North Calaveras
04-07-2007, 00:28
CLOSED LOOK AT RED TWINS
Specifications – SoL GNC5 “Iron Curtain” Main Battle Tank, The People's Communist State of North Calaveras
Key Data
Crew 3 (Driver, Commander, Gunner)
Dimensions
Length (With Gun Forward) 15.76m
Height 2.34m
Width 3.66
Weight 64.59 tonnes
Ground Clearance 54cm
Ground Pressure 12.3psi
Performance
Maximum (Governed) Speed* 82 kph
Cross Country Speed * 58.3 kph
Speed, 10% Slope * 26 kph
Speed, 60% slope * 11.1 kph
Acceleration * 0kph to 32 kph in 6.8 seconds
Range 700 km (590 km at operational cruising speed)
Manoeuvrability
Vertical Obstacle Crossing 74 cm
Trench 300 cm (10 ft)
Suspension Hydropneumatic
Armament
Main Armament 120mm calibre smooth bore cannon, M256 L55 (40 rnds)
Secondary Armament 2 x 14.7mm machine guns, LY60 (650 rnds each) on powered remote rotary mounts.
2 x TPFMI MkII “Helios” BVR ATGM
Power
Propulsion Twin-turbocharged 1,700 HP (1,275 kW) V10 diesel (at 2400 RPM.)
Transmission Hydrokinetic automatic transmission (4 fwd gears, 2 rvse)
Power-to-Weight Ratio 26.32 hp/t
Armour and Protection
Armour Type 4340 Steel, 3rd Gen Chobham, ERA.
NBC Protection LYMkII CBRN overpressure system.
Missile Countermeasures Lyran InfoWar Mk III laser-based ATGM CMD
Background
Modern AFVs are generally measured by a number of crucially important factors; firepower, armour, mobility and numbers fielded, rank close to the top.
Armour and fire power may determine success and failure on the modern tactical battlefield, but mobility and numerical superiority are often the more important capabilities when viewed from an operational or strategic context. During WWII, the Wehrmacht's Tigers expected to destroy 6 Shermans each. The Americans had initially seven times as many Shermans, then eight, then ten.
It was this philosophy of strategic success that drove the People's Republic of North Calaveras to enter consultations with several other states, both traditional allies within the Sons of Lenin, notably Greal, and other states with a history of military-technological expertise. Agreements were made for weapons systems from ThePeople'sFreedom, and substantial design, developmental and integrational assistance from the Protectorate of Lyras.
While in discussion and evaluation with Lyras it was quickly apparent that while many foreign weapons platforms existed that fitted the requirements laid out, to rely entirely, or even in large part, on foreign assistance and/or foreign supported/maintained hardware was a strategic weakness. Thus the decision was made to pursue development of a North Calaveran solution, with an eye towards SoL standardisation. All components, although not all North Calaveran, are produced in North Calaveras, several components being manufactured under licence.
Extensive cost-benefit analysis determined that while phenomenally costly to provide the extremely high armour protection required to defeat the main armament of opposing tanks, it was relatively inexpensive to provide sufficient protection against nearly everything else. The design team moved in the unorthodox direction, armouring the tank effectively against most non-armoured or dedicated anti-armour threats, a situation which forces an opponent to utilise armour-on-armour actions. In these engagements, numerical superiority is often a crucial determinant, especially in situations where the main gun on both sides offer high 1 or 2 hit kill probabilities. More expensive, less mobile and slower to manufacture forces can thus be forced to fight at a time and place where they are outnumbered.
Either way, the new vehicle offers a true strategic and operational alternative to the bigger-is-better mindset that has hamstrung global development. The new concept was remarkable. Infantry, armour, artillery, air support, would all require the same degree of force to destroy the new threat, and use the same weapons that would work against a vehicle twice as well armoured.
Except that the new concept had an advantage. It would be only 75% of the weight, barely half the price, and would take the same manufacturing capability barely one-third the time to produce, with less requirement for a highly skilled workforce or thousands of sensitive, time- and production-intensive electronic components.
The North Calaveran Military Design Bureau saw their opportunity. Without sacrificing effective operational combat strength, armoured forces could be fielded in numbers far higher, and far faster, than their industrial base would otherwise suggest.
For several months, North Calaveran, Lyran, TPF and Grealan technicians, scientists, strategists and tank crews hammered out a number of contenders for the criteria offered. The result was a genuinely multinational vehicle, reliable in a wide range of climatic conditions, that could be quickly and easily produced anywhere in the world, at an extremely reasonable price, and yet possess a high degree of lethality against any vehicle it would encounter on the battlefield.
