying for a piece of the FFI pie and are open to technological and development partnerships with foreign firms, with foreign firms getting the rights to all non-proprietary parts that come out of the arrangement(with about the only proprietary stuff being the electronics and computers). Though the FFI at times demands simple upgrades, the Juumanistran military also is not against whole new unit acquisitions, provided a new design meets the specifications laid out.

Major defense contractors in Juumanistra: Himou Defense Labs, Minaduki Arms, Fujisaki Consortium, Makihara Munitions, Tachibana Land Systems, Aoyama Defense, Ijuin Arsenal, Khevron Drives, Rynar Motor Company

Minor defense contractors in Juumanistra: Aizawa Defense, Nijino Armories, Jasper TreadWell, Tachibana Repeating Rifle Company, Oda Electronics, Katagiri Systems, Horizon Armorers, Hinamoto Tracked Vehicle Company, Ijuin Stick and Powder Consortium, Himou Computing Corporation, Sejino United Arms, Williams & Teller

Descriptions of what they do will be provided upon request. Given that I've got about two pages worth of stuff on what, exactly, they are and why they're like they are would have pushed this post into critical geekdom.

A useful list of original acronyms and systems:
ABT - Alternate Battle Tank, a Juumanistran design concept for vehicles similar to MBTs in dimensions and armament but with somewhat different operating specifications and tonnage.
Aegis III - An advanced multilayer armor scheme featured prominently on the JBT-31 and the next-generation of Juumanistran battlefield armor.
Aegis II.V - A fluid-trap armor scheme designed to bolster the survivability of light armor vehicles.
JILWOA - Juumanistran Integrated Land Warfare Operating Architecture, a proprietary combat operations system that speeds the flow and discemination of information through the liberalization of access rights by all throughout the chain of command and deliverance of intelligence to commanders in the field in real-time.
JuSRA - Juumanistran Smart Reactive Armor, a proprietary system of overlapping and articulated composite tiles and dead-space designed to achieve maximum protection against CE and KE rounds by altering their arrangement on the basis of the incoming threat.
MAPEN - Modular Anti-Personnel Node, hardpoints designed to hold various weapons in the “small arms” category, typically 7.62mm and 12.7mm machine guns.
MOSWES - Modular Supplemental Weapons System, hardpoints designed to carry any number of supplemental weapons, usually on the side of the vehicle's turret.
Three Speed - A series of programs that run threat detection/analysis, JuSRA, and various active countermeasures systems within the vehicle within both JuLWOA and JILWOA.

Some useful links for stuff described above:
JBT-31 Centurion ABT – http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=413547
Dump of existing Juumanistran vehicles – http://www.geocities.com/arrdeeagnp/vehicles.html

(As a bit of an aside, sorry if my notes are a bit disorganized in the transition between the vehicle dump, Centurion dump, and the FFI outline. As these things are constantly evolving, most of the concepts outlined are in their third generation of actual use and, given that it’s a bit confusing, I’ll gladly answer any and all questions asked.)

One of the more interesting projects undertaken under the Future Force Initiative was an investigation into the feasibility of the development of a hybrid guns or rounds for service. The concept of the hybrid round is fairly simple in that it utilizes one from of propulsion to provide initial acceleration out of the barrel and utilizes another form of propulsion in order to generate downrange killing potential, with the gun concept simply being that one form of energy is used to accelerate the round through part of the barrel and another is used for the rest. The Army was particularly interested in the concept in order to remedy some of the downrange killing problems of the Avenger 44 caliber gun on the JBT-31. Of equal interest was shifting the paradigm within the Juumanistran military away from small, stiletto-like penetrators and towards larger, more sledgehammer-like penetrators. Failing that, it was hoped that such research could produce a system that could be incorporated into such concepts as the magnum charge in order to help provide higher killing velocities on kinetic energy rounds for future service vehicles.

One of the first concepts experimented with was in the hopes of accomplishing the latter. As part of a preliminary FLWSS gun design submitted by HDL, they proposed the use of a hybrid gun design dubbed linear assist. The concept revolved around the linear gun, which uses magnetism to accelerate a projectile, much like a maglev train. A super-long barrel would be used, tipping the scales 65 calibers, with the first five being a linear gun designed to put moderate acceleration on the round, at which point it passes clear of magnetic coils into the firing chamber and the round itself fired and accelerated for an addition sixty calibers. The key difficulties with such a system lie in how, exactly, to magnetize a round without radically redesigning it. The answer was found in an iron/nickel-heavy and composite redesign of the SABOT, which succeeds in providing a reasonably magnetized carriage for the round without compromising the round’s design or the SABOT’s structural integrity. In a test run, using a converted Driller system, muzzle velocities using a 120mm magnum round with linear assist, linear acceleration clocked at 376m/s, with muzzle velocity on a 40mm tungsten penetrator clocking at 2,881m/s.

