NationStates Jolt Archive

[OOC: This was never meant for export, but since I don't really role-play with Castilla y Belmonte it's kind of a wasted effort. So, I just decided to put it up for export, to give the Lince some purpose.

Carro de Combate Lince
Lince, a Spanish word, translates into Lynx and this gives name to the Kingdom of Castilla y Belmonte’s new main battle tank. The Lince, or Lynx, is the union of several state-of-the-art technologies and advanced design concepts in order to perfect the main battle tank. Its cost per unit (PPU) is testament to the amount of technological work put into this very special machine. The Lince will give the kingdom a next-generation armament and will bring the kingdom’s military to parity with its neighbors, or perhaps even superiority. She will join the ranks of MAD.IICBs and JBT.24Cs in Castilla’s armor corps. The Lince is not just an improved tank, it’s a revolutionary design which inches away from the ‘constructor’s triangle’ and instead focuses on perfecting all aspects of tank design, as well as using one aspect to improve another. In that sense, the Lince’s design theory resembles that of the immortal Nakíl main battle tank. However, to completely understand the development of the Lince we must look into the history of Castilla’s armor units.

Table of Contents

A short history of Castillian armor

The birth of the Castillian ‘Jarama’ armor division: 1896-1920
In the late 19th century the Kingdom of Castilla found itself facing a growing number of insurrections in the northern territories. The insurrections were based on century’s worth of ethnic conflict, government oppression and widespread poverty and were mostly centered in the provinces of Belmonte, Cuenca, and Alicante. In 1891 a general of Belmontese ethnicity rebelled against the Castillian government, using the wide array of armored cars at his disposal that we commanded. Despite the fact that a large portion of his army remained loyal to Cuidad Real and deserted, he was able to recruit large numbers of soldiers from the local population. Royal campaigns by Jaime IV in 1892 and 1893 failed to defeat the rebellion, and by the end of the latter year there were serious rumors about the final fracture of the kingdom. It was then that the king’s greatest military strategist suggested the use of heavy armored cars to defeat those in use by the Belmontese rebels. Therefore, in 1894 the Companía de Carros Blindados was created, incorporating mostly hastily armored tractors and trucks. These improvised armored fighting vehicles were armed mostly with 7mm Castillano-Delgado machine guns and even light mortars. Despite their crude making, the armor company succeeded in defeating Belmontese armored cars and in mid-1895 the rebellion was finally crushed after almost four years of conflict.

Given the unprecedented success of these armored cars Jaime IV ordered the design and construction of more advanced models to fulfill the requirements for a future armor division. As early as late 1895 the Royal Institute of Ground Warfare began the production of the RG-13 armored car. The RG-13 featured protection against existing semi-automatic rifles of the time and light machine gun ammunition, and was armed with a 7mm Castillano-Delgado machine gun. Unfortunately, its wheels were easy targets and the destruction of one of the steel wheels would immobilize the vehicle. Nevertheless, between 1895 and 1897 six hundred RG-13s were produced and in February 1896 they began to serve in the newly created Jarama armor division. In 1897 the RG-13 was followed by three hundred models of the RG-14 – the first tracked armored vehicle to serve in the kingdom’s armed forces. The RG-14 was better protected, although suffered the limited mobility of all wrap-around track designs. The RG-13s began to be deactivated in the first years of the 20th century, and the RG-14 was improved. In 1902 the Royal Institute of Ground Warfare introduced the RG-15 advanced light tank, which featured a 20mm cannon and enough armor to protect against large caliber machine gun bullets. The new tank weighed roughly four metric tons and was powered by a 35 horsepower gasoline engine. Three hundred were produced to completely replace the RG-13 and RG-14 designs.

Due to peace in the kingdom between the end of the Belmontese rebellion and 1910 there were no major innovations in the Castillian armored fleet. In fact, in 1905 the kingdom reduced the Jarama division’s strength from six battalions to four, with two hundred effective tanks. By the end of the first decade of the 20th century, the RG-15 light tank found itself outclassed by foreign designs, and the Castillian Army found it increasingly hard to keep them running. Therefore, in 1908 the Castillian government funded a project to introduce a new ‘medium’ tank to replace the RG-15, and a new light tank to arm a cavalry battalion of the division. The new medium tank was to weight less than fifteen metric tons, while the light tank was not to exceed six tons. In 1909 the Royal Institute of Ground Warfare introduces the first prototypes to the RG-16, a long six ton turreted vehicle – this was the first of its kind in the kingdom. It boasted a superior 20mm Castillano-Delgado machine gun, with much simpler internal mechanics, and armor to protect against new 7mm armor-piercing (AP) ammunition. The design was deemed satisfactory enough to guarantee procurement not only for the Jarama armored division, but to equip each infantry division with a mechanized cavalry company. Between 1910 and 1915 some six hundred RG-16s were produces for the Castillian Army.

Unfortunately, the new medium tank was not successful on the same level. In 1911 Empresa Fabián (EF) introduced into production the Rey Jaime Uno (King James tank – KJ-1). Between 1911 and 1914 a total of three hundred vehicles were produced for Castilla. However, the majority of these vehicles saw an upgrade kit to fix problems with a faulty transmission, poor reliability with the chains and roadwheels and an engine which frequently overheated. As a consequence, in 1916 the same company introduced the KJ-2 which had these problems resolved, as well as introduces an improved 50mm high-pressure tank gun. The KJ-2 weighed sixteen thousand kilograms, but was deemed satisfactory to replace the problematic KJ-1 – the replacements were produces between 1916 and 1918. The KJ-2 served well into the 1920s.

Regardless of the long periods of lack of development, the Kingdom of Castilla was the first to introduce many important concepts into the region (in regards to tank design). This included the use of high velocity guns and the concept of the fully rotating turret. For the kingdom indigenous tank technology would truly take-off in the mid-20s starting with the War of Succession (1924-1932). Nevertheless, the first twenty years of the 20th century provided an important foundation for the kingdom’s mechanization.

Development of a national industry: 1921-1966
The first ‘modern’ medium tank for Castilla began production in 1924, a few months before the beginning of the bloody, long and unfortunate War of Succession. In 1922 EF began development of the next-generation medium tank, to weigh twenty tons. The KJ-2 was destined to replace the RG-16 as the nation’s principle cavalry vehicle, and they would be converted into artillery pullers. The KJ-3 was the first tank which replaced the traditional wrap-around track design with a distinguished chassis and relatively low-profile turret. The turret now held three of the five crew members and was armed with a longer and more powerful 50mm high-pressure rifled tank gun. The K J-3 boasted a 60 horsepower gasoline engine which allowed it a maximum velocity of 19km/h. More important, the KJ-3 was the nation’s first tank to field enough frontal protection to defeat its own projectiles, and for a while was called the ‘the battle tank’. Production began in 1924 and was augmented with the beginning of the War of Succession in September of that year. It finished production for the Jarama division in early 1925, and then began a second batch of vehicles for the newborn Brunete armor division. The next year a third armor division was founded (the Ebro) and in 1927 Empresa Fabián finished production of a total of one thousand vehicles for the kingdom’s army, and by the end of the decade produces well over five hundred more as replacements.

Jaime IV’s successor (who was fighting for his crown against several usurpers and part of the military), Santiago de la Rama ‘Cabeza Mesada’ (nicknamed for his various orders to behead enemy prisoners of war), also pushed for the introduction of a new light tank to outfit three new tank companies in the Castillian Armada. The RG-25 as introduced in 1925 and sixty were ordered to outfit these tank companies. In 1926 they saw their first actions during the amphibious landings at Alhucemas. These tanks were not amphibious, and were placed ashore by special landing craft. They were armed with a high-velocity 50mm gun and weighed twelve tons, with enough overall protection to defeat 10mm armor piercing ammunition. The design was fully turreted, and featured the new track propulsion system. What became known as the Tercio Blindado de la Armada (TEAR) would become infamous throughout the region for its various amphibious landings all over the coastline of the kingdom, against ‘rebel forces’. They also became infamous for their willingness to die in battle for their king and the Tercio was soon integrated into the Legión Naval (Naval Legion) whose motto was, ‘¡Viva la muerte! (Long live death!). Santiago’s armored fleet soon became the spearhead of the ‘Loyalist Army’.

The War of Succession proved to be a catalyst for armor design. The forces of General Arturo Mendieta, who claimed the thrown as his, captured the industrial zones of Alicante in 1927 and started production of a copy of the KJ-3. This was called the Carro de Combate Záncara (Záncara battle tank) and featured a high-velocity 70mm gun, and armor to protect against 50mm armor piercing ballistically capped (APBC) ammunition. Weighing twenty-five tons, it suffered from poor engine design and faulty tracks. Nevertheless, the introduction of this tank to the field proved to be a shock for Jaime’s successors. In fact, the Záncara was the first tank in the kingdom to take full advantage of sloping in the front 60 º arc. The sloping proved to be so efficient that in 1930 Empresa Fabián introduced the final tank of the KJ line, copying the armor concept of the Záncara – the KJ-1930.

The KJ-1930’s design proved to be very modern for its time. It boasted of a brand-new 210 horsepower gasoline engine (a very high amount of power for the technology available in the kingdom, at the time) positioned in the front of the tank to increase protection of the driver. The tank commander (who doubled as the gunner) was positioned in the turret, along with the loader. This turret was extremely low-profile, although it fitted an improved model of the KJ-3’s 50mm high-velocity tank gun. However, this gun had a freedom of movement between -5º and 70º which provided value against low-flying aircraft. The co-axial 7mm machine gun had an elevation of 80º and a depression of -8º. The most important design improvements were the tracks – the double roadwheel tracks of the KJ-3 were improved with a single roadwheel per side. However, said roadwheel now found itself held tight in a groove between the outsides of the track. This aided in reducing the chances of the track falling off, which had been a problem in earlier designs. The new torsion-bar suspension was also a radical improvement in the kingdom’s armor, and provided superior cross-country ability – 30kph! In terms of armor, the new tank featured armor protection against all enemy armor piercing ammunition in the front 90º arc, which weighed around 7,000kg alone! The rest of the vehicle was protected against 20mm armor piercing ammunition, adding another 3,000kg of weight. The KJ-1930 was so efficient that it remained in service until 1968, alongside much more powerful vehicles. Some one hundred remained in service in 1967 in a number of infantry divisions as converted infantry carriers, and the rest were either scrapped or turned into 75mm self-propelled light artillery vehicles and other surrogates.

All sides introduced small quantities of innovative light tanks, armored trucks and armored tractors. These were normally protected against small-arms with cheap steel found anywhere where it could be found, and were armed with machine guns of all calibers. Some light tanks were even armed with 36mm anti-tank artillery cannons found in the field. These were reworked to be mounted on ad hoc light tank chassis and to be loaded by a human loader from within the chassis, or a turret if the tank had one. It’s estimated that there were around four thousand locally built armored vehicles of all types during the war – around half of these were lost due to enemy fire, a fourth due to maintenance and reliability issues and the rest survived the war. The war was also the kingdom’s first major war to see the use of anti-armor mines and there were at least eleven thousand trucks produced in all sides which were mine-protected. The War of Succession saw the birth of the successful company MecániCas, which today produces some of the most advanced armored trucks in the world.

Besides the beginning of a successful line of tanks, armored cars and trucks, and the development of new ideas, the War of Succession also allowed the development of the kingdom’s industry to a level never beforehand seen. By 1933 most of the country now had industry of some sort, given the fact that each faction had funded the construction of their own armaments industry. Over two-thirds of this industry was soon converted for civilian use, and opened to the public market. Unfortunately for Castilla, the majority of the industry opened was gobbled up by the wealthy business men of Juumanistra and Mekugi. The fact that most of the investment soon was to come from the outside, and the profit was to leave to go to the outside, didn’t help the economic situation of the kingdom. Any potential door to create a new Castillian market was closed by the end of the decade, and the poverty in the kingdom was soon exacerbated by the costs of the war and the rebuilding period thereafter. In fact, King Santiago II was forced to ask the Church to recollect money to rebuild local towns, villages and even cities and the coffers of the monarchy were almost depleted during the process of reconstruction of the capital city of Cuidad Real. Due to the lack of money tank development slowed down and several projects were shelved by Empresa Fabián. In 1942 EF declared bankruptcy and sold its factories to a foreign radio manufacturer.