Armour and protection synopsis
Historically the battle between projectile and plate has determined the out come of most tank battles, and traditionally warhead has normally won out. The amount of money nations have poured into designing ever more effective MBT armour is staggering.
As penetration of tank guns became greater, designers were forced to focus more armour to the front of vehicles, at the obvious expense of flank protection; vehicles simply didn't have the power to armour all parts of a vehicle sufficiently, so it was concluded, better to armour where the shots are most likely to come from. To combat this, gun designers resorted to larger, faster, more high tech ammunition, the never-ending battle continued
.
After the second world war, communists and capitalists both experimented with explosive reactive armour equipped tanks, and the capitalists began experimenting with silica-ceramics. All of these technologies offered potential, but were generally extremely costly and the main solution adopted was to simply add more armour, up-power the engines, provide more fuel to maintain the range, and in the end analysis, up the weight. The main battle tank went from 20-30 tons in WWII to 35-48 tons within 15 years. In other words, heavy tanks turned into medium tanks just by changing the date.
Shortly thereafter there was a dramatic rise in the killing potential of the anti-tank guided missile, which forced another evolutionary step. Some resorted to the ‘heavy tank’ with 16 inches of armour, others opted for a straight medium tank, and others still chose hybrids. The general trend continued, however. MBTs continued to become heavier, and as they became heavier they needed bigger engines to deliver the same power, which needed more fuel to maintain the range, and as they needed more fuel, they needed more space to carry the fuel, which needed more armour to protect the space, which was, in turn forcing up the weight. A vicious cycle that pushed MBT weights, costs, and logistics requirements ever upwards.
Chobham armour was an attempt (not a bad one, as it happened) to counter ATGMs, but the gun designers were able to keep pace. Soon, even these armours were obsolete and required further
upgrading to compete against the latest warheads. The most current solutions are dU (Depleted Uranium) armour for the M1s, Challengers and Warhounds, "Wedge armor" for the Leopard 2A5/6, and K-5 for most communist-bloc MBTs. The prevailing factor, however is that the new heavy armor only covers about ½ the front profile, while still pushing weights and costs ever upwards.
The GNC5's solution was simple.
It opted out.
While still heavily armoured, the GNC5 concedes that MBT-fired kinetic-energy penetrators are going to get through, and thus does not attempt to feature armour capable of stopping KE penetrators. In the process, the vast majority of the upward weight pressure on the design was lifted. At a stroke the GNC5 shed nearly 15 tons of added armour. However the latest in TPF and Lyran metallurgical technology was blended with NC designed chobham-equivalent ceramic based armours, to maintain the vehicle's protection against other threats likely to be encountered on the battlefield. Against anything short of KE penetrators, the GNC5's armour is still formidable.
Explosive reactive armour is fitted on important areas, as standard, providing a reliable means of defeating most HEAT-based munitions and ATGMs. Extensive fuel and ammunition are located within armoured sub-compartments in the tank's long low-profile hull, with integral blowout panels and anti-spalling Kevlar liners serving to prevent fuel explosion.
Further, the GNC5 sports a Lyran InfoWar Mark III laser-based ATGM counter-measure device. This is mounted on the rear-right of the turret, and is designed to “dazzle” the guidance systems on laser-, infra-red and radar-guided anti-tank missiles. Unguided and visually-directed/TOW missiles are by nature unaffected by this system.
Main Armament
The GNC5 features a 55 calibre 120mm M256 smoothbore, chosen to provide the optimum balance between anti-armour lethality, weight, ease of use, speed of manufacture and cost effectiveness. The Lyrans had offered use of their LY402 ETC weapon, and TPF agreed that the weapon system was substantially more effective, but the most cursory of cost projections and manufacture-process analysis showed the weapon to be incompatible with estimated hull manufacturing speed. In essence, the time-intensive production of the more sophisticated turret would have negated the production speed benefits the GNC5 was intended to convey.
To further aid the vehicle's ability to be fielded en-masse, it was designed to use an autoloader, as opposed to cramming an extra crewman into the turret, allowing that same crewman who would have been in the turret to instead crew another vehicle. By cutting crew requirements by 25%, the same number of personnel can crew 33% more vehicles. Rate of fire did not suffer, though, as the use of modern autoloaders, along with extensive use of muzzle-brakes, recoil-compensation and case extraction systems, have increased the rate of fire of the system to well within international norms.
