Apatheticka
04-11-2008, 06:17
(OCC: Hoping to get an army thrown together, and would like some sort of kick-ass custom tank, but I have no clue as how to go about making one, except a pretty general idea of what I want. Any help or foreign design submissions would be appreciated, and the outline here is pretty open to change. Skip to the end if you don’t care about IC reasoning.)
Apathetickan Ground Forces Tank Project:
Armor has long played a significant role in Apathetickan military traditions, similar to that of the Navy in Britain.
Recently, the Apathetickan Ground Forces have decided to completely re-arm their Armored Cavalry brigades, following a series of violent coup attempts that have shown their current tanks (Mostly domestically built Soviet T-series tanks, ranging from horribly obsolete post-WWII models, to more modern, yet somewhat dated T-72 and –80s ) to be somewhat out of date when faced with modern anti-tank equipment.
Rather than continuing with the Cold War era strategy of low-cost, high-number vehicles, the military has opted to go the western route, and embrace more expensive, but survivable, vehicles. As of recent years, the Apathetickan economy has grown to the point where costly vehicles are more feasible, and with the recent formation of the Apathetickan Air Forces, armored vehicle doctrine has changed from one of aggressive and swift attack, to one of impregnable, if slow, defense.
Having very little practice in designing their own weapons systems, the Apathetickan government has opened their doors to the world for the first time, hoping to attract outside industries to help them fulfill their needs.
Taking from their experiences in the recent internal conflicts, the staff in charge of the project have laid out the following requirements for their new MBT:
Armament:
Though the 90mm guns of some of the older Apathetickan tanks have been decided to have no place on a modern MBT, the 125mm smoothbores of the T-72 series have been found to be adequate for dealing with any armor encountered thus far. Adding to this the huge number of surplus ammunition available for this size of gun, the only logical choice is to leave size alone.
Likewise, the 7.62mm coaxial machine gun, and the 12.7mm commander’s gun are both tried and true weapons, and the army has seen no need to replace them.
However, despite usually good performance, the autoloaders in use thus far have been shown to occasionally malfunction at some of the worst possible moments, and have been decided not to be a requirement on the new tank designs.
Armor:
One thing found very lacking in many of Apatheticka’s current tanks is sufficient armor. Despite being a very respected career choice, becoming a tanker in the Apathetickan military has been know to half one’s life expectancy during a time of conflict, mostly due to shoddy protection.
Thusly, the government has decided to totally redesign their tanks in this department, incorporating reactive armor, composite materials, and increased RHA ratings, along with blow-out compartments and other survivablility-increasing features found on modern western tanks.
Another new feature the military has considered incorporating is the movement of the tank’s engine to the front of the vehicle, affording it considerably better protection, and more room in the tank for other features. Though this has looked good on paper thus far, it has not been set in stone as a requirement for the new design.
As most conflicts in Apatheticka have been fought on tank-friendly terrain (and those that haven’t been rarely including tanks), the expansion in size and weight brought on by these changes to the armor have been considered to be somewhat irrelevant.
Engine/Drive Train:
Considering the exponential increase in size, it’s been realized that a whole new engine will need to be designed to power the new tank. Decidedly, the tank must be relatively fast with a fair range in order to fulfill combat duty, meaning a certainly high-horsepower, and preferably multi-fuel engine is required. Accordingly, a new transmission will likely require construction.
Suspension will likely be torsion bar based, and the tank should be capable of fording rivers.
Summary of Requirements:
-Crew of three, with autoloader, four without.
-125mm smoothbore capable of firing HEAT and sabot rounds, and preferably 9M119M Refleks guided anti-tank missiles. Room for 35+ rounds preferable. Range of 5km+ preferable.
-7.62mm coaxial machine gun, capable of 600+ RPM, with room for 5000+ rounds.
-12.7mm mounted machine gun, capable of 650-750 RPM, with room for 600+ rounds.
-Armor with a 800mm+ RHA rating against sabot rounds, and a 1300mm RHA rating against HEAT rounds. Chobham, depleted uranium, etc. etc., so long as it works.
-The ability to mount explosive reactive armor, preferably the already available Kontakt-5 or Relikt designs.
- Protected ammunition racks, blow-out panels, and any other reasonable protection methods.
- Engine/drive train capable of 60km/h speeds on decent terrain, preferably multi-fuel and capable of ranges exceeding 600km, and with an hp rating of 1500+.
- Well thought out designs placing the engine in the front of the tank will likely be favored.
- Ability to ford around 0.5m of water.
- Weight under 70 metric tons.