In 1945 Sistemas Aranjuez opened and became the crown’s principle armaments provider until the late-1960s. It introduced a number of modernization packets for the KJ-3s in the kingdom’s cavalry and amphibious units which upgraded engine power and introduced electric energy for turret traverse. In 1956 Sistemas Aranjuez presented Santiago III (the son of the by then deceased Santiago II) two prototypes to what they called the Carro de Combate Verdeja. The Verdeja offered a powerful 85mm high-velocity gun, firing two new types of ammunition – high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) and armor piercing discarding sabots (APDS). The former could penetrate almost 200mm of steel, and the latter about 150mm of steel. The highly sloped armor, in the front, measured 50mm on the glacis plate and 205mm on the turret front plate. The Verdeja’s 750hp diesel engine, coupled with the rubber-tyred steel tracks and the steel torsion-bar suspension allowed for a maximum on-road velocity of 65km/h and an off-road velocity of 40km/h. However, Sistemas Aranjuez could not count on a modern transmission and borrowed the transmission of the KJ-1930, modernized it to handle the new engine. The transmission suffered from break-downs if the crew turned too sharply and so minimized the battlefield mobility of the Verdeja. Furthermore, the tank weighed forty-two metric tons, which was quite heavier than previous tank designs. Nevertheless, the king agreed to procure enough to outfit the five battalions left of the Jarama division – two hundred and fifty tanks. Furthermore, in exchange for a further order of fifty more tanks, the company agreed to buy the three hundred KJ-1930s of the Ebro armor division and the three hundred of the Brunete armor division. These were turned into armor personnel carriers between the next three years, and were actually sold back to Castilla in this form for more money. The three hundred KJ-1930s of the Jarama armor division were turned into bridging vehicles, recovery vehicles, artillery vehicles and around thirty were turned into museum pieces. One hundred remained in service with within four infantry divisions in four newly created armor companies, and these were later integrated into mechanized battalions when the same four infantry divisions were completely mechanized and reorganized in 1964.

Not until 1963 was a new tank introduced after that. Sistemas Aranjuez offered the kingdom, which had by then rebuilt what had been damaged during the War of Succession, the Carro de Combate Trubia. The Trubia weighed a good sixty tons and was armed by a new smoothbore 120mm L/45 tank gun. It was the heaviest armored vehicle ever to have reached prototype stage in the kingdom, and it was accepted by the elderly Santiago III. Thirty were purchased to outfit a heavy tank battalion of the Jarama armor division. These tanks suffered from a poor transmission, a poor power to weight ratio (a 900hp diesel engine) and not enough survivability to justify their cost or use. Nevertheless, the Trubia was procured and would serve for the first two years of the Castillian Civil War (1967-1973).

Armor of the Castillian Civil War: 1967-1973
In 1967 the royal province of Belmonte, along with the provinces of Cuenca, Alicante, Huelva and Ogroño seceded from the kingdom and declared themselves a sovereign nation. These formed into the Republic of United Autonomous Communities (RUAC or just the UAC). This action caused the beginning of the Castillian Civil War, which would result in over four million dead and billions of pesetas lost. The Kingdom of Castilla started this war with two hundred and fifty Verdeja medium tanks, thirty Trubia heavy tanks, one hundred KJ-1930s, and sixty KJ-3s in service with TEAR. These four hundred and twenty tanks proved to be quite an advantage over the militia army of RUAC and early rebel attempts to seize Cuidad Real (capital of the kingdom) in September 1967 were easily stopped. In fact, between September 1967 and December of that same year most believed that the rebellion was to end by the month of the following year. Unfortunately, nations with economic stakes involved soon began to pour war material into both sides.

In January 1968 the Questerian Empire began a steady flow of MBT-8/E medium tanks to RUAC forces. By next year RUAC would have no less than two thousand of these tanks in service, and over the years of war a total of twelve thousand MBT-8/Es were provided to RUAC. About half of these were lost in combat, while some three thousand were captured by royal forces and returned to service in the Castillian Army. Many of the rest were either scavenged for spare parts or remained intact until the end of the war. The MBT-8/E was a very good tank for its era, boasting of an enhanced level of lethality as compared to existing Castilian tanks, as well as high protection and mobility. At thirty-eight metric tons of weight the MBT-8 had a 125mm high-velocity tank gun, matched with a new laser rangefinder, and only was crewed by three due to the adoption of an advanced autoloader. The turret was fitted with an advanced type of composite armor, made up of steel encased quartz ceramic plates along with several layers of glass fiber. The MBT-8/E’s turret and glacis, which was sloped at a maximum of 68º, were impervious to all HEAT ammunition used by then current Castillian forces in January 1968, as well as all APFSDS. Unfortunately, the 750hp diesel engine suffered from reliability problems and had trouble starting in the Castillian winter. These problems were later resolved in later variants, although none of these variants saw combat during the Castillian Civil War (only MBT-8/Es). One of the major disadvantages of the tank was the low-survivability of the placement of ammunition and propellant under the turret ring, which frequently resulted in the loss of the entire tank through the combustion of the propellant and the popping of the turret due to the resulting explosion! After the war, Castilla modified the one thousand five hundred tanks of this type to be logistically homologous to the MAD.II medium tank and introduced a new autoloader, with similar mechanics, that showcased fireproof ammunition compartments at the expense of a slightly smaller ammunition load – thirty-three rounds.

In mid-1968, due to the Questerian influence over RUAC, Doomingsland and Juumanistra began to provide armaments in massive amounts to the Castillian Armed Forces. Over the period of the civil war Doomingsland provided eleven thousand MAD.II medium tanks! The MAD.II boasts of an effective 105mm main gun and a modern 800 horsepower diesel engine – which also had reliability issues. It, however, weighs six tons more and has inferior firepower as compared to the MBT-8/E due to the smaller caliber gun and the lack of a modern rangefinder. In terms of protection, the two are more or less similar. Despite its number of disadvantages to the Questerian tanks, the MAD.II was far more modern than the kingdom’s Verdeja tank and the KJ-1930s. The MAD.II continues to serve with the Castillian Army to this day in reserve units!

Juumanistra provided roughly seven thousand JBT.14A3 Sentinel medium tanks. The JBT.14 provided the most advanced medium tank Castilla would use until the mid-80s. The JBT.14 has superior armor protection to both the MBT-8/E and the MAD.II, and is armed with an advanced 120mm L/44 high-velocity tank gun. The 900hp diesel engine provides a horsepower to ton ratio of almost 17:1, and it carries about three more rounds in its bustle autoloader. Furthermore, this autoloader isn’t as lethal to the crew as the MBT-8’s, as the bustle features turret roof blow-off panels incase of an ammunition cook-off. The Sentinel also uses a laser rangefinder, like the Questerian MBT-8/E. About six thousand Sentinels still serve with the Castillian Army, although two thousand were purchased in the mid-70s and are of the A4 variant.

The large influx of tanks managed to persuade the government to convert Sistemas Aranjuez into a spare parts producer for these new tanks. Over the years of the civil war Sistemas Aranjuez converted the small arms to the kingdom’s preferred calibers to ease logistics, although the project didn’t finalize until well after the end of the civil war – there were just too many tanks to convert! Nevertheless, no indigenous tank design was ever produced in the kingdom until the advent of the Lince. Although some indigenous tank designs are still in service in ridiculously low numbers – the Verdeja has the highest amount of tanks in service, with around two thousand (most were produced during the civil war, until the conversion of the factories) – they do no form an important part of the armor corps. Sistemas Aranjuez closed in 1985 and since then the required spare parts for the various tanks in service have been supplied by Juumanistran, Doomani or Mekugian providers. Questers no longer produces parts for its MBT-8/Es, and so these will be retired from service with the introduction of the Lince. The JBT.14 will take its place in reserve units, or will be scrapped, and the MAD.II will be either modernized and sold or will be scrapped. The Lince will form the sole main battle tank for the country’s active service armor brigades.

After the end of the civil war, and the reintegration of RUAC into the kingdom, the Castillian Army operated a fleet of a total of 15,500 medium tanks. With no heavy tank in service these were all redesignated main battle tanks in 1975. In 1984 Castilla opted to introduce a new tank into service to replace the MBT-8/E. No indigenous design was introduced, as by then Sistemas Aranjuez was bankrupt, and the kingdom procured two thousand JBT.24 main battle tanks. These were powered by a 1,500hp diesel engine and were much more heavily armored than the JBT.14. They also boasted of a longer 120mm gun (52 calibers long) and a modern fire control system. Unfortunately, they were not exactly what the kingdom wanted given the weight increment, increased cost and complexity and the continued reliance on foreign armament industries. Nevertheless, Castilla could hardly afford a better tank and had no indigenous options to choose from. These two thousand tanks served until 1996, and since then have been used as targets. They were too expensive to upkeep, along with the rest of the Castillian fleet, and did not have enough numbers to justify their use. Although superior to any tank in service, at the time, there were too few to be worth anything in regards to strategic value.


http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i291/Macabees/Tanks/Franberryborderbunker.gif
A bunker built from a MAD.II turret in a Castillian border city, near Franberry.

The economic miracle which happened between 1987 and 1996 hardly helped the JBT.24’s case, but it allowed the kingdom to open itself to a new tank tender to look for a replacement for all their tanks. King Alfonso VI placed the date of the tender at the year 2000 and invited all tank producers to show-off their latest designs. The result was not what was expected, however.

Programa Coraza 2000: 1996-2006
In 1986 the country went through a dramatic transformation. Since the end of the civil war the monarchy had lost most of its power to the military, and for roughly thirteen years the Kingdom of Castilla was a kingdom just in name. King Arturo III died in 1984 of ‘natural causes’ – although many believe he was assassinated – leaving his twenty-six year old son on the throne. The new king, Alfonso VI, quickly reinstated the monarchy as the leading power in the kingdom by reducing the size of the army from thirty divisions to three corps, composed of three brigades each. The new army had no more than 120,000 men, and by 2000 the Army could only count on 80,000 active personnel (the reserves had been largely untouched). Most of the military leadership was fired, or forced to retire, and a new age of younger personnel appointed to command. Despite the loss of good commanders, the king guaranteed military loyalty. Fortunately for the nation, King Alfonso VI had a good understanding of the poverty the kingdom had been in for over five hundred years and introduced a series of reforms which would produce the ‘economic miracle’ of the late 80s and early 90s. Agreements with Juumanistra and Mekugi in terms of trade and investment also allowed for a quick and radical increase in the money controlled by state banks, and most of the industry and market was opened to the public. Admittedly, there was a bit of luck in the fact that state corruption had in fact decreased during the years of virtual dictatorship. Furthermore, some sort of peace had been finally established with the Northern provinces with the adoption of a new national name – the Kingdom of Castilla y Belmonte. Nevertheless, the effect was to have a profound impact on the standard of living of the nation, the standards of education and the modernization of the armed forces.

In 1996 Alfonso VI allotted funding to the army which allowed the army to begin Programa Coraza 2000. The program had in mind a number of goals for the future of the mechanized forces. In regards to vehicle procurement, Program Armor called for the development of an indigenous infantry combat vehicle (ICV), a self-propelled howitzer and a new tank to replace the score of MAD.IIs and JBT.14s still in service. Furthermore, the program asked for the development of a number of mine protected wheeled vehicles, including a new high-mobility four by four (4x4), an eight by eight (8x8) wheeled armor personnel carrier – plus, a number of variants – and several mine protected trucks (one of these is the product of a contract signed between the government of Northford and MecániCas). The entire program was worth 5.6 billion pesetas. The only vehicle with a time and fund limit was the Future Castillian Tank (FCT-1), which was to have a prototype ready for the 2000 Castillian Tank Tender. The six by six (6x6) armored truck development team was canceled in 2004 and MecániCas later continued the program privately with guaranteed procurement by the Castillian and Northfordian governments.

Apart from the modernization of the army’s equipment, the program also looked forward to the expansion of the Army from nine to twelve brigades, and the elimination of the corps system. Instead, these twelve brigades were to be completely independent. The Jarama armor brigade would be joined by the Ebro armor brigade and the Brunete armor brigade, and all three would be equipped with a future tank. The Jarama armor brigade was planned to replace all six hundred JBT.14s with three hundred of whatever tank was procured in 2000. The rest of the armor in active service, whether within TEAR or the infantry brigades, was to be scrapped as it was replaced methodically by the future infantry combat vehicle. The MBT-8Cs (for Castilla) in reserves were to be scrapped and replaced by JBT.14s – purchasing a new tank for them was deemed to expensive at the time. Therefore, the future army organization would include eight mechanized infantry brigades of about eight thousand men a piece, a single airborne brigade and three armor brigades of about five thousand men each. The future army would have a total amount of 110,000 men in active service – including three separate engineering companies, and a number of logistics teams. The army’s requeté (special forces brigade) would be modernized in a private modernization program, and the brigade would be expanded from two thousand to four thousand men.