As with most smoothbore weapons, the M256 can fire armour piercing fin-stabilised discarding sabot (APFSDS), HEAT, and a suite of additional, ancilliary and training projectiles, to suit the whole range of warfighting requirements.
Secondary Armament
Secondary armament consists of both LY60 14.7mm machine guns and TPFMI MkII “Helios” beyond-visual-range ATGMs. The LY60s are both situated above the turret on powered remote pintle mounts, while the two Helios missiles are afixed on either side of the turret.
The LY60 heavy machine gun was one of the first weapons designed and produced by Lyras, appearing in both watercooled and aircooled versions. Combat experience demonstrated that the aircooled version was highly suitable for many applications, following a modest increase in the mass of the barrel, and it is in the aircooled version that the LY60 serves today. In AA roles, the LY60 is used on several Lyran AA platforms, and serves as the primary co-axial weapon of the LY2 Mastiff series. The weapon is a belt fed, short recoil operated, open bolt, fully automatic weapon. Metallic disinitegrating link belts can feed it from either the left or right of the reciever. The quick change barrel is removable with the barrel jacket as a unit. The bore is chromium plated to increase barrel life and durability. The weapon fires the the LY112 14.7 x 115mm cartridge. The LY60 has a maximum effective range of 1400m against air targets, and 2200m against ground targets. The gun is simple in design and rugged in construction, and considered one of the most reliable heavy machine guns in service anywhere in the world.
Cartridge; 0.588 cal (14.7mm x 115mm)
Operation: Short-recoil automatic, open bolt
Method of locking; roller locking
Feeds; Disintegrating link belt
Weight: (with bipod): 13.15kg
Length: 1.625m
Muzzle velocity; 960m/s
ROF: Cyclic 600-700 RPM
Max effective range, bipod; 800m
tripod or pintle; 2200m
Aiming and targetting
One element of the GNC5 that all design parties were firmly in agreement on was the provision of a fire control system, and for that purpose there was no real competition to the Lyran-designed Cromwell system. Discussions were entered pertaining to the use of the then-still-in-development Cromwell 2, but it was agreed that the degree of precision and electronic integration required for Cromwell 2 far exceeded that required on the original FCS-only Cromwell system, which performs the task as well, if not better, than any other firecontrol system in the world. Indeed, the original Cromwell system, as a firecontrol method, is virtually unchanged in the second, with the majority of difference coming from the degree of information input by means of battlespace networking; a feature deemed overly complex for the easy and fast to manufacture GNC5.
The Cromwell system inputs and actively seeks informaton from a wide variety of sensory sources, including the thermal or daylight gun sight, a manually operated laser rangefinder, automatic crosswind sensor, a pendulum static cant sensor, ammunition type and temperature, and a high-precision muzzle reference sensor (MRS) that calculates barrel drop due to gravity and temperature. The Cromwell system utilises this information to compute a firing solution for the gunner, based upon analysis of the target beneath the reticle. This is achieved in less time than it would take the gunner to depress the firing stud. The firing solution that Cromwell generates ensures a hit percentage greater than 98 percent at standard ranges, across all conditions. Both the commander and gunner can fire the main gun.
Mobility
The GNC5 is powered by a twin-turbocharged 1,700 HP (1,275 kW) V10 diesel (at 2400 RPM.). It operates four forward gears, two reverse) Hydrokinetic automatic transmission, with a governed top speed of 80 kph (50 mph) on paved roads, and 60 kph (37.5 mph) cross-country. With the engine governor removed or deactivated, a simple and commonplace procedure, speeds of approximately 100 kph (62.5 mph) are expected on sealed road surfaces. This does however substantially reduce the vehicle's operational range, and generates a greatly increased risk of damage to the drive train or tracks, and these speeds tend to greatly degrade road surfaces. The engine governer can be set to “off” by the commander if the circumstances require.
The GNC5 is designed, perhaps above all else, to be mobile at an operational or strategic level, and it does this by having very large fuel tanks, and moderate consumption. When coupled with standard drop tanks, the GNC5 can reach 600km at operational cruising speed, and a fraction over 700km at optimum fuel economy speed (55km/h, ie 34.8mph). This is perhaps the most important factor in the GNC5's numerous abilities. For this reason, once an army utilising these tanks has the upper hand it becomes extremely hard to retake the initiative, as these very capable, extremely long-ranging vehicles allow their units to maintain pressure for (usually) further and faster than an opposing army can withdraw.
Most heavy or superheavy cargo aircraft can transport one or sometimes two GNC5s, ready to fight, and one more when they are “broken down” for transport.
