NationStates Jolt Archive


"Knight" Infantry Combat Vehicle, Mark.I

Aequatio
04-04-2006, 17:15
With the increase in joint operations launched by the Aequatian Armed Forces, especially between the Army and Marines, the requirement for a universal medium armoured vehicle/infantry combat vehicle arose by the difficulties in logistics and combat support with both branches using different vehicles (the Army's Spartan Mk.III and the Marine's Raider Mk.I). The Knight Mk.I was designed by AMI engineers with consultants from both combat and support personnel from both the Army and Marines, it incorporates many systems developed for heavier vehicles but due to increased modular designs, have been adopted for the Knight programme.

In order to maintain a low enough weight for an increased speed on water, the armour of the vehicle is manufactured with a composite consisting of Carbon-60 and solid Tungsten rods, this armour has been tested on other vehicles and in the case of the Spartan Mark.III was proven to defeat 100mm HEAT rounds. To augment the passive armour, the Shield Electro-Optical Countermeasures Defensive Aids Suite and the Sword Active Protection System has been installed to increase protection of the vehicle and its crew and passengers.

“Shield” Electro-Optical Countermeasures Defensive Aids Suite (EOCDAS)

Shield consists of a specialized computer/control panel, two electro-optical interference emitters located on the front of the turret on each side of the gun, four laser sensors located on top of the turret and anti-laser smoke grenade launchers alongside the turret.

Shield I has two combat roles, 1) against infrared-guided anti-tank missiles by aligning the turret front to the incoming ATGM and using the emitters to send false signals which scramble the ATGM guidance system as follows:

Wire-guided missiles such as the American TOW are guided to the target by means of a wire and a flare on the back of the missile. The flare is used to keep a 'reference point' of the missile in relationship to the target lock held by the operator, and the guidance computer tries to put the flare on the reference point. Shield I emitters create a large hotspot, essentially tricking the missile guidance into following the Shield I hotspot instead of the flare hotspot, resulting in faulty course corrections by the ATGW computer. In fact, the computer shall usually believe that no horisontal course correction is necessary since the false flare comes from the same direction as the targeted tank, while vertical corrections shall cause ATGM to either dive into the ground or climb into the sky, depending on whether the operator holds the lock below or above the emitters.

2) The second part of the system defeats laser guided weapons. When a laser beam is detected the Shield I System informs the crew with light and sound; it then launches laser defeating smoke grenades, which enshroud the tank and break or degrade the lock. The tank commander can also press a button that will turn the turret front to the laser to meet incoming ATGM with the best protected section and to engage the laser beam source with the maingun.

“Sword” Active Protection System (APS)

Sword consists of a multi-functional millimetre radar with “instant” scanning of all the vehicle’s protected sectors to detect and track anti-tank ballistics, use of focused, instant-effect protective ammunition for aimed destruction of incoming targets and the system’s control equipment, represented by a specialized computer that provides automatic control over radar operation and Sword as a whole.

The rack-mounted radar is fixed to the turret rood and the rest of the system’s compoenents are located within the turret. Once activated, the system runs a self-diagnostic before switching to combat mode. In combat mode of operation, the radar searches for targets and locates them during their approach to the tank. Once the threat is detected the radar switches to the target tracking mode, thereby obtaining data on the moving target and entering the data into the computer. After processing the entered data, the computer selects one of the siloes and determines the time for its activation. At the determined moment, the computer generates command signals to the selected protective ammunition. When the later detonates it creats a directed stream of destructive elements which destroys any target within this field, eliminating the shaped-charge effect of the threat or reducing it to levels that are not dangerous to the tank.

The Sword system does not react to: targets at a range of over fifty metres from the tank, small-zise targets (splinters, small arms fire), targets flying away from the tank (including projectiles fired from its own gun), slow flying objects (pieces of earth, birds, etc.), shells and projectiles exploding around the tank; targets flying over the tank (i.e. not crossing the protected projection of the tank).

All this resulted in the radical reduction of false alerts and “unwanted” information entering the computer for analysis and processing and also allows operation only if a dangerous target appears within the system’s zone of action and when this targets is about to hit the tank.

The Knight's main weapon systems are all mounted on its turret, it's main gun consisting of the Aequatian Military Industries M125A2 35mm Automatic Cannon with a coaxial M2C1 12.7mm machinegun. To offer the vehicle an anti-tank capability, a single launching tube for the BGM-88 Mace Kinetic-Energy Missile has been installed on the roof of the turret. Along the hull of the vehicle are mounted MG76 7.62mm machineguns which can be fired through ports by the infantry inside.

Infantry Combat Vehicle, Knight, Mark I

http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/4194/icvknightcamo4fx.png

Price: 1,650,000 Aequatian Markes
Crew: 3 (Commander, Driver, Gunner) + 12 Infantry
Weight: 20,300kg
Length: 6.9m (hull); 7.0m (gun forward)
Height: 3.2m
Width: 2.7m
Engine: Aequatian Auomotive Industries (Propulsion Division) 1,000hp Quasiturbine Powerplant
Range: 700km
Armour Type: Aequatian Military Industries (Composites Division) 80mm, Carbon-60/Tungsten Composite with additional Titanium Appliqué Armour
Armament
Aequatian Military Industries M125A2 Turret-mounted 35mm Automatic Cannon (400 Rounds)
Aequatian Military Industries M2C1 Coaxial-mounted 12.7mm machinegun (500 Rounds)
Aequatian Military Industries BGM-88 Mace Kinetic-Energy Missile Launcher (6 Rounds)
Six Aequatian Military Industries MG76 7.62mm Port-Mounted Machineguns (3000 Rounds)
Secondary Systems
Battlefield Information Control System
AMI WillTell Computerized Fire Control System (FCS)
AMI K-60 Environmental Conditioning and NBC Protection System
Shield Electro-Optical Countermeasures Defensive Aids Suite (EOCDAS)
Sword Active Protection System (APS)
Turret-Mounted Forward Looking InfraRed Sighting System with 360-degree traverse (Commander)
Sights w/Magnification Day AMI EMES-15, 12x/secondary (Gunner)
AMI "Inferno" 8x Nighttime Thermal Imager (Gunner)
Carbon Dioxide Laser Rangefinder
Smoke Grenade Launchers, Three on each side of turret
Performance
Max. Road Speed: 100km/h
Max. Cross-Country Speed: 80km/h
Max. Water Speed: 15km/h
Vertical Obstacle: 0.55m
Trench: 2.0m