- Cost around or less than 14 million halics (current exchange at about 2h per 1$)
- Domestic production rights are a must.
(OCC: That's really all I can think of. Like I said, I've got no concept of how to go about any of this. Hopefully someone else does!)
Apathetickan Ground Forces Tank Project:
Armor has long played a significant role in Apathetickan military traditions, similar to that of the Navy in Britain.
Recently, the Apathetickan Ground Forces have decided to completely re-arm their Armored Cavalry brigades, following a series of violent coup attempts that have shown their current tanks (Mostly domestically built Soviet T-series tanks, ranging from horribly obsolete post-WWII models, to more modern, yet somewhat dated T-72 and –80s ) to be somewhat out of date when faced with modern anti-tank equipment.
Rather than continuing with the Cold War era strategy of low-cost, high-number vehicles, the military has opted to go the western route, and embrace more expensive, but survivable, vehicles. As of recent years, the Apathetickan economy has grown to the point where costly vehicles are more feasible, and with the recent formation of the Apathetickan Air Forces, armored vehicle doctrine has changed from one of aggressive and swift attack, to one of impregnable, if slow, defense.
Having very little practice in designing their own weapons systems, the Apathetickan government has opened their doors to the world for the first time, hoping to attract outside industries to help them fulfill their needs.
Taking from their experiences in the recent internal conflicts, the staff in charge of the project have laid out the following requirements for their new MBT:
Armament:
Though the 90mm guns of some of the older Apathetickan tanks have been decided to have no place on a modern MBT, the 125mm smoothbores of the T-72 series have been found to be adequate for dealing with any armor encountered thus far. Adding to this the huge number of surplus ammunition available for this size of gun, the only logical choice is to leave size alone.
Likewise, the 7.62mm coaxial machine gun, and the 12.7mm commander’s gun are both tried and true weapons, and the army has seen no need to replace them.
However, despite usually good performance, the autoloaders in use thus far have been shown to occasionally malfunction at some of the worst possible moments, and have been decided not to be a requirement on the new tank designs.
Armor:
One thing found very lacking in many of Apatheticka’s current tanks is sufficient armor. Despite being a very respected career choice, becoming a tanker in the Apathetickan military has been know to half one’s life expectancy during a time of conflict, mostly due to shoddy protection.
Thusly, the government has decided to totally redesign their tanks in this department, incorporating reactive armor, composite materials, and increased RHA ratings, along with blow-out compartments and other survivablility-increasing features found on modern western tanks.
Another new feature the military has considered incorporating is the movement of the tank’s engine to the front of the vehicle, affording it considerably better protection, and more room in the tank for other features. Though this has looked good on paper thus far, it has not been set in stone as a requirement for the new design.
As most conflicts in Apatheticka have been fought on tank-friendly terrain (and those that haven’t been rarely including tanks), the expansion in size and weight brought on by these changes to the armor have been considered to be somewhat irrelevant.
Engine/Drive Train:
Considering the exponential increase in size, it’s been realized that a whole new engine will need to be designed to power the new tank. Decidedly, the tank must be relatively fast with a fair range in order to fulfill combat duty, meaning a certainly high-horsepower, and preferably multi-fuel engine is required. Accordingly, a new transmission will likely require construction.
Suspension will likely be torsion bar based, and the tank should be capable of fording rivers.
Summary of Requirements:
-Crew of three, with autoloader, four without.
-125mm smoothbore capable of firing HEAT and sabot rounds, and preferably 9M119M Refleks guided anti-tank missiles. Room for 35+ rounds preferable. Range of 5km+ preferable.
-7.62mm coaxial machine gun, capable of 600+ RPM, with room for 5000+ rounds.
-12.7mm mounted machine gun, capable of 650-750 RPM, with room for 600+ rounds.
-Armor with a 800mm+ RHA rating against sabot rounds, and a 1300mm RHA rating against HEAT rounds. Chobham, depleted uranium, etc. etc., so long as it works.
-The ability to mount explosive reactive armor, preferably the already available Kontakt-5 or Relikt designs.
- Protected ammunition racks, blow-out panels, and any other reasonable protection methods.
- Engine/drive train capable of 60km/h speeds on decent terrain, preferably multi-fuel and capable of ranges exceeding 600km, and with an hp rating of 1500+.
- Well thought out designs placing the engine in the front of the tank will likely be favored.
- Ability to ford around 0.5m of water.
- Weight under 70 metric tons.
- Cost around or less than 14 million halics (current exchange at about 2h per 1$)
- Domestic production rights are a must.
(OCC: That's really all I can think of. Like I said, I've got no concept of how to go about any of this. Hopefully someone else does!)