Some nine hundred MBT-8/E turrets will be installed along the Franberrian border and modernized with an advanced fire control system to increase automation. These will be joined by about two thousand MAD.II turret, if an export modernization is not developed, to create an expansive and powerful deterrent to war. Although the Franberrian government has been close to the Castillian monarchy since the fall of the dictatorship in 1986, new foreign policies are alienating the Juumanistran and Mekugian governments and a war can’t be ruled out (even if unlikely). The installation of autonomous, or even semi-autonomous, fortified bunkers based on old tank turrets armed with 105mm and 125mm guns will be a somewhat effective way of guaranteeing an early warning of military operations in the area and will provide a limited defense. In the future, the guns may be exchanged for larger and more powerful 122mm tank guns based on that of the BSI-122 and the Tigre armored gun system (AGS). A similar coastal defense program will use old ship turrets with large-caliber naval cannons to reinforce those already in place (there are currently four 38.1cm coastal defense batteries per major naval port installed).

Programa Coraza 2000 represented, and still represents, an ambitious modernization program. It’s the most expensive project realized by the army to date. Today, over half the project still needs to be completed, although much of it has been completed by the Lince and the vehicles based on the Lince’s chassis; the program is planned to be finalized within the next three years, and for the most part the procurement stage is over. However, Program Armor is just a small part of a wide modernization of the entire armed forces. The Armada has already announced the procurement of six Triumph class aircraft carriers from the Questerian armaments firm Beaufort Naval Industries. Four more will be constructed in Castillian shipyards. Juumanistra is also providing between five hundred and seven hundred naval aircraft for the carrier expansion, and will probably see more orders. The Ejército del Aire still has not begun its procurement stage, although it will most likely begin purchasing foreign designs this year. Tecnivuelo is providing the air force with a new trainer aircraft and a close air support fighter. However, indigenous aircraft companies currently lack of the industry and money to design and produce an indigenous fighter aircraft. In the big picture, this modernization will propel the Castillian Armed Forces from a backwater third-world nation military to one of the most modern defense forces in the world. Ideally, within a number of years the military will grow into a true power projection force.

Programa Lince: Putting the Lince into production
The tank program was awarded to Sistemas Terrestres Segovia (STS), with the presentation date places as the year 2000. Between June 6 and 9 of that year the army held an international tank tender. The tank tender attracted only regional manufacturers. For instance, Juumanistra offered its JBT.35 Minotaur main battle tank, with the monster size 140mm L/44 tank gun. The original 1,800hp rotary engine was replaced by a 1,800 compact V-12 diesel and one of the fuel tanks was replaced by a compartment for a future under armor auxiliary power unit (UAAPU). Juumanistra’s Menatsuki Arms also offered the JBT.24C (for Castilla) modernization kit. New appliqué armor was fitted to the turret and glacis plate, and the original 1,800hp diesel of the M3 variant was replaced by a more compact diesel of the same power output. The gained space was allotted to a new fuel tank, although smaller than the one which had been replaced by the UAAPU. The 120mm L/52 tank gun was replaced by a longer L/55, with the option of production indigenous production of the gun. Although the JBT.24C was preferred over the JBT.35, the fact that the kingdom had gotten rid of its JBT.24M2s in 1996 meant that the new version would have to be procured brand-new, and so the cost advantage was nullified. Furthermore, the army was looking for a modern, brand-new design. Mekugi offered the Panther main battle tank, with offered the best balance. Franberry offered a local version of its own tank, named ‘Tigre’ for the tender (only the local name). The Tigre offered an improved 120mm gun, and ultimately the company made an offer to use Juumanistra’s L/55, and improved armor protection. Unfortunately, it lacked the mobility the army was looking for. Furthermore, all offered designs were too heavy.

Although no tank was ready to be presented in 2000, Sistemas Terrestres Segovia offered Alfonso VI and the Ejército de Tierra an advanced tank concept. The defense company promised an unmatched tank which could defeat any tank then on the market – this would include the Nakíl 1A1U and 1A2 when these were available on the market. STS managed to persuade Alfonso VI to end the tank tender and fund a development program for the future tank. STS promised that most of the concepts of the design had already gone through the research stage and only had to be modified for adoption into a single combat system. This combat system, FCT-1, was named ‘Lince’ by the company and in August 2000 the government founded and funded Programa Lince. This new program, part of Programa Coraza 2000, called for the integration of new state-of-the-art technologies into a single combat system. Furthermore, Programa Lince included the development of a self-propelled howitzer and an infantry combat vehicle based on the same chassis. This ambitious program meant that the Lince could not surpass fifty metric tons in weight! However, STS promised a vehicle which would weigh closer to forty tones.

In 2005 STS was allowed to join a technological consortium between several international defense companies from the states of Vault 10, The People’s Freedom and Lyras. A few months later STS left the project, as it failed to offer enough new technologies to STS’ Lince but it surrendered the technologies developed by Castilla’s companies to foreign competitors. Nevertheless, at least two concepts were borrowed from what had been presented during the joint-tank effort and STS currently offers its technologies for use in the future tanks of these three nations. It should be noted that the concept vehicles of Vault 10 and Castilla y Belmonte were from the start very similar, and no nation ‘copied’ each other. The reasoning for the joint-tank program was this very fact.

In total, twenty prototype turrets and the same number of prototype chassis were revealed to the Ejército de Tierra in 2006. Some were armed with high velocity 122mm guns and weighed over the fifty ton limit, and others were armed with 103mm guns. Ultimately, the army chose CCP (carro de combate prototipo) 6, which is described below, for series production.

Lethality
Maximizing anti-tank lethality: CB-54 automatic cannon
The future armored threat requires more than an advanced version of a conventional tank gun. In other words, the single shot high-caliber artillery cannon is no longer capable of defeating the heavily protected and highly survivable tanks that are being produced and exported widely on the market. Even the best 120mm APFSDS fail to penetrate more than 2,000mm worth of rolled homogenous armor equivalent (RHAe) – let’s take, for example, the XG.457 (an elusive round only known to be used by two countries, with a solid propellant variation used by a third) which claims to penetrate almost 3,000mm of RHAe; actual penetration should be much closer to 1,800mm. Osmium alloy penetrators should actually penetrate less than their tungsten alloy (WHA) and depleted uranium (DU) counterparts. Even the XG.457 can’t defeat the frontal armor array of a tank boasting of over 2,000mm RHAe (whether not these claims are true are beside the point since the protection of any given tank will undoubtedly still be extremely high). A tank armed with an advanced 120mm tank gun will not be able to defeat an enemy tank with the first shot, except if it hit a weak point. Even a 140mm gun will probably not be able to defeat enemy armor – a 140mm APFSDS is not radically superior to its 120mm counterpart and might only achieve 150-300mm more worth of penetration. Weapons of larger caliber will jeopardize vehicle weight, profile and mobility. Furthermore, weapons of larger caliber will suffer from slower loading speeds.

A tank commander can’t rely on striking a weak spot on an enemy tank to win his battles. Although throughout history tank commanders have had to just that to defeat a superior armor threat the majority of the time these same tank commanders enjoyed superiority in their training and superiority in combined arms and have had unrestricted close air support. No nation can promise their tank commanders and tank crews these advantages in all their wars. Therefore, chances dictate that the tank without a powerful enough gun to defeat the enemy threat at all angles is the tank at the disadvantage. In fact, it might be that the tank with the first shot might be the tank at the disadvantage. If the targeted vehicle isn’t stopped or stunned that vehicle will return fire at a much more favorable angle – if both tanks are moving it’s possible that the tank that just took a hit and survived can now engage the much less armored turret side (which, incidentally, also presents a much larger target).

Originally, Astilleros Santo Domingo (ASD) had been contracted by STS to develop a future tank gun. Much of the work into electrothermal-chemical (ETC) technology has been undertaken by research teams of this very company. In 1998 ASD presented STS a new high-pressure 122mm electrothermal-chemical tank gun. The gun successfully fired two hundred and thirty rounds over a period of fourteen days. The APFSDS fired achieved muzzle energy of 16MJ and a muzzle velocity of 2,100m/s. Unfortunately, the complete gun system (barrel and breech) weighed around 5,400kg which was completely unacceptable for a turret with a planned weight of no more than 15,000kg. The next year ASD had ready a downscaled 103mm high-velocity tank gun in a compact two-man tank turret. Despite this, the gun weighed only 300kg less and the turret weighed over the specified weight limit – minor increments in allowable weights were not an option. By the year 2000 ASD had still not presented a viable armament option, and that same year ASD left Programa Lince. As a consequence, the Lince was left without a main armament.

In 2001 Calzado y Bayo was contracted to provide an advanced tank armament within the specific weight restrictions. Development on a compact electrothermal-chemical tank gun continued between 2001 and 2003, with a new prototype introduced in June of 2003. The new gun was termed the XCB.54 and was deemed perfect for the project. The XCB.54 presented the solution to the Lince’s armament paradox and complied with every restriction. These included a compact breech, with a compact recoil length, a lightweight design and, despite the decreased recoil length, reduced recoil. The gun had to fit in a compact unmanned tank turret with a narrow frontal signature and reduced side lengths. After the retirement of ASD from the development program, STS accepted the design and production of a new turret (which will be explained below). The new turret and the new main armament made a perfect team. In 2004 the XCB.54 was accepted into service – dropping the X from the designation – and ten were ordered in a pre-production procurement to arm the ten Lince prototypes to be presented the following year.

The CB.54’s breech saves roughly 750kg of weight by decreasing the amount of parts, introducing a higher amount of titanium used during construction of the breech and reducing the effective size. In that sense, the CB.54 is a lightweight, compact tank gun (CTG). Furthermore, the recoil mechanism’s recoil cylinders are made of titanium, as are the gun’s trunnions and turret gun mount. The gun tube itself, on the other hand, is constructed of high-quality steel to protect from thermal fatigue and mechanical creep. To accept higher breech-pressures the inner surface area of the tube is coated with chrome and the barrel is somewhat heavy – consequently, the CB.54 gun system uses a higher volume of propellant per shot. Between the gun tube and the breech, the CB.54 weighs only 3,060kg – lighter than most existing guns of a similar caliber and technology. Lethality is achieved through a sixty-one (61) caliber-long 103mm gun tube, achieving a total length of 6,695mm (6.695m). To save accuracy and barrel wear the CB.54 mounts a mass attenuated thermal shroud – unfortunately, mass attenuation compromises gun weight to a certain degree but it’s deemed justified given the lethality of the CB.54. Interestingly enough, this shroud is specifically designed to reduce the tank’s radar signature, as well. It achieves this capability through the construction shape of the shroud – specifically, the sharp angles. In that sense, at first-sight the CB.54 doesn’t look like a standard tank gun as with the shroud applied it isn’t at all round or cylindrical.

The ammunition’s propellant is stored in the turret, unlike in other designs. The solid propellant is exchanged with a hydroxylammonium nitrate (HAN) liquid propellant stored in four separate cells around the CB.54s breech (to make the pumping mechanism as short and as simple as possible). Apart from a simple pumping mechanism, storing the propellant in the turret also maximizes its protection from enemy rounds. HAN was chosen as the propellant of choice due to the fact that it’s not toxic, unlike many other liquid propellants, and within respective storage cells HAN is stable (the cells not only provide further armor protection, and are fireproof, but also avoid evaporation of the nitrate and so avoid early combustion until the two parts of the bipropellant are introduced into the combustion chamber). In regards to the propellant’s vulnerability, HAN has actually proven to be less vulnerable than alternate solid propellants. The liquid propellant is stored in a highly armored turret and occupied about seventy-five percent of the volume which would be occupied by a solid propellant. Furthermore, the propellant can be stored in a more compact volume as it doesn’t need to be stored within a specific casing of a round. It also avoids the use of combustion cases and baseplates, saving weight and turret mechanism complexity (there’s no baseplate to get rid of). Through the use of a plasma cartridge, catalyzed by a brief electric impulse, the CB.54 electrothermal-chemical liquid propellant gun achieves muzzle energy of 22MJ! Another advantage of the liquid propellant gun concept is the fact that despite the higher muzzle energy, bore-pressure is not higher than it would be with a solid propellant. In fact, as opposed to solid propellants which decrease pressure applied to the walls of the tube the farther down it travels, a liquid propellant increases bore-pressure and the round continues to accelerate at a faster rate. As the final nail in the solid propellant’s coffin, liquid propellants cost under fifty percent less than solid propellants to produce!

On the other hand, HAN has not been developed by Calzado y Bayo to the point where it can match the same temperature independence as newer surface coated double base (SCDS) solid propellants. Furthermore, solid propellants in terms of volatility continue to be a safer option. In regards to the Lince’s use of liquid propellants, it should be understood that the choice was made with the knowledge of the tank’s systems – including the tank’s advanced autoloader.