Specifications – SoL GNC5 “Iron Curtain” Main Battle Tank, The People's Communist State of North Calaveras
Key Data
Crew 3 (Driver, Commander, Gunner)
Dimensions
Length (With Gun Forward) 15.76m
Height 2.34m
Width 3.66
Weight 64.59 tonnes
Ground Clearance 54cm
Ground Pressure 12.3psi
Performance
Maximum (Governed) Speed* 82 kph
Cross Country Speed * 58.3 kph
Speed, 10% Slope * 26 kph
Speed, 60% slope * 11.1 kph
Acceleration * 0kph to 32 kph in 6.8 seconds
Range 700 km (590 km at operational cruising speed)
Manoeuvrability
Vertical Obstacle Crossing 74 cm
Trench 300 cm (10 ft)
Suspension Hydropneumatic
Armament
Main Armament 120mm calibre smooth bore cannon, M256 L55 (40 rnds)
Secondary Armament 2 x 14.7mm machine guns, LY60 (650 rnds each) on powered remote rotary mounts.
2 x TPFMI MkII “Helios” BVR ATGM
Power
Propulsion Twin-turbocharged 1,700 HP (1,275 kW) V10 diesel (at 2400 RPM.)
Transmission Hydrokinetic automatic transmission (4 fwd gears, 2 rvse)
Power-to-Weight Ratio 26.32 hp/t
Armour and Protection
Armour Type 4340 Steel, 3rd Gen Chobham, ERA.
NBC Protection LYMkII CBRN overpressure system.
Missile Countermeasures Lyran InfoWar Mk III laser-based ATGM CMD
Background
Modern AFVs are generally measured by a number of crucially important factors; firepower, armour, mobility and numbers fielded, rank close to the top.
Armour and fire power may determine success and failure on the modern tactical battlefield, but mobility and numerical superiority are often the more important capabilities when viewed from an operational or strategic context. During WWII, the Wehrmacht's Tigers expected to destroy 6 Shermans each. The Americans had initially seven times as many Shermans, then eight, then ten.
It was this philosophy of strategic success that drove the People's Republic of North Calaveras to enter consultations with several other states, both traditional allies within the Sons of Lenin, notably Greal, and other states with a history of military-technological expertise. Agreements were made for weapons systems from ThePeople'sFreedom, and substantial design, developmental and integrational assistance from the Protectorate of Lyras.
While in discussion and evaluation with Lyras it was quickly apparent that while many foreign weapons platforms existed that fitted the requirements laid out, to rely entirely, or even in large part, on foreign assistance and/or foreign supported/maintained hardware was a strategic weakness. Thus the decision was made to pursue development of a North Calaveran solution, with an eye towards SoL standardisation. All components, although not all North Calaveran, are produced in North Calaveras, several components being manufactured under licence.
Extensive cost-benefit analysis determined that while phenomenally costly to provide the extremely high armour protection required to defeat the main armament of opposing tanks, it was relatively inexpensive to provide sufficient protection against nearly everything else. The design team moved in the unorthodox direction, armouring the tank effectively against most non-armoured or dedicated anti-armour threats, a situation which forces an opponent to utilise armour-on-armour actions. In these engagements, numerical superiority is often a crucial determinant, especially in situations where the main gun on both sides offer high 1 or 2 hit kill probabilities. More expensive, less mobile and slower to manufacture forces can thus be forced to fight at a time and place where they are outnumbered.
Either way, the new vehicle offers a true strategic and operational alternative to the bigger-is-better mindset that has hamstrung global development. The new concept was remarkable. Infantry, armour, artillery, air support, would all require the same degree of force to destroy the new threat, and use the same weapons that would work against a vehicle twice as well armoured.
Except that the new concept had an advantage. It would be only 75% of the weight, barely half the price, and would take the same manufacturing capability barely one-third the time to produce, with less requirement for a highly skilled workforce or thousands of sensitive, time- and production-intensive electronic components.
The North Calaveran Military Design Bureau saw their opportunity. Without sacrificing effective operational combat strength, armoured forces could be fielded in numbers far higher, and far faster, than their industrial base would otherwise suggest.
For several months, North Calaveran, Lyran, TPF and Grealan technicians, scientists, strategists and tank crews hammered out a number of contenders for the criteria offered. The result was a genuinely multinational vehicle, reliable in a wide range of climatic conditions, that could be quickly and easily produced anywhere in the world, at an extremely reasonable price, and yet possess a high degree of lethality against any vehicle it would encounter on the battlefield.
