NationStates Jolt Archive

Background With the Incorporated Sarzonian Army striving to develop itself as a force dedicated to mobile attacks and quick strikes against potential enemies abroad, the Incorporated Ordnance Company looked at several of its previous designs with an idea of developing a medium tank intended for faster delivery of armoured assets in an invasion. Further development of the class type highlighted its secondary utility as a defensive platform in the event of attack from hostile forces. Rather than expending expensive main battle tanks in the defence of Sarzonia, the IOC chose to develop the Z-42 'Calder' medium battle tank.

Armament: The Incorporated Sarzonian Army originally envisioned a 105 mm ETC gun with a powerful secondary armament in line with many of its main battle tanks in an effort to bring a mobile combatant with reasonable firepower and armour into fast hit-and-run combat situations. However, in an attempt to ease logisitics with other combat units in the ISA, engineers chose to adopt the 120 mm ETC gun used by the Z-34 Bonham MBT. The secondary armament of the Calder features the highly-successful 15.5 mm FN BRG-15 machine gun, a 40 mm grenade launcher, and 10 smoke grenades. While the 60 mm autocannon developed by Windham and Green Defence Industries and even the 30 mm autocannon previously used by a multiple of other nations were effective weapons against infantry fighting vehicles and armoured personnel carriers and other lightly-armoured vehicles, the added weight of the rounds hampered operation of the Calder as an effective mobile weapon platform. To further ease logistics, the FN BRG-15 has been adopted as a anti-personnel round.

Protection The Calder has been designed to be a relatively well-protected combatant against most medium or light tanks or lightly armoured vehicles employed by Sarzonia's prospective enemies. Toward that end, it employs a modified protection scheme found on the Z-34 'Bonham' or Z-33 'Jaguar'. The first layer, of Non-Explosive Reactive Armour, provides protection against HE rounds without unduly jeopardising nearby infantry. The second layer, of ballistic ceramics, provides excellent all-around protection against multiple threats including KE rounds. The third layer is of a composite honeycomb armour scheme that provides a powerful backing against most conceivable weapons. The fourth layer is the venerable Chobham armour scheme that has been a traditional mainstay of most main battle tanks. The final layer is comprised of rubber and spectra to protect against spalling.

Propulsion The Calder employs the first quasiturbine engine employed by Sarzonian military companies in its history, and the Windham & Green model provides 3,000 horsepower to propel the Calder at speeds of up to 120 km/hr. on the road and 90 km. cross country.

Z-42 Calder medium tank
Length: 9.6 m with gun forward; Width: 3.7 m; Height: 2.8 m
Weight: 51,700 kg
Armament: 1 x 120 mm ETC gun; 1 x 40 mm grenade launcher; 1 x 15.5 mm FN BRG-15 machine gun; 10 x smoke grenades
Protection: First layer: Non Explosive Reactive Armour
Second layer: Ballistic ceramics
Third layer: Titanium/aluminum alloyed honeycomb frame
Fourth layer: Chobham armour scheme
Fifth layer: Rubber & spectra (spall lining)
RHA Values: Front: 1,000 mm
Sides: 520 mm
Rear: 355 mm
Top:: 275 mm
Complement: Four (commander, driver, loader, gunner)
Propulsion: 1 x Windham & Green quasiturbine, 3,000 hp
Speed: 120 km/hr road; 90 km/hr. cross country; 10 km/hr. snorkel
Price: $7 million per unit.

To: IOC
From: Defense Section (ground)
Subject: TPF is interested in production rights. How much would that cost if you are willing to sell them?

Seems more like a light tank than a medium. 51k kg, max 100cm RHeA, 120mm ETC(Heavy for a light tank, but light for a heavy tank, as more people seem to be going for the 140mm ETC), incredible speed. I am interested in its electronics, range finding, suspension, etc. Also, is there any reason you chose four members instead of three with an autoloader? With only three guns(I imagine either the 40mm or the 15.5mm is coaxial, and probably the non-coax being controlled from inside the vehicle), it seems like this fast attack tank is mixed with MBT elements that maybe it shouldn't be? The Autoloader would allow a lower profile, letting hit and run tactics to be even more successful...

[OOC: Using an autoloader could also increase price and increase room for error, however. I personally don't see the use for a light tank since the light tank can't stand up to anything heavier than it, which means that you're better off using an armed reconnaissance vehicle with some losats mounted on it, and you have a light vehicle capable of engaging anything heavier than it.

EDIT: But I don't want to hijack his thread with utility arguments, so this will be the end of that, unless there's more technical discussion going about.]

OOC: Interesting points Chellis, but I designed a "light/scout tank" that weighed about 43,000 kg and people were telling me that was more of a "medium tank" than a light tank. I guess you can't win for losing...

The purpose behind this tank is to have a fast tank with a 120 mm ETC gun (which is actually predominant on most of the widely accepted NS MBTs rather than the 140 mm ETC). It's relatively lightly armoured (witness the 1,000 mm RHA value instead of near 3,000 RHA values of many NS MBTs), but its main gun is intended to be able to hit a MBT and cause damage. As for the secondary weapons, the machine gun would be coaxial.

I'd toyed with making the secondary weapons include a 30 mm autocannon because I wanted a weapon that I could use to take out lightly-armoured vehicles such as IFVs and APCs without wasting ammunition from my main gun, but that would increase the weight too much and slow this down too much to offset the benefits I'd get from the heavier secondary weapon.

I chose not to add the autoloader for one reason: Fewer electronics that could potentially render this a mission kill. On my current MBT, I only use a semi-automatic loader that allows me to switch to manual loading in the event electronics are knocked out. Also, the domestic version of this would include a similar electronics suite to the one I put on my Z-34 Bonham, which would increase the cost of the tank as it's produced for domestic use.