In order to provide the necessary power for the electrothermal-chemical portion of the gun system, the Lince mounts an under armor battery array in a mini-turret bustle. The turret bustle doesn’t have the same width as the actual turret, however, and in order to decrease the profile of the turret side the ends of the bustle are angled inwards. Each electrical impulse requires less than 100kJ of energy and this is provided by a primitive compulsator – although primitive, it can store much more energy than current capacitors in a much denser volume. To give an idea, current capacitors for ETC application in existence in Castilla can store up to 2.47MJ/m3. The compulsator used on the Lince can store about three times the amount in the same volume. The compulsator is fed by a battery and a high-voltage charger. The entire system occupies roughly .1.2m3 worth of volume. It’s nonetheless, relatively lightweight at 110kg.

‘Cinta’ autoloading system
The high lethality of the CB.54 hardly comes from its propulsion system or liquid propellant use. The tank gun’s lethality is achieved through the conjunction of the gun and the autoloader. Three rounds are held in the turret itself, arrayed to occupy the least volume possible. These three rounds can be loaded onto a robotic loading arm, shared by the Cinta autoloading system, within two seconds of each other. The idea is to fire three rounds in four to five seconds. Ideally, the first round is ready in the breech. When the target is at range the first round is fired and the loading arm loads the second round and this new round is fired – two seconds have passed. The third, and final, round is loaded and fired two seconds later. If an autoloader can load a 120mm round in five seconds, and a human can load the same round in five to seven seconds, the advantage is still held by the CB.54. In other words, the CB.54 has successfully fired three rounds before the enemy has had a chance to fire one. Theoretically, the enemy target is defeated by overwhelming the armor. If the first 103mm APFSDS hits it will shatter the ceramic and penetrate the encasing steel or titanium. Consequently, after the first impact a large surface area of armor has been dramatically weakened. If the second round hits with a circular error of probability (CEP) of around one or two meters then it will strike a weakened plate. Stopping the second round should prove difficult, but the third effectively seals the deal, so to speak. In this way, the Lince can defeat enemy tanks with heavy armored turret plates. These three rounds are positioned to the right side of the gun breech, and a little bit above to make positioning into the robotic loading arm easier, simpler and faster.

Another fifty-five rounds are held in a carousel autoloader around the turret basket. Given the lack of a propellant charge, the threat posed by this type of autoloader to the turret and crew is non-existent. Furthermore, it allows a radical drop in weight and volume occupied since each round doesn’t need to go into an individually armored and fireproof case. The rounds are automatically loaded into the combustion chamber through a loading arm, and the rounds can be loaded back into its original position in the carousel. Misfires are cleared through two distinctive options. If there’s time, the misfired round can be loaded back into the carousel. Otherwise, or if there are problems encountered with the previous option, the round is automatically ejected into a bin on the turret basket floor. The Cinta autoloader has a maximum loading/firing rate of fifteen (15) rounds per minute – or a round every four seconds. Furthermore, the autoloader can inventory and rearrange ammunition in the carousel using an onboard computer system controlled by the crew. In that way, ammunition is easily unloaded through a hatch in the rear of the turret or uploaded in the opposite way. Reliability is ensured through point actuator redundancy, so that if one actuator fails the autoloader will continue loading. The autoloader has an empty weigh of 560kg, and can be readily enlarged to hold up to seventy-five 103mm rounds. Furthermore, the Cinta autoloader has very low electrical requirements and uses a hydraulic system to move the transfer unit’s actuated rammer system. The hydraulic fluid used is almost inert.

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The use of this type of autoloader presented a number of advantages for the Lince. One, it moved the ammunition from the turret to the chassis which allowed to decrease the armored volume of the turret. The turret’s compact volume is one of the most important concepts of the tank, and is one of the main reasons the things which occupy the volume of the Lince do not occupy their traditional areas in a main battle tank. In fact, major components have simply been moved to the chassis. Two, this autoloader was the only autoloader available which could load ammunition at four seconds per round, and it allowed the incorporation of a three-round ready-shot compartment in the center of the turret. Three, it provided the safest solution. The ammunition and the propellant are completely separated – the liquid propellant is stored in the turret. Given the decreased turret volume and thus increased armor protection the propellant is in a better protected area of the vehicle. Besides this, the turret roof offers a blow-off panel in case the two separate fluids of the HAN bipropellant somehow mix and cause an explosive reaction.

This is a very different case to the bad effects of the MBT-8/Es carousel autoloader which joined semi-combustible ammunition cartridges with a carousel autoloader around the turret basket. During the civil war RUAC MBT-8/Es had the unfortunate tendency to blow-up if the ammunition compartment was penetrated by a Castillian round. The result was a turret separated from the chassis by many dozens of meters! It normally concluded in the deaths of the entire crew and the complete destruction of the tank. The Lince has learned from the mistakes of this system and has introduced a completely improved design – the Cinta autoloader. Furthermore, the Cinta is lighter, much faster and much more reliable. They are not even in the same ballpark.

103mm family of tank ammunition
Calzado y Bayo produces a rather extensive family of ammunition for the 103mm caliber liquid propellant gun. Perhaps the most important is the N.174 armor piercing fin stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS). The 9kg (rounded from 8.977kg) penetrator has a diameter of 50mm and a length of 1m (L:d ratio of 20:1) in its unextended length and is composed of depleted uranium sheathed within an amorphous metal matrix composite. Test conducted between monolithic depleted uranium long-rods, tungsten heavy alloy (WHA) long-rods and sheathed penetrators provided ballistic evidence that sheathed penetrators penetrated the RHA targets with higher ballistic performance. Furthermore, an advantage of using an amorphous metal matrix composite as the sheathing material is that it can be molded to form dense long-rods of varying sizes and it is a self-sharpening material (like depleted uranium). Nickel and nickel alloy jackets were also tested, but did not compare to amorphous steel. Nickel alloys were applied to both WHA and DU long-rods for testing. The N.174 penetrator when it’s fully extended is 1.75m long (L:d ratio of 50:1) – this length is based on an extension efficiency during flight of 80%, with an error of probability of plus or minus 5%. One of the advantages in using an extending rod is that extending rods have been proven to increase the diameter of the resulting crater from penetration and thus a much wider weakened zone is created if the penetrator does not perforate the target. In other words, the second round from the CB.54 can be less accurate and still reliably hit a weakened portion of the same plate. Thanks to the round’s diameter, the glacis of an enemy tank can be overwhelmed by the first shot and the effect of the turret armor’s greater thickness is not as dramatic. Penetration is further increased by the implementation of a cruciform shaped rod. Thanks to use of light composites for sabot construction, the lack of a steel baseplate and the use of plastic fins for fin stabilization most of the weight of the round can be applied to the penetrator itself. On average, the N.174 has been rated to penetrate roughly 1,200mm of rolled homogenous armor (RHA) at 2km! This is quite an improvement over earlier generation long-rods of this caliber.

The N.76 is a next-generation high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) rocket-assisted round developed specifically for the CB.54. The 103mm HEAT projectile has a low-mass gold liner. For reference, a copper-tungsten alloy liner has an estimated penetration performance seven times the diameter of the cone. In this caliber, such a round would have an estimated performance of 721mm of penetration. Depleted uranium, on the other hand, has been tested and has achieved penetration ten times the diameter of the cone – or 1,030mm. Gold is superior to both depleted uranium and tungsten. Gold has been tested in both hypervelocity kinetic energy rods (with velocities higher than 2.5kg) and as HEAT liners. Using a gold liner the N.76 achieves a penetration of around 1,442mm of RHA. It’s to say, the N.76 is technically superior to the N.174 APFSDS. Unfortunately for the N.76, today’s composite armors protect better against HEAT munitions than they do against kinetic energy penetrators. Furthermore, the N.76 doesn’t provide the same area damage as the N.174 does. Nevertheless, the N.76 can easily defeat light armored fighting vehicles such as armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles. Rocket assistance allows the use of the round against low-flying targets such as helicopters, and likens the round more to a low-range multi-purpose gun-launched missile.

For long-range anti-tank work Calzado y Bayo provides the N.1040 sensor-fused anti-tank guided round (SFAT). The N.1040 makes use of six submunitions arrayed in the middle section of the round’s body to overwhelm the defenses of an enemy tank. Each individual ‘bomb’ is an explosively formed projectile with between 150 and 170mm of penetration, depending on the material being penetrated, and is guided by a small airborne radar mounted on the weapon itself. The six submunitions are programmed to attack the same target, allowing an attempt to overwhelm the tank’s active protection system and roof armor. However, the effect is much more deadly when multiple rounds are fired. The tank’s fire control system (described below) allows for up to three rounds to hit any given position provided by the satellite-linked global positioning system simultaneously – like an artillery system. So, in the case of the N.1040, three rounds can be burst overhead of a tank simultaneously providing up to eighteen submunitions targeting the same subject simultaneously. Although each round is rather expensive, the three rounds are drastically cheaper than the tank which could be potentially knocked out (admittedly, it depends on the tank).

Engineering and infantry support variations of the vehicle can use the same gun thanks to the development of the N.236 demolition round. In the most general terms, the N.236 is simply an armor piercing capped round. The round is a high explosive a hardened tungsten-alloy (WHA) cap. The cap allows partial penetration of a target, embedding the round into what it wants to demolish, and the consequent explosion provides the majority of the damage to the weakened structure through shockwaves. This round will replace the standard high-explosive plastic (HEP) round in the Castillian arsenal. The N.236 can also be used against light armored fighting vehicle and sometimes may be carried instead of the N.76. The N.236 demolition round is useful for urban operations and to demolish enemy fortifications during a conventional war. The latter includes bunkers and protected artillery systems, or even border fortifications. The N.236 will probably be exported in various sizes in the export model of the Lince (Lince 1E).

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For anti-personnel work, the 103mm ammunition family includes the N.117 Anti-Infantry Round (AIR). The round is composed of five sub-munitions carrying around eight hundred tungsten balls a piece. The length at which the sub-munitions take effect is dependent on the settings dictated by the tank’s fire control system. The advantage of the N.117 is the area effect, which means a large kill radius. Furthermore, the round can be used to clear nearby friendly vehicles of attacking infantry, without harming the vehicle. The round includes a proximity fuse near the round’s nose allowing the round to be used against low-flying targets. The last existing conventional round in the 103mm family is the N.80 high-explosive for conventional anti-personnel work. However, the N.80 will probably not be as widely issued as the N.117, N.236 or N.76. Given the Lince’s primary role as a hunter-kill it’s likely that future developments in the 103mm caliber will be centered on the evolution of the N.174 APFSDS. Interests in the export market will also force Calzado y Bayo to prioritize development of export rounds for internationally recognized calibers – 120mm, 105mm, et cetera. The large amounts of export options for the Lince will keep the work steadily flowing in all of the Lince’s development companies.

Gunner’s co-axial weapon station
The gunner, apart from the main gun, also has control over a co-axial 25mm autocannon. Originally, the Lince was to be armed with a 7mm co-axial light machine gun, but as the design of the main gun progressed it was decided that a heavier armament was going to be necessary. The design of the main gun and the autoloading system means that chances are that if a round is fired against a vehicle that isn’t a tank then the vehicle will be at a disadvantage given that it might no longer have a three ready-round stock in the turret. Although the autoloading arm can load a round from the ammunition cassette around the turret basket, chances are that if an armor piercing fin stabilized discarding sabot is fired then it’s from the three rounds in the turret. As a consequence, it was decided that any co-axially mounted gun would have to be able to defeat soft-skinned vehicles – this includes infantry combat vehicles from the side. Because a 37mm autocannon proved to be too large to fit in the compact tank turret of the Lince, ultimately it was decided that Calzado y Bayo should provide a 25mm autocannon. Calzado y Bayo were given a number of prerequisites for the contract, including that the new gun should be as compact as possible, lethal enough to penetrate 150mm of armored steel at 1,000m and that it should have a total elevation of 60º to engage low-flying helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles and roof tops. Furthermore, the ammunition had to be arrayed inside the turret in such a way that it would reduce occupied volume and not affect the wideness of the turret front.