Armour and protection synopsis
Historically the battle between projectile and plate has determined the out come of most tank battles, and traditionally warhead has normally won out. The amount of money nations have poured into designing ever more effective MBT armour is staggering.
As penetration of tank guns became greater, designers were forced to focus more armour to the front of vehicles, at the obvious expense of flank protection; vehicles simply didn't have the power to armour all parts of a vehicle sufficiently, so it was concluded, better to armour where the shots are most likely to come from. To combat this, gun designers resorted to larger, faster, more high tech ammunition, the never-ending battle continued
.
After the second world war, communists and capitalists both experimented with explosive reactive armour equipped tanks, and the capitalists began experimenting with silica-ceramics. All of these technologies offered potential, but were generally extremely costly and the main solution adopted was to simply add more armour, up-power the engines, provide more fuel to maintain the range, and in the end analysis, up the weight. The main battle tank went from 20-30 tons in WWII to 35-48 tons within 15 years. In other words, heavy tanks turned into medium tanks just by changing the date.
Shortly thereafter there was a dramatic rise in the killing potential of the anti-tank guided missile, which forced another evolutionary step. Some resorted to the ‘heavy tank’ with 16 inches of armour, others opted for a straight medium tank, and others still chose hybrids. The general trend continued, however. MBTs continued to become heavier, and as they became heavier they needed bigger engines to deliver the same power, which needed more fuel to maintain the range, and as they needed more fuel, they needed more space to carry the fuel, which needed more armour to protect the space, which was, in turn forcing up the weight. A vicious cycle that pushed MBT weights, costs, and logistics requirements ever upwards.
Chobham armour was an attempt (not a bad one, as it happened) to counter ATGMs, but the gun designers were able to keep pace. Soon, even these armours were obsolete and required further
upgrading to compete against the latest warheads. The most current solutions are dU (Depleted Uranium) armour for the M1s, Challengers and Warhounds, "Wedge armor" for the Leopard 2A5/6, and K-5 for most communist-bloc MBTs. The prevailing factor, however is that the new heavy armor only covers about ½ the front profile, while still pushing weights and costs ever upwards.
The GNC5's solution was simple.
It opted out.
While still heavily armoured, the GNC5 concedes that MBT-fired kinetic-energy penetrators are going to get through, and thus does not attempt to feature armour capable of stopping KE penetrators. In the process, the vast majority of the upward weight pressure on the design was lifted. At a stroke the GNC5 shed nearly 15 tons of added armour. However the latest in TPF and Lyran metallurgical technology was blended with NC designed chobham-equivalent ceramic based armours, to maintain the vehicle's protection against other threats likely to be encountered on the battlefield. Against anything short of KE penetrators, the GNC5's armour is still formidable.
Explosive reactive armour is fitted on important areas, as standard, providing a reliable means of defeating most HEAT-based munitions and ATGMs. Extensive fuel and ammunition are located within armoured sub-compartments in the tank's long low-profile hull, with integral blowout panels and anti-spalling Kevlar liners serving to prevent fuel explosion.
Further, the GNC5 sports a Lyran InfoWar Mark III laser-based ATGM counter-measure device. This is mounted on the rear-right of the turret, and is designed to “dazzle” the guidance systems on laser-, infra-red and radar-guided anti-tank missiles. Unguided and visually-directed/TOW missiles are by nature unaffected by this system.
Main Armament
The GNC5 features a 55 calibre 120mm M256 smoothbore, chosen to provide the optimum balance between anti-armour lethality, weight, ease of use, speed of manufacture and cost effectiveness. The Lyrans had offered use of their LY402 ETC weapon, and TPF agreed that the weapon system was substantially more effective, but the most cursory of cost projections and manufacture-process analysis showed the weapon to be incompatible with estimated hull manufacturing speed. In essence, the time-intensive production of the more sophisticated turret would have negated the production speed benefits the GNC5 was intended to convey.
To further aid the vehicle's ability to be fielded en-masse, it was designed to use an autoloader, as opposed to cramming an extra crewman into the turret, allowing that same crewman who would have been in the turret to instead crew another vehicle. By cutting crew requirements by 25%, the same number of personnel can crew 33% more vehicles. Rate of fire did not suffer, though, as the use of modern autoloaders, along with extensive use of muzzle-brakes, recoil-compensation and case extraction systems, have increased the rate of fire of the system to well within international norms.