The technology, of course, is still in its infancy and thus problems still abound. The major ones, thus far, have been timing and the construction of the firing chamber. In order for the system to function properly, the round must be accelerated down the barrel and then detonated. For the powder to have maximum effectiveness, it must have a solid surface immediately behind it in order to push against. Thus far, raising and lowering steel flaps in time with pulling of the lanyard has been the standard means of doing this, but the system is vulnerable to mechanical failure: one gun has already been lost to a flap jamming and being impacted by a fifty-eight pound APFSDS round at 350m/s. There is also the issue of jams with regards to the system, as when one of the flaps gets locked in place, it requires the entire barrel be disassembled to fish out the spent round casing.

The other problem thus far has been timing the whole operation. Attempting to detonate a round traveling at between 350 and 400m/s in conjunction with the impromptu firing chamber and at the precise point so as to generate maximum velocity is a very tricky process. So tricky that, thus far, there have been three times as many misfirings in which a APFSDS round has simply exited the barrel at linear acceleration and then plodded along to earth than successful firings. But, thus far, the results have been rather promising and researchers at HDL and the subcontractors called in for the linear assist gun project will continue to plod on.

The flip side of the hybrid gun concept has been that of the hybrid shell. The hybrid round project has, thus far, been much more of a success than the hybrid gun, largely due to previous Juumanistran experience with the requisite components required to build such a round. The project has moved along well enough that large-scale test firing is under way in the hopes of phasing in the new round within the next eighteen months.

The Amor Piercing Rocket Assisted Discarding Sabot(APRADS) has come along as far as it has due largely to Juumanistra’s unique experience with the Multiple Integrated Recoilless Rifle System(MIRRS). Early MIRRS designs included 84mm breeches and 84mm MIRRS units were still in use on some AFVs and light tanks by the time that it was decided that MOSWES be opted throughout the service. Of particular import was the fact that Juumanistra had developed the UGW.991, which was a MIRRS-capable kinetic energy weapon. Carrying a 66mm tungsten penetrator, the UGW.991 could achieve terminal velocities upwards of 1,900m/s and a maximum range of about 3.5km. And, due to the fact that MIRRS tubes were crew-served on the inside of the turret, the UGW.991 was designed to be handled by a gunner or loader.

Here lie an off-the-shelf weapon that dealt with most of the major design problems facing the APRADS program; it was capable of propelling a larger caliber penetrator with terminal velocities in the ballpark of tank-fired kinetic energy weapons. Most of the engineering of how to build a rocket motor capable of doing that kind of lifting was already done. Now the task shifted to designing a tank round around the UGW.991 and the reworking of the UGW.991 so that it could withstand the extremes of being fired out of a cannon. The latter was relatively simple compared to the former; the UGW.991 had been in service for forty years and had never once been upgraded. The former was a much more daunting task.

The brunt of the work focused on the design of a SABOT capable of accepting the substantially larger UGW.991 and its almost unwieldy 84mm diameter. It would take almost six months before a reworked SABOT would be developed that was capable of accepting the UGW.991 and, even then, the project was by no-means ready for testing. Another major time-consuming task for the development team was optimizing the acceleration ratios between the missile and the powder for best performance under most circumstances. In the end, a mixture of four-fifths rocket and one-fifth powder acceleration was used, giving the APRADS an optimal killing range of 1.6-3.2km and with a maximum effective range of just a tick under 5km.

The round that has entered testing has, by the testers’ accounts, averaged terminal velocities of 2,400m/s. More details shall become available as the testing continues.

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Eh, a couple of oddball concepts fleshed out a bit more. What R&D is supposed to be about, after all. Feeling a little dirty touching distinctly PMT, but hey, it's not totally egrigious and...well...it is just an experiment, as much of what I post will be. Feedback is always welcome, though "OMG THAT'S T3H ST00PID!!!111" will in all likelihood be frowned upon.