Calzado y Bayo immediately set upon the development of a 25mm electrothermal-chemical autocannon, similar in design to the 37mm autocannon on Sistemas Terrestres Segovia’s BSI-37. Although the gun’s ballistics surpassed the requirements, the gun was ultimately denied because it required an independent pulsed power supply which increased volume and weight of the turret by too large of a fraction. So, the company was told to go back to the drawing board. Some time after Calzado y Bayo presented a new prototype co-axial autocannon to the Ejército de Tierra and upon request the gun was fitted into a mock turret of similar volume to what was required by the army for the Lince main battle tank. The new autocannon features a high efficiency muzzle break (ca. 60%) and low recoil, and has a greater percentage of parts built out of titanium (such as the recoil cylinder, holding the spring). The design of an integral mount makes installation into a smaller turret much easier and combines redundant vehicle and gun parts, decreasing weight by some ten kilograms. The use of an integrated mount also makes possible the maintenance of the system by removing it through the front of the turret without compromising the strength of the mantlet around it. An improved feeder system also decreases weight by almost 20%, decreases the size of the gun system and increases the life of the weapon’s feeder through the use of stiffer shafts. The weapon was accepted and chosen to arm the Lince, and was given the designation of G379 by both the company and the armed forces. The new design uses cased telescoping ammunition, in function similar to the N.174 armor piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot. The different rounds which can be fired from the gun have different designs, although all are designed to be fired from a 25mm smoothbore autocannon. Perhaps the most important rounds are the ACC.50 armor piercing discarding sabot and the ACC.75 high explosive round. The former has been designed for velocity and perforation, while the latter has prioritized explosive mass over velocity and range. There is also the ACC.90 anti-personnel round, although the production scale of this particular round doesn’t compare to that of the first two.

The ACC.50 is designed to fulfill the requirements given by Programa Lince. Specifically, the requirement was for a round able to perforate no less than 150mm of armored steel (RHA). This ballistic requirement would make any resulting round as lethal as the basic armor piercing discarding sabot used by larger 30mm autocannons around the world. The result is that the Lince can engage and successfully knock-out at least some infantry combat vehicles on the battlefield. The round measures 17cm in length, with a diameter of 8mm, collapsed. Extended, the length reaches a total of anywhere between 25-27cm. The gun is lined with chrome to allow greater chamber and barrel pressures from a larger propellant mass, giving a velocity at the muzzle of around 1,300m/s. The penetrator is composed of a depleted uranium core with a tungsten jacket. According to ballistic testing the ACC.50 can penetrate over 160mm of steel, although total penetration drops against titanium and composite armors. Unfortunately, it has also been found that the G379 20mm autocannon suffers from increased barrel wear. This has been directly attributed to the ACC.50, and it has been concluded that total barrel wear over time has a proportional relationship to the number of rounds fired in average per burst and the number of rounds fired over time for a particular barrel. Because of this, the G379 is designed specifically for the Lince, where the barrel can be changed relatively quickly and cheaply in the field. Although it’s expected that tankers will take the necessary precautions to test their equipment before leaving base, this is not always the case.

Admittedly, the efficiency of a 25mm autocannon in an urban environment is somewhat limited under specific circumstances. In current urban environments it may be the government’s policy to reduce collateral damage against civilian targets, and obviously the G379 autocannon is not a weapon system that will reduce collateral damage. Using both the high explosive and the sub-caliber round will normally conclude in several rounds perforating civilian housing walls and perhaps killing non-fighters. Many times, the round will have so much energy that it will perforate multiple walls and commit no damage when in fact the gunner had meant to traverse a wall to kill a group of enemy soldiers. As a consequence, the ACC.125 was developed for these scenarios. The ACC.125 is a fragmenting round; containing several hundred pieces of tungsten, and may resemble more a grenade than a 25mm autocannon projectile. It has a hardened steel cap to perforate a wall of any given size and past the perforation the round will begin to disintegrate and release the strips of deadly metal. Collateral damage won’t be avoided, given that the pieces of tungsten can’t distinguish between a fighter and a civilian, but reducing collateral damage was not a priority. Future urban warfare kits may introduce a new co-axial weapon for these specific cases.

The G379 25mm co-axial autocannon is positioned to the left of the main gun, as if looking from inside of the turret. The turret carries one hundred and fifty rounds of any type for the autocannon, and these are held in three fireproof bins which are accessible by a robotic loading arm. The first bin is located direct behind the gun, alongside the breech of the CB.54, while the second and third are located below and under the turret ring. The use of cased telescopic ammunition (CTA) accounts for roughly a 33% decrease in space required to stow it, which is an important trait given that the design of the Lince’s turret relies on having the least volume possible in order to increase armored weight. The autocannon has an elevation of 60º, fulfilling this requirement, and a depression of -20º. Consequently, the G379 can be used against tall buildings in urban combat, low-flying aircraft (small man-portable unmanned aerial vehicles used for reconnaissance, for example) and low-flying helicopters and against infantry. The G379 will be offered for export, alongside a number of smaller caliber co-axial weapons, although the turrets offered will be radically different from Castilla’s Lince turret. In this particular version of the Lince, the mounting is designed to be replaced by one for a smaller caliber gun (in specific, either the G3 7mm light machine gun or the G4 13.3mm heavy machine gun).

Commander’s HammerFist remote weapon station
HammerFist was envisioned to be an advanced remote weapon station (RWS) with a modular structure, meaning it could be fitted with a myriad of low-caliber guns. In this method, HammerFist could be used by a large number of vehicles in the Castilian inventory. More importantly, HammerFist was envisioned to be installed on a number of Lince surrogates, including the Tigre armored gun system (AGS), the León self-propelled howitzer (SPH) and a modified version on both the Centauro heavy armored personnel carrier (HAPC) and the Pantera infantry support vehicle (ISV), amongst others. On the last vehicle listed, HammerFist is extremely modified to the point where it’s no longer truly HammerFist (really, a larger version of the system), however it’s called HammerFist for the purpose of showing many similarities. In the Lince’s case, the HammerFist was to be armed with the G4B (B for Blindado) 13.3mm heavy machine gun. With this in mind, the contract was awarded to a relatively unknown small-arms contractor named Las Navas de Oporto (a play on words between the medieval battle of Las Navas de Tolosa and the home city of company). Las Navas de Oporto introduces the future commander’s remote weapon station two years after the contract was established, and the state-of-the-art product was accepted by the Castillian army. The machine gun is provided by the ex-state owned company Industria Real de Armas Ligeras (IRAL), designer and producer of the Iral assault rifle, and is almost the same as the original G4 heavy machine gun which is designed to be a man-portable heavy machine gun.

The differences between the G4 and the G4B are rare, but important. The G4B’s barrel length is slightly longer than that of the original G4 to increase muzzle velocity. The infantry’s G4 can’t allow this modification due to weight restrictions of the weapon system (to be two-man portable). The G4B’s butt stock and upper receiver have also been slightly modified for the HammerFist remote weapon system, allowing it to be replaced by a 24mm grenade launcher if necessary. The G4B weighs 23.2kg, while the G4 weighs roughly 19kg total. Like the G379, all G4 variants use cased telescoping ammunition. However, the G4’s ammunition is not designed to perforate certain materials and thus only has the priority of reducing ammunition size to store more. Given the fact that HammerFist requires no turret volume and stores all the ammunition outside, the size of the round is extremely important when taking into consideration the amount of ammunition available. All G4 variants fire from the open-chamber/open-bolt position, and use a gas powered long-bolt, low recoil operating system. To reduce recoil the barrel as it fires, as opposed to the bolt, and the weapon system is extremely accurate – many times as accurate as older heavy machine guns. Due to the acceptance of bulkiness on the HammerFist the G4B also has a second gas-piston moving in the opposite direction of the long-stroke gas-piston in the operating system, just like in balanced automatics. Although accuracy may be considered a triviality in a combat vehicle mounted machine gun, this particular machine gun has proven to increase accuracy substantially when mounted on a moving or stable platform and can be considered a test-bed for future man-portable technologies.

HammerFist, itself, is composed of three principle structures – the gun processing and interface unit, the operator control console (OCC) and the armored weapon and sensor platform. The operator control console is composed of an image display in the crew compartment for the tank commander, on a flat plasma screen, and the gun can be controlled through the tank commander’s modified gunner’s console pad (including elevation and traverse). The image is provided by a color zoom low-light camera, matted with a thermal sight. The system is stabilized on two axes to allow fire-on-the-move and its electronics also offer a sniper detection system, two electrically-operated smoke grenades (described in the next section), an image intensifier (II) and an eye safe laser rangefinder which is accurate up to 20km. The entire remote weapon station is protected against small-arms of up to 8mm in caliber, including the optics, and only weighs 134kg without the weapon and 157kg with the G4B installed! The only intrusion within the tank from the system is the fiber optic cable which transmits the images to the tank commander. Six hundred ready-rounds are stored in an armored sponson attached to the remote weapon station and part of the weight, while an aluminum turret sponson (stowage box) holds two other replaceable ammunition boxes, for a total of one thousand eight hundred rounds of ammunition stored. The gun is belt-fed, and so the cased telescopic ammunition is arrayed in long belts. The links are designed to be combustible to avoid jams due to used links filling the feed tray. These problems were observed on older infantry light machine gun systems used by the kingdom’s army.

Although not necessarily an advantage for the Lince, an advantage for other vehicles is that the low-intrusion characteristic of HammerFist allows the system to be attached to a variety of already produced vehicles. This remote weapon station may be installed on a variety of older pieces of equipment, and may replace the commander’s heavy machine gun on the JBT.14 main battle tanks which will be used by the reserves. This system will also be offered for export with the Lince E (E for Extranjero), along with a number of weapon systems which can be mounted on the HammerFist. The major disadvantage is cost, especially costs relative to the camera and electronic systems. A fully developed HammerFist (the system is available without the thermal camera, image intensifier and stabilization) costs up to $275,000. On average, the system is expected to cost $215,000 per Lince produced for the Ejército de Tierra. Average cost is expected to decrease with international contracts and as the system is installed in Lince surrogates and older armored fighting vehicles. Nevertheless, considering that the average MAD.II had cost Doomingsland an average of 100,000 universal standard dollars to supply to the Castillian army during the Civil war and that the average MAD.II costs around 20,000 to procure second (or even third) hand today, the HammerFist is more expensive than a forty or fifty year old medium battle tank! That said, it’s probably more amazing that the cost of the HammerFist is just a minor fraction of the total cost of an entire Lince main battle tank.

Grenade system
The Lince has two separate grenade systems – one is a passive self-defense system and the other is a subsystem of the active protection system. The grenade launcher system explained in this section is only relevant to the former. The grenades are arrayed in two rows of four electric grenade launchers to the rear of each side of the turret, for a total of sixteen grenade launchers. Each grenade launcher as a diameter of 76mm and the actual tube contains two grenades of varying type. The grenades are electrically fired from their respective tubes, and this can be done both manually by either the tank’s gunner or the tank commander and automatically by the tank’s fire control system. Each launcher is designed to be lightweight and therefore the basis is cast from titanium – the power source is the gas turbine engine’s electric generators. The passive grenade launcher system performs a very important job regarding both tank lethality and tank protection, and given the lack of an internal mortar in the turret (due to the restricted volume) the grenade system is designed to provide a similar weapon. In that sense, the ‘passive’ grenade system is both for self-defense and for the offensive.

In order to completely understand why the grenade system performs the offensive jobs it does it’s important to take into consideration the tactical requirements which had been underscored during the Civil war. Although the war ended over thirty years past, these lessons can still be applied to modern tank design. During the war, RUAC infantrymen refined anti-tank tactics which had been developed during the opening months of the war. Apart from using Molotov cocktails to damage the older Castillian tanks, they also formed into ‘anti-tank hunting teams’ using obsolete 20mm anti-tank rifles. The arrival of more modern armor didn’t do much to mediate their deadly efficiency given the fact that all foreign weapons providers also supplied to all sides large quantities of anti-tank missiles, especially wire-guided. As a consequence, even with numerical superiority in armor, Castillian armored forces found themselves plagued by ambushing anti-tank teams armed with deadly guided missiles. The immediate tactical response was the use of lightly armed armored cars with small numbers of dismounts, working together with tanks, so while the tanks provided overwhelming fire support the dismounts and armored car could neutralize any ambushing RUAC anti-tank forces. The tactic worked well during the war, but it had the disadvantage of reducing the flexibility of the tank. Consequently, the Lince attempts to reduce the disadvantage by integrating its own weapon which can neutralize anti-tank infantry in future wars.