As with most smoothbore weapons, the M256 can fire armour piercing fin-stabilised discarding sabot (APFSDS), HEAT, and a suite of additional, ancilliary and training projectiles, to suit the whole range of warfighting requirements.
Secondary Armament
Secondary armament consists of both LY60 14.7mm machine guns and TPFMI MkII “Helios” beyond-visual-range ATGMs. The LY60s are both situated above the turret on powered remote pintle mounts, while the two Helios missiles are afixed on either side of the turret.
The LY60 heavy machine gun was one of the first weapons designed and produced by Lyras, appearing in both watercooled and aircooled versions. Combat experience demonstrated that the aircooled version was highly suitable for many applications, following a modest increase in the mass of the barrel, and it is in the aircooled version that the LY60 serves today. In AA roles, the LY60 is used on several Lyran AA platforms, and serves as the primary co-axial weapon of the LY2 Mastiff series. The weapon is a belt fed, short recoil operated, open bolt, fully automatic weapon. Metallic disinitegrating link belts can feed it from either the left or right of the reciever. The quick change barrel is removable with the barrel jacket as a unit. The bore is chromium plated to increase barrel life and durability. The weapon fires the the LY112 14.7 x 115mm cartridge. The LY60 has a maximum effective range of 1400m against air targets, and 2200m against ground targets. The gun is simple in design and rugged in construction, and considered one of the most reliable heavy machine guns in service anywhere in the world.
Cartridge; 0.588 cal (14.7mm x 115mm)
Operation: Short-recoil automatic, open bolt
Method of locking; roller locking
Feeds; Disintegrating link belt
Weight: (with bipod): 13.15kg
Length: 1.625m
Muzzle velocity; 960m/s
ROF: Cyclic 600-700 RPM
Max effective range, bipod; 800m
tripod or pintle; 2200m
Aiming and targetting
One element of the GNC5 that all design parties were firmly in agreement on was the provision of a fire control system, and for that purpose there was no real competition to the Lyran-designed Cromwell system. Discussions were entered pertaining to the use of the then-still-in-development Cromwell 2, but it was agreed that the degree of precision and electronic integration required for Cromwell 2 far exceeded that required on the original FCS-only Cromwell system, which performs the task as well, if not better, than any other firecontrol system in the world. Indeed, the original Cromwell system, as a firecontrol method, is virtually unchanged in the second, with the majority of difference coming from the degree of information input by means of battlespace networking; a feature deemed overly complex for the easy and fast to manufacture GNC5.
The Cromwell system inputs and actively seeks informaton from a wide variety of sensory sources, including the thermal or daylight gun sight, a manually operated laser rangefinder, automatic crosswind sensor, a pendulum static cant sensor, ammunition type and temperature, and a high-precision muzzle reference sensor (MRS) that calculates barrel drop due to gravity and temperature. The Cromwell system utilises this information to compute a firing solution for the gunner, based upon analysis of the target beneath the reticle. This is achieved in less time than it would take the gunner to depress the firing stud. The firing solution that Cromwell generates ensures a hit percentage greater than 98 percent at standard ranges, across all conditions. Both the commander and gunner can fire the main gun.
Mobility
The GNC5 is powered by a twin-turbocharged 1,700 HP (1,275 kW) V10 diesel (at 2400 RPM.). It operates four forward gears, two reverse) Hydrokinetic automatic transmission, with a governed top speed of 80 kph (50 mph) on paved roads, and 60 kph (37.5 mph) cross-country. With the engine governor removed or deactivated, a simple and commonplace procedure, speeds of approximately 100 kph (62.5 mph) are expected on sealed road surfaces. This does however substantially reduce the vehicle's operational range, and generates a greatly increased risk of damage to the drive train or tracks, and these speeds tend to greatly degrade road surfaces. The engine governer can be set to “off” by the commander if the circumstances require.
The GNC5 is designed, perhaps above all else, to be mobile at an operational or strategic level, and it does this by having very large fuel tanks, and moderate consumption. When coupled with standard drop tanks, the GNC5 can reach 600km at operational cruising speed, and a fraction over 700km at optimum fuel economy speed (55km/h, ie 34.8mph). This is perhaps the most important factor in the GNC5's numerous abilities. For this reason, once an army utilising these tanks has the upper hand it becomes extremely hard to retake the initiative, as these very capable, extremely long-ranging vehicles allow their units to maintain pressure for (usually) further and faster than an opposing army can withdraw.
Most heavy or superheavy cargo aircraft can transport one or sometimes two GNC5s, ready to fight, and one more when they are “broken down” for transport.