Work continues along the whole front of the Future Force Initiative, with both ups and downs. Of particular import, as discussed last time, progress continues to be made in the arena of hybrid gunnery. A rolling firing chamber, by which the energy of the passing round is used to both generate and reset the firing chamber has gotten around most of the technical issues with the linear assist gun, as well has simplified the timing issues inherent with the design. However, the Army has shown reluctance to incorporate the system into the FLWSS as there have been, thus far, serious problems with interfacing it with the K4/K6 Bloc and Ry310/330/350 engines that are serving as the baseline propulsion systems for FLWSS concept designs and both Khevron Drives and Rynar MotorCo have voiced doubts about their ability to design a system capable of powering a linear assist gun on a mechanical engine. At the moment, the Army has not ruled out the incorporation of the linear assist gun into the FLWSS, but has instead setup a separate development program outside of the FLWSS architecture for pursuit of linear assist technology.

Testing continues apace on the APRADS project, which appears to rapidly be approaching completion. Terminal velocities on APRADS rounds have ranged from 2,285-2,420m/s within the optimum kill range out of Avenger 58-caliber and Driller 52-caliber guns and an equally impressive 2,025-2,140m/s out of the small Avenger 44-caliber gun found on the JBT-31. Designers at the Tachibana Repeating Rifle Company have come to believe that another 150m/s of terminal velocity can be eeked out of the APRADS round by switching over to a proprietary slower burning powder than has, thus far, been used in testing. Further testing will continue, though barring any major setbacks, the APRADS round should receive an official designation and begin entrance into Juumanistran service within the year.

On the JBT-31A1 front, some low-hanging fruit have been ceased. The Hinamoto Tracked Vehicle Company has completed a working barrel extension for the JBT-31 that produces the desired performance boosts. The 16-caliber extension, clocking in at 1.9 meters and sixty-eight pounds, is a crew-served system that has been shown be able to be unpacked, prepared, and attached in ten minutes, with the disassembly taking half that time. The extended barrel produces boosts in muzzle velocity of about 250m/s on APFSDS rounds, from 1,750m/s to 2,000m/s. HTVC is quite confident that refinements can cut gas hemorrhaging at the connection point to provide further boosts in muzzle velocity. To this end, Minaduki Arms has gotten involved in a partnership with HTVC in order to see about what can be done to modify the Avenger 44 to better receive a barrel extension. In the meantime, the current barrel extender has been rushed into production and is being introduced to JBT-31 crews until such a time as the JBT-31A1 package is ready for deployment.

Work continues on both the Neo-JMWWS and Centaur FFI programs, though the latter is progressing better, given two decades worth of practical experience. Whilst integrating the requisite FFI components has proven to be daunting, Makihara Munitions is quite confidant that it will soon have a mark-up of the Centaur FFI ready for testing by the Juumanistran Army. Work on the Neo-JMWWS has, up until now, centered largely on the integration of Aegis II.V into the vehicle, though the work continues, the successes they’ve achieved have been fairly impressive.

Aegis II was, up until the introduction of the Defender heavy armor system, Juumanistra’s work horse armor scheme. The system was, as was the norm up to Aegis III, a mono-block dense composite/dead space tandem scheme, with an alternate version incorporating heavy metals(mainly tungsten) at key points for improved defense. Designers at HDL have attempted to improve upon the design without producing more than marginal gains in weight or thickness. What designers came up with has been dubbed fluid-trap armor.

The system is compartmentalized and made both self-sealing and watertight. At which point, the armor is flooded with a liquid, usually water. The liquid fills the system’s dead space and thus generates an extra layer of protection for the vehicle at minimal weight increase. Designed mainly for improved protection against small arms and light cannons, the system has made the sections of Aegis II tested with it resistant to high-velocity 30mm rounds and virtually immune to conventional rounds below that caliber. The system has proven resistant to being bled dry, since each fluid layer is encased behind a layer of ballistics ceramics as well as being compartmentalized and, even if the fluid trap is breeched and the fluid escapes, the system still maintains the integrity of a traditional mono-black composite/dead space armor system. Testing is also underway on three-quarters and half fluid trap systems, by which some dead space is retained unflooded, in the hopes of finding an optimal balance of protection and weight.

The Army has remained skeptical of the fluid trap tests, but some eyes have been raised at its lab effectiveness. The General Staff continues to await its fielding on an actual test vehicle before rendering judgement.

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Questions, comments, feedback, flames...anything at all? Or is this all insane?

Interesting concepts.

OOC: Heh. I'll take that a compliment. Thanks, Cadillac-Gage; any feedback is better than none at all.