The development of the external and internal tank mortar, such as that on the Macabee Nakíl main battle tank, makes it obvious that the threat of anti-tank infantry was not unique to the Castillian Civil War. However, external mortars are open to enemy gunfire and artillery shrapnel, while they also increase turret silhouette and may jeopardize the ability for a tank to fit in a mid-sized tactical transport. Internal mortars, unfortunately, required turret volume and in both cases the ammunition needs to be stored inside the turret. This has been deemed unacceptable, as small concessions in different areas will consequently lead to a larger turret. The strict restrictions on the weight of the turret and the volume (to increase armor protection) make it difficult to allow even the concession of a mortar. Despite these restrictions, a number of defense companies did toy with the idea and ultimately presented a number of compact designs. However, none of these were seen justified in exchange for the increase in turret volume and weight. It should be remembered that an increase in weight through mechanics is not the only increase in weight – increase in volume will require a larger surface area to be armored to a certain degree of protection, resulting in much more added weight.

As a consequence, Sistemas Terrestres Segovia instead opted for an advanced grenade launch system. There are a number of different grenade types, and these can be distinguished by the color bands wrapped around the grenade. For example, a blue band marks the grenade as the TMK-1029 smoke grenade. Using the TMK-1029 the Lince can lay tactical smokescreens for dismounted infantry in an urban environment, or a tactical smokescreen to confuse an incoming anti-tank missile (although it might be intuitive that this is part of the active protection system, it’s not – however, it can be considered part of the tank’s overall defense network). Red, yellow and purple bans refer to the same grenade (TMK-1029R, Y and P), but tinted with the color of the band. The smoke releases is much more controlled and are used as tactical markers for accompanying infantry or for communication between tanks to mark areas important during a fight, such as an enemy emplacement. The TMK-790 is the designation for the illumination grenade used by grenade launchers of this caliber and is mostly supplied for night fighting. With this particular round a tank can illuminate a certain area of the battlefield without widely revealing its position (as it would with a spotlight, for example) and can aid dismounted infantry in many types of terrain. The TMK-790 has a brown color band. A grey color band marks the TMK-2065, a phosphorous grenade, which is used for self-defense against enemy infantry, and a green color band denotes the TMK-2066, which is a high explosive fragmentary grenade for anti-personnel use. These are the two principle grenades used to defeat enemy anti-tank teams by killing the personnel. Finally, a pink color band denotes the TMK-36 which is an illuminator flare to mark the tank’s position during night fighting where the ballistic computer might not be able to distinguish the positions of friendly tanks.

These grenades are produced and provided by Las Navas de Oporto, like the HammerFist. This is due to the electric grenade design offered with HammerFist, which adds two more grenade launchers (and four more grenades) to the passive grenade defense and offense system.

‘Mercenario’ Fire Control System
Older tanks have historically relied on optical devices to provide an accurate measure of the distance between the host tank and the enemy tank, and detect the target through eyesight, reconnaissance units or aerial sources. Although these methods have worked well for their period of time, the introduction of new technologies has had a dramatic effect on accuracy, rate of fire and the ability fire on the move. Perhaps the first tank in the Castillian arsenal to make use of new technology was the Verdeja, which used a primitive laser rangefinder to accurately measure the distance between the muzzle of the Verdeja’s gun and the enemy target. However, computerized fire control systems were relatively unknown in the kingdom until the advent of the civil war and the supply of various foreign tanks – especially the Juumanistran JBT.14. Although there was no indigenous work on tank technology in the country for a specific tank project, fortunately a number of electronic companies have had some fortunes abroad. As a consequence, as early as 1995 the army subcontracted a number of national and foreign electronic companies to design an advanced fire control system to upgrade the MAD.II and the JBT.14. Due to funding considerations and the knowledge of a new tank procurement by the year 2000, the modernization project was ultimately canceled. However, many of the fire control systems presented were purchased in singular units and studied, and this has greatly helped the development of an indigenous ‘3rd generation’ fire control system for the Lince.

This particular part of Programa Lince was subcontracted to Indra-Begón – the designers and producer of the search periscope and the photonic mast on the Type A diesel-electric attack submarine – in early 1998 and the product was presented in 2001, with refinements made until mid-2005. Indra’s fire control system is called ‘Mercenario’ (Spanish for mercenary) and is designed for precision. It’s also designed without cost considerations, and for that reason it forms one of the most expensive packages of the Lince tank – multiple millions of dollars! However, the government had specified originally that money wasn’t an issue, while accuracy and lethality was. For that reason, Mercenario by Indra is perhaps one of the most advanced fire control systems used by any main battle tank in the world today. It incorporates high technology lasers, sensors and compact computers to increase capability while reducing storage volume. Due to the size of older ballistic computers, the dimensions of Mercenario’s computers are a serious issue. The electric unit of old fire control systems has been replaced by the under armor auxiliary power unit (UAAPU) in the chassis of the tank, while the central distribution case is placed on the right side of the tank gun’s breech, behind the gunner’s periscope. The stabilization computer is under the distribution case under the turret ring, while the ballistic calculator is on the opposite side, positioned on the turret basket’s floor. The control boards are with the crew, in the chassis.

Mercenario incorporates new sensors and systems to enhance its performance. These include a third-generation forward-looking infrared (FLIR) imagine camera, a virtual viewing optical (VVO; replacing the direct viewing optical), a charged coupling device (CCD) video camera and a laser designator/rangefinder (LRF/D). To allow the highest percentage of accuracy a muzzle reference system (MRS) is matted to the gun, along with several sensors around the tank to measure: atmospheric pressure, wind velocity, temperature, apparent target motion, range data, ballistic characteristics of the round, tank velocity, gun trunnions axis cant, angular target speed, charge temperature, bore temperature, angle of fire, and others. The capabilities of the crew in relation to the fire control system will be discussed later on. In any case, all of this allows for extremely accurate shooting for all three rounds fired. The aim is to attempt to guarantee the Lince’s gunnery superiority over adversaries and their main battle tanks. As mentioned before, the price of this technological superiority is cost. The only potential importers of the system, as with the entire tank, are strategic allies of the kingdom. Ergo, Mercenario will not be offered for export.

Other capabilities offered by the system include an optical zoom which magnified the image by anywhere between two to ten times, with a digital magnification allowing four times the chosen optical zoom. The ballistic computer can track up to ten targets independently and simultaneously and provides information to the tank commander and gunner to prioritize targets. This information is based on image classification and an onboard database of known targets which can be updated depending on the enemy being fought at any given time. Consequently, the tank crew will be able to distinguish between armored personnel carriers, infantry combat vehicles and main battle tanks on their screen without having to manually checking. This allows for faster reaction times and firing rates. The tank’s accuracy and the tank crew’s targeting velocity make an extremely dangerous and deadly combination. The fire control system can also automatically fire the necessary grenades from the grenade launching system previously specified, meaning the tank can rapidly respond with necessary smoke screens or tactical markings when required without relying on human reaction speeds. If preferred, the tank commander can also manually override many of these advanced features.

The cost of manufacturing the fire control system and testing it accounts for a large part of the tank’s total price tag. To give an idea, the Mercenario fire control system costs an average of around four million universal standard dollars per tank. This price covers development cost, manufacturing costs, testing costs and installation costs. For a comparison, the cost of the fire control system on the JBT.14 cost roughly five hundred thousand to six hundred thousand per tank. Several tanks developed in the early 80s up to the mid-90s had fire control systems which cost an estimated mean of two million dollars. The Mercenario costs about eight times the cost of the fire control system on the JBT.14 and twice as much as the previous generation of fire control systems. This might make the Mercenario one of the most expensive computer systems in the world. On that note, it may not be able to compete with the fire control system on Juumanistra’s brand-new Kyton main battle tank which has had run-off development costs. It’s estimated that the average Kyton main battle tank is procured for over twenty-four million dollars!

Future Possibilities
The gun versus armor race will continue to drive the technological advancement of a tank’s lethality. Where the Lince is relevant, short term improvements in firepower will focus on improvements in the CB.54 gun system to increase muzzle energy for the caliber while not having a major effect on weight, as well as improvements on the long-rod penetrator. There are a wide number of novel penetrators being worked on by Calzado y Bayo, although most of these are still drawing board theories. Nevertheless, some are currently being tested and may be introduced in future modifications to the Lince main battle tank. One of the major priorities for improvement is the increase in diameter of the resulting crater in the enemy armor array during penetration, which consequently results in a much larger area of damage. This will increase the chances that all three rounds will hit on a damaged plate and further guarantee the defeat of the enemy target. Furthermore, there will always be work to increase the penetration of long-rod penetrators into compound and other non-steel targets. Currently, guided armor piercing ammunition is considered unnecessary due to the expected engagement ranges of the Lince and current cost considerations. However, this might become a real solution in the future. The same case exists for rocket assisted munitions to increase range and lethality at a given range. Due to weight restrictions, increased gun caliber is not seen as a viable solution in the near future. It’s not only relevant to the weight of the gun system (which might actually decrease), but to the weight garnered by increase turret volume. Due to the high protection levels of the Lince increasing turret surface area is something which Lince design teams want to avoid at all costs, and these restrictions have driven the systems which now make up this ultra-modern main battle tank.

Lethality improvements do not only concern the main gun. Design improvements will always be done on the co-axial armament, commander’s remote weapon station and the grenade launchers. Furthermore, the fire control system will go through a constant design evolution which in the future may mean that the Mercenario will be replaced with a modernized version for increased accuracy. It should be noted that lethality of the main gun relies almost exclusively on the accuracy the fire control system can provide the gunner and tank commander. Therefore, the Mercenario will always be a system where countless millions of pesetas are spent to make minor improvements – minor improvements which make considerable differences in gunnery.


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A Questerian MBT-8/E with a blown-off turret. Castillian Civil War.

One major thing drives Programa Lince and the subcontractors. This one thing is the drive to be better than everyone else. Although this mentality is chauvinistic, perhaps rude and definitely competitive, it’s a mentality which will always guarantee fast and effective improvements throughout the Lince main battle tank. These improvements will make, and already make, the Lince one of the best tanks on the field in the next two to three decades. Innovation, imagination, the will to be best, brutal competition and efficiency have built the Lince and is what makes Programa Lince the most ambitious defensive program in the history of the kingdom of Castilla y Belmonte. It is also what has allowed the Ejército de Tierra to go from being equipped with an obsolete piece of equipment to one of the most advanced ground systems in the world. Of course, these characteristics are also translated over to the rest of the development of the tank.

Survivability
Indirect protection
A tank’s survivability isn’t only measured through the amount of armor it boasts on any given surface area, or its ability to deflect or break a striking long-rod penetrator. Although the Lince does have a number of very effective protective layers of passive and explosive armor, it also boasts of a high level of survivability through a number of design innovations – especially in the design of the turret. As has been mentioned above in various occasions, one of the most important aspects of the design has been the aim to reduce turret volume as much as possible. There are a number of reasons why this was a very strict priority. Perhaps the most openly visible volume restriction is through the reduction of turret length. However, a turret has a specific amount of volume it must have in order to fit the required systems and in order to seat the crew comfortably. With this in mind, reducing the turret’s sides would mean that the turret front would have to increased, given that the reduction of one means the increase of the other. This polemic issue with visible surface area has plagued turret design since the beginning of the turreted tank. However, this means that surface area will generally remain the same, as well as armored volume. Historically, armored volume and surface area has been reduced through the adoption of an autoloader. However, the reduction in turret mass and volume is not dramatic. Programa Lince was looking for an advanced turret which would revolutionize tank design and would bring opposing tank designers back to the drawing board.

The Lince’s turret reduces armored volume and armored surface area in a number of innovative fashions, although most of these have been experimented elsewhere. The standard three-man crew in the turret has been replaced with an unmanned turret. The driver, tank commander and gunner are positioned in the front of the hull (described below), behind the engine. The ammunition has, as already explained, has been moved from the turret bustle to around the turret basket, although not as volume inefficient as the old carousel autoloader used by the Questerian MBT-8/E. The long gun breech has been replaced by a compact tank gun (although with a longer recoil travel), and the turret roof has been leveled to be completely straight. This latter feature has reduced the total depression of the main gun, although this is mediated through the introduction of an independent ‘breech block’. The breech block allows the gun to depress to -7º, while also allowing the lowest possible silhouette for the tank. The unfortunate side effect is that the gun is impossible to load while the breech block is at a higher position than the rest of the turret. In order to give a quasi-solution to this problem, the Lince uses an active hydropneumatic suspension (explained in the next chapter) which can raise parts of the chassis in order to allow the tank to either ‘kneel’ or to allow it to increase the height of the hull to the rear. This last act allows a certain depression of the main gun, without actually moving the breech, and thus allows the Lince to engage enemy targets at a shallow negative angle and still reload the main gun. The breech block sides have marginally increased turret weight, but it should be noted that these sides are not especially armored given the fact that while the breech block is showing it’s not likely that the small surface areas present of the breech block will be engaged.

The length of the turret sides is eliminated in a more direct method, as they are simply smaller. This has effectively reduced turret volume by around 34%! It allows the increase of roof protection and frontal arc protection, without a radical increase in weight. The effect on vehicle weight is as dramatic as the effect on the silhouette of the turret as its turning. This makes the turret side much more difficult to see if the perspective is at 0º, in front of the chassis. Consequently, it’s much more difficult to engage the Lince than it would be most other tanks, especially at range. All the while, mantlet size also remains reduced and unaffected by the reduction in turret side length. Using this turret design the Lince can achieve weights closer to the Questerian MBT-8/E, but with the armor protection of a modern main battle tank. The decrease of turret side length is jeopardized to a degree by the light armored box holding the pulsed power supply for the CB.54, but the angular design of the box makes it very difficult to see and is specifically designed to maintain a minor turret surface area visual when the turret is traversed up to 45-50º to either side.

To decrease the tank’s thermal signature, radar signature and visual signature it also makes use of camouflage netting, which is stored in an aluminum sponson outside of the turret, called ‘Jungla’ (jungle). Although the name of the netting would suggest that it has been specifically designed for a jungle or forest environment, the netting is produced in a number of different camouflage patterns for different fighting environments. The netting makes it extremely difficult to find the Lince over long engagement ranges, and reduces the efficiency of top-attack munitions. Furthermore, the netting can be applied or taken-off at will by the tank’s crew and stowed in the proper aluminum bin. Another advantage of the netting is that it reduces the thermal image of the tank by cooling the inner volume, meaning the ambient temperature inside the fighting compartment in the chassis is also contained and cooled. With ‘Jungla’ added to the tank it can reduce visual detection by the human eye, day and night thermal viewers and cameras by up to thirty percent and the capability of infrared seekers from locking onto a target will be reduced by up to three times. Statistically, with the camouflage system fielded the Lince’s probability of being detected and locked-onto will be reduced by at least six times!

These aluminum sponsons, or storage bins, attached to the sides of the turret also have another job. They provide excellent stand-off versus shaped charges, as they initiate the shaped charge before it actually hits the turret. Consequently, it forces the shaped charge to use a large amount of energy and it helps decrease penetration into the turret side’s armor. The ability to enhance protection against chemical threats has been proven in combat before, especially during the Castillian Civil War. Furthermore, when the JBT.24s purchased in the 80s began to be used for target practice the use of aluminum storage bins to increase the stand-off distance of attacking shaped charge projectiles was studied. Furthermore, aluminum storage bins can also help protect against kinetic energy threats, although its efficiency against such threats is admittedly rather limited. In this regard, they are most effective at instilling yaw on small-caliber and medium-caliber armor piercing projectiles. Regardless, there is only so small relatively thin pieces of aluminum can do (storage bin aluminum is designed only to protect against anti-personnel small arms projectiles, not armor piercing).

Apart through the use of a low silhouette, a small visual profile from multiple angles of view, stand-off protection and a multi-use camouflage netting to establish indirect protection, the vehicle also uses everything that makes up the inner workings of a tank to protect the crew. This includes the engine, the transmission, the roadwheels, the ammunition and even the fuel. The mass attenuated gun tube and the turret are designed to maximize the tank’s stealth, which will reduce the probability of long-range detection by means of new generation millimeter wave radars being used by ultra-modern tanks to add to their lethality. Through a wonderful use of technology, engineering and physical architecture the Lince has established itself as the leading edge in vehicle survivability. In armor protection, the Lince is no less effective either.

BlindMaxx multilayer heavy armor: frontal 120º
Designing armor for a main battle tank is a difficult process which requires the testing of different materials against different threats, the comparison of these materials and the respective threats and then the integration into a combat vehicle. Furthermore, with the common weight restrictions on main battle tanks, due to ground pressure, designing effective armors against the most deadly threats is made even much more difficult. This is truer for the Lince which attempts to have the survivability of a sixty-ton tank in a forty-five ton platform. Consequently, the armor designers for the Lince were forced into looking into extremely mass efficient armors such as explosive reactive armor and ceramics. Furthermore, armor elsewhere had to be decreased in weight, although always at the right price. The engineering teams which toiled over the protection of the Lince also worked on maximizing the thickness a penetrator or shaped charged jet would have to traverse in order to perforate. For example, in previous chassis prototypes (namely the CBE – Carro Blindado Experimental) designers were able to maximize the armoring depth to almost 2,000mm at only forty-eight tons! The same result is obtained through the installation of a wedge on the turret, which the Lince does (like many other tanks). Through maximization of depth methods one can increase the actual thickness of the armor at any given point on any given tank for a low weight penalty. This theory is one that the Lince has placed a lot of hopes on in order to increase frontal protection to the level of its competitors. The Lince has also put a lot of its trust into explosive reactive armor.

The chassis and turret are welded from improved armored steel (IRHA), with a higher level of carbon, for structural reasons and for ballistic reasons. In the front and sides the steel structure is thick enough to stop a shaped charge jet tip after the shaped charge has been diced by explosive reactive armor. Although technically this is unnecessary given the thickness of the ceramic/metal modules on the Lince, it was done for the purpose of guaranteeing safety against small threats. However, the steel structure has found itself perforated in some areas to decrease the weight of the structure, although these perforations should be assumed to be miniscule in size, in all cases. The structure includes mounting points for either explosive reactive armor or ceramic armor.

The second layer of armor (all subsequent layers of armor after the structure are modular) of the BlindMaxx armor organization is composed of prestressed boron carbide, encased in titanium. According to ballistic research, against long-rod penetrators impacting at a velocity less than 2km/s boron carbide, titanium diboride and silicon carbide perform more or less equal if encased with a thick backing plate. The use of a thick ceramic/metal layer after the structure is to make use of the maximization of depth achieved through chassis and turret shape. In specific, in several points along the frontal arc of the chassis the Lince achieves an actual depth of around nine hundred millimeters. In regards to weight efficiency, about sixty percent of this thickness is composed of passive armor given the lightweight of explosive reactive armor and to account for the weight of the armored turret (the goal isn’t a forty-five ton chassis; it’s a forty-five ton tank). The first layer of ceramic armor is the thickest passive armor layer on the tank, and has a ratio of ceramic to metal of about 2.4. Of the three available materials for the expected long-rod threat, boron carbide was ultimately chosen due to its relatively low bulk density of 2,500 kg/m3 and its high Vickers hardness (HV) of anywhere between 2,800 and 3,400HV. These attributes make boron carbide an extremely appealing ceramic to use against long-rod penetrators, except for its low tensile strength and fracture toughness, which normally leads to spalling. Due to this tendency to spall, thick backing layers of metal are required. In this case, titanium is the thick backing layer and the metal that encases the ceramic. Therefore, when confined boron carbide does a stellar performance against both shaped charge threats and long-rod penetrators. This particular armor is not designed to maximize slope, given that both ceramic and titanium have been tested to perform better when the penetrator strikes perpendicular to the plate (a better mass efficiency that is). However, to increase efficiency and to induce yaw large thicknesses of the titanium are perforated, much like the perforated steel plates used widely today on tank armor designs. As mentioned before, however, these modules are specifically designed to make use of the armoring depth of the shape and angles of the glacis plate, turret wedge and front side armor of the chassis.

The third layer of armor is composed of a relatively light explosive reactive armor. The reactive armor is composed of three layers, with a total thickness of some sixty-five millimeters – a fifteen millimeter titanium front plate, a second millimeter titanium front plate of the same thickness and a twenty-five millimeter back plate of the same material. The rest of the armor thickness can be attributed to high explosive. The explosive reaction, given the relatively light mass of the high explosive accelerator, is limited to avoid damaging forward-flying plates against the spalling ceramic/metal armor in front and to avoid damaging the structure with the back plate. The two flying plates are set at different angles to account for yaw instilled on the long-rod penetrator threat or on the shaped charge jet, and are placed to strike at an angle of anywhere between 45º and 67º, although impacts at different obliquities can be expected. Nevertheless, at maximum efficiency such armor has a mass efficiency of around 2.3 against kinetic energy threats (as compared to armored steel) and over three times against shaped charges. The weight saved as compared to steel is over twenty times the weight of steel!

After this thin layer of explosive reactive armor there is a second ceramic composite module spread throughout the frontal arc, which is designed principally to have moderate efficiency versus both shaped charges and long-rod penetrators. It should be noted that this layer is much less thick than the first layer and is designed really to provide a spaced plate between the two layers of explosive reactive armor and in order to either completely stop or to instill further yaw (or to break up the penetrator – whether hydrodynamic or solid) after the first thick layer of explosive reactive armor. This time, the ceramic armor is composed of two sandwiched ceramics encased in titanium alloy metal. The two ceramics are aluminum nitride and titanium diboride. Aluminum nitride was chosen for its lower bulk density than alumina, and for its superior ballistics against penetrators (shaped charge jets) moving at faster than 2 km/s, while titanium diboride was chosen for its high fracture toughness and tensile strength. Although the latter has a high bulk density, it’s more mass efficient to have a heavy ceramic which has a low probability of heavy spalling than to have a thicker layer of metal backing. The metal to ceramic ratio of this layer is around 1.9, and the metal backing is spaced from the explosive reactive armor by a thin layer of aluminum foam (to protect against spalling) and a thin layer of air. Furthermore, like in the first layer of ceramic armor large parts of the titanium are perforated. As noted before, it should be remembered that this layer of ceramic is relatively thin.

The last layer of the Lince’s armor, at least in service with the Kingdom of Castilla y Belmonte, is a heavy explosive reactive armor designed to induce as much damage as possible to the shaped charge jet or the long-rod penetrator. It’s designed to help guarantee the defeat of the projectile in the following layers of armor by fracturing it, blunting the penetrator’s nose and by slowing it down and inducing yaw. For that purpose, the construction rights to Asteriox (used on the Nakíl 1A2) were purchased and the explosive reactive armor saw some modification. The modules are made up by an aluminum-aluminum foam box to decrease module weight and to decrease damage to nearby modules. The explosives of the metal plates designed to hit the penetrator at different points has been reduced, also to reduce weight, and therefore has reduced the velocity of the flying plates. However, instead of titanium these plates are composed of thin layers of high-hardness steel (this particular steel has Rockwell hardness (HRC) of 53 and a Brinell hardness value (BHN) of 532). High-hardness steel has a higher tendency to spall and trades high hardness for low tensile strength. However, the aim in this explosive reactive armor isn’t to increase tensile strength as much as it is to damage the incoming threat through as much momentum as possible (it can also be said that the low amount of mass lost through the reduction of the explosive was regained through the use of high-hardness steel). The three forward-flying titanium plates remain the same, although the backing plate of steel has been replaced by a lighter plate of titanium (same thickness). Although at 60º the forward-flying titanium plates shouldn’t offer better ballistics than the same thickness of steel, the mass is still lighter.

Through the use of new armor materials, new armor concepts, explosive reactive armor and the maximization of penetration depth the Lince has been able to establish a fairly heavy amount of protection along the front 120º of the tank. Although it should be understood that the armor protection between the 90º and 120º surface area of the arc is not the same as that of the frontal 90º arc, both are exceptionally high for a main battle tank – especially a main battle tank of this weight. Although through the same designs a sixty ton tank could have much more armor and protection, it was decided early on that protection would also come through mobility and thus a low-weight was established as a design goal of the tank. Therefore, penetration depth was kept lower than what had been tested on several chassis prototypes in the past decade (like the CBS). Nevertheless, the Lince has established a higher level of protection as a lightweight 4th generation main battle tanks than most (if not all) 3rd generation sixty ton main battle tanks. Furthermore, through the use of two layers of explosive reactive armor the Lince has increased the probability that the incoming round will be defeated through fracture and snapping more so that penetration depth. It should be remembered that kinetic energy penetrators of high length to diameter ratios (the same can be applied to shaped charges given that these can have L:d ratios of close to 100:1) are more susceptible to oblique impact and more susceptible to fracture. It’s important to note that the Lince has saved weight by not using high density, and thus heavy, materials like depleted uranium.

Perhaps one of the most innovative features is the use of two layers of explosive reactive armor. The high mass efficiency and thickness efficiency of explosive reactive armor makes it a very lucrative type of protection for any vehicle. Through the optimization of the momentum and force exerted by the various plates one can design a heavy explosive reactive armor that can be fitted as layers – or more accurately, two different explosive reactive armor designs which can be used cooperatively to increase protection. To give an idea of the protection made available through heavy explosive reactive armor it should be considered that an explosive reactive armor from the 90s could increase the armor protection of a tank with 900mm of RHAe (rolled homogenous armor equivalent) by over forty percent! This level of protection, at low weight, was looked for by the engineering teams which made-up the ballistic protection of the Lince. Multiple layers of explosive reactive armor is not something unique to the Lince, admittedly, but it’s one of the first tanks with this type of armor put into mass production or actually used by an active army.

Maximization of armored depth in the chassis has been discussed quite a bit, and the turret has been largely forgotten except for the use of a wedge along the frontal armor array. It should be remembered that the small size of the turret allows for a heavier weight in armor given that there is less of a surface area to cover. Through minimization of armored volume, high thickness values are achievable on the turret front and front sides. In any case, given the lack of a crew in the turret the protection priority is oriented towards the chassis. Penetration by a long-rod into the turret does not guarantee a kill, in regards to killing the tank’s firepower. Through the use of spalling layers and compartmentalization of the turret (including the breech block), the damage to the gun through spalling of the round can be kept at a minimum. In other words, there are chances that the Lince will survive a perforation of the turret armor (assuming the turret armor is perforated, of course). The true threat is if a shard of hot penetrator achieves to set-off the propellant, although the use of a bipropellant helps decrease the chances of this happening given that the reaction of the propellant is catalyzed through the mixing of the two main ingredients of the liquid propellant, not through temperature ignition.

Although relatively light as compared to the thirty-nine ton armored weighs of sixty ton battle tanks, the Lince still saves weight in other areas. These areas include the rear side chassis and the rear of the chassis, where the use of metal is kept a minimum and the use of composites and fibers kept at a maximum.

Side and rear protection
Although the Lince has achieved a high level of protection for a low weight trade-off along the 120º frontal arc of the tank, several weight decreases have to be made elsewhere. Some have already been discussed and outlined: the small size of the turret, the lightweight main gun system, lightweight secondary armaments, and a compact and relatively lightweight ammunition storage system and tank gun autoloader. There are several other weight savings that will be discussed later, however, major savings have to be made in the armor which covers the rest of the tank. In order to understand what weight savings can be conceived without jeopardizing protection in case of ambushes one must study the relevant threats. These threats include, above all else, machine gun fire (up to 15mm armor-piercing) and rocket propelled grenades. The threat of rocket propelled grenades has been studied in depth by most tank producing nations of the world and has started an armoring trend which includes urban armor kits. The Lince takes a page from the Nakíl design in the way where it saves weight by focusing armor development in the rear areas of the tank against small-caliber armor piercing threats and, most of all, man portable shaped charge warheads. The ultimate aim is to optimize protection against the relevant and most frequent threat, and at the same time save weight. The disadvantage is almost entirely in cost – specifically, in several millions of dollars. However, given that the Lince is expected to be exported in large numbers to at least one strategic ally, the cost has not been set as important. Besides, the low production run of the Lince for the Castillian army makes high prices affordable since the allowable budget is for a multi-thousand tank army (when in fact only nine hundred will be procured in the first production batch, for three brigades).

The rear areas of the tank are protected through an armor sandwich known as ‘PA-1’, composed mainly of fiber reinforced glasses and plastics. The requirement of the Lince’s rear protection is not necessarily to defeat a large diameter shaped charge (mainly unguided man portable in the region between 80mm and 110mm in diameter), but to absorb so much of its energy that it no longer poses a threat to the survivability of the tank. In the Lince’s case, the rear compartment is composed of open space which can be used to carry more ammunition. The rest is occupied by subsystems of the tank and electronics, which were moved from either the front of the tank or from the turret. Consequently, a shaped charge without a lot of remaining energy doesn’t prove to be a fatal threat to the wellbeing of the tank. Furthermore, since the ammunition is largely inflammable there is no threat of a resulting ammunition cook-off. Therefore, any protection in the rear is designed specifically to reduce the damage and then contain it (internal compartmentalization). Protection against large caliber machine gun rounds is guaranteed by the basic armor protection levels of the Lince, while physical protection against unguided shaped charges and even guided shaped charges will be provided by an urban armor kit.

PA-1 is a modular sandwich composite armor placed over the structural steel protection. It’s designed to give all-around protection against heavy machine gun fire and to act as an energy absorber during shaped charge impact. Two principle materials were looked at for implementation, E-Glass and S-Glass. E-Glass has a low density for an armor material (although high for a plastic composite) of 2.6 g/cm3 and has a high tensile strength (3,500 MPa). S-Glass has been tested to be similar and mechanically superior, although costlier. Due to the ‘no cost is too much’ mentality of the Lince project, the result was the use of S-glass. The layer of S-glass saves over half the weight of steel for the same level of protection, and PA-1s capabilities are reinforced by the structural improved armored steel that composes the Lince’s hull. However, materials such as E-Glass or S-Glass require disruptor plates to inflict most of the physical damage to the incoming threat, while they absorb it. Consequently, a dual hardness steel plate (DHS) is added to the front. This particular plate is face hardened to provide a hardness of around 600 Brinell down to around 400 Brinell, in a gradient. PA-1 is not designed to outright defeat shaped charge threats, which has been left largely to the active protection system.

Originally, Sistemas Terrestres Segovia opted for a second layer of armor. This was to be composed of multiple non-explosive reactive armor (NxRA) blocks, with multi-hit capability. Although this system was to weigh less than regular lightweight explosive reactive armor it was eventually opted not to include it. The weight increase was calculated to be around 1,200kg which is moderately light, however it was decided that any weight saving would make it easier to make more crucial weight decisions at a layer point. Furthermore, urban ambushes were not expected to be the tank’s main threat on the battlefield and thus STS opted to instead develop an urban add-on armor kit if the situation developed. This add-on kit, amongst others, will be available for export along with the Lince E. For a more lightweight protective suite STS has opted for a number of indirect protection solutions which will be explained below, along with the active protection system.

The three fuel tanks arrayed to the rear of the vehicle’s chassis can also be considered a level of protection. The protection offered by the fuel tanks has already been taken advantage of in the Nakíl 1A2’s design. If any given fuel doesn’t have contact with compressed air or a flammable gas, then it will conveniently increase protection against shaped charge penetrators. In fact, tank fuel helps distort the jet and cause an early break-up between the jet-tip and the jet-base (amongst various points). These effects have been studied before and may have been used in a wide variety of armored fighting vehicle designs, especially armored personnel carriers, to increase protection versus chemical energy threats in the rear arc of the vehicle. The Lince uses fuel to increase protection in the left rear of the tank (looking from the rear), and in the two rear sides of the hull (parallel of each other). In order to avoid leakage of the fuel during impact and to avoid accidental combustion, the fuel tanks use fire-proof and explosion-proof composites to surround the fuel tanks. These characteristics are exhibited by self-sealing foam, and protect from a temperature over a large volume and with a high intensity of up to 1,800ºC. With a coating of roughly 5mm thickness it’s extremely difficult for a fuel tank to suffer a chance of exploding or combusting by means of a hot shard of metal or by means of a shaped charge penetrator.

Mine Resistance
The threat of mines exists both in a conventional war and in a low intensity war against guerilla forces. According to information revealed by the Castillian defense company MecániCas in the brochure of the Tiznao-60 advanced armor truck, thirty-nine percent of the destroyed tactical armored supply trucks during the Castillian Civil War are attributed to land mines. According to the Ministry of Defense, of the Kingdom of Castilla y Belmonte, twenty-eight percent of lost tanks were lost due to land-mines with a charge weight of over 10 kg. Explosive charges were recorded to be as high as 100kg, and the result was almost completely annihilation of the impacted tank. Although it’s impossible to offer the physical protection to a tank to survive charges of these sizes, there are methods to avoid having a tank even encountering them. As for other mine sizes, anti-mine armor can help save the life of the crew and can help keep the tank running in any war. Due to the weight increases in mine protection armor, only so much can be added without risking damaging the tank’s mobility. Therefore, more reliance has been placed on electronic protection systems than on physical protection systems.

The heavy physical armor for the Lince will be available through one of the urban armor kits manufactured by Sistemas Terrestres Segovia. These will probably be purchased to give an ability to readily outfit a third of each of the three foreseen armored brigades, if the country ever finds itself in a situation where it will be operating in urban terrain. The nation’s recent entry into NATO makes urban operations much more possible, which may have spurred the armor kit design. Although the detail of this armor kit will be reserved for another time, it is worth to know that several anti-mine armor kits will be available on the export market with varying weights and with capabilities against a variation of different threat levels.

On the basic Lince, anti-mine armor protection is composed of a double floor board construction, designed of ballistic steel and titanium. The two floor boards are properly spaced and divided by a composite designed to absorb the explosive energy produced by the detonation of an anti-tank land mine and of an improvised explosive device. The spacing layer is also designed to absorb as many of the mechanical shockwaves as possible. Therefore by definition, the material that makes up the spacing layer must have a high fracture toughness and high tensile strength to remain intact even under high stress impact loadings. The same material has to be able to contain the deformation of the titanium layer closest to the ground and to avoid the deformation of the top-most steel floorboard through energy absorption. In most armored fighting vehicle designs, to date, the spacing layer material selected has been rubber. Although rubber was considered, ultimately it was decided to rely on closed aluminum foam cells. There has already been considerably experience with this type of armor due to its usage on the recent BSI-30 advanced lightweight infantry combat vehicle and the BSI-122 light tank, as well as on the Tiznao-60 armored truck.

Tests conducted on composite armors with and without aluminum foam have all helped to understand the mechanical properties of this type of armor. Closed cell aluminum foam modules have proven to decrease the propagation of mechanical shockwaves into the backing metal material. Aluminum foam has high resistance to high-stress impact loading, which makes it an ideal armor for anti-mine work. Furthermore, it’s lightweight and saves weight through reducing required metal floor board thickness. But, the protection offered by this rudimentary floor sandwich structure is admittedly limited. Although the 35mm-50mm sandwich structure could most likely defeat an explosively formed penetrator (EFP) of an improvised explosive device (IED), it’s doubtful that the same armor can defeat a 10kg shaped charge threat. The Lince, with this base armor, can probably survive a level 2 mine threat (a 6kg explosive under the center of the chassis, or under the track) or a level 3a threat (a 8kg explosive under the track), but would probably succumb to any greater threat that those mentioned. Due to the all important weight restriction of the Lince, mine-protection must be offered through other, lighter solutions.

Furthermore, the use of a v-shaped hull is impossible in the Lince’s case due to height restrictions and weight restrictions. A v-shaped hull floor basically does the same as what the turret wedge armor does on many known tank designs, and what the Lince does in the design of its glacis plate. A v-shaped floor basically maximizes the depth of penetration an anti-tank land mine or improvised explosive device must travel through by forming a v down the center of the vehicle. For the sake of a comparison, it’s a wedge which starts from the hull’s floor and finishes any given distance from the ground. Explosions in the center have to travel through an extended amount of armor, while explosions elsewhere are deflected. The amount of protection which results is incredible, and this solution has already been adopted by dozens of armored fighting vehicles across the world. However, the Lince doesn’t have the luxury of being able to adopt such a hull floor design because a v-shaped hull still has to have an adequate stand-off distance from the ground for the sake of ground clearance and tactical mobility, and therefore it invariably increases the height of the tank. It also increases weight of the vehicle since there is much more armored mass. This doesn’t mean it’s weight inefficient. It’s more mass efficient than a similar level of protection by parallel steel floorboards, but the Lince can neither afford a v-shaped hull or the same amount of protection through more conventional means.

Therefore, an extra layer of protection is offered by new electronic technology. This refers to the PAMEM-10 electromagnetic mine protection system (EMPS) designed by Indra-Begón. PAMEM-10 offers high survivability against mines with magnetic fuses by prematurely detonating them. The system can prematurely detonate mines ahead of the tank and beside the tank, as the tank is moving forward, or behind the tank as the tank is moving in reverse. As a consequence, the landmine threat will be neutralized before it can damage the vehicle. The electromagnetic kit is lightweight, weighing only eighty-five kilograms and has a low power consumption of .8kW, which can be taken from the power pack. The system also requires a low volume of up to around fifteen liters, and most of it can even be added to the exterior of the tank in a modular kit which can be added when necessary (although the low weight makes it attractive for permanent installation). Its ease of installation makes it a prime candidate to be retrofitted into existing armored fighting vehicle designs of the kingdom’s armed forces. The only disadvantage is that the system has trouble working properly at velocities greater than 40km/h, and one of the Lince’s goals is a high cross-country velocity. Nevertheless, when an anti-tank landmine threat exists, it’s expected that an armored fighting vehicle will slow during an advance. In the end, it can be considered that the survivability of the crew and the tank relies on their own judgment.

Protection against spalling
One of greatest threats to the survivability of the tank is not necessarily the impacting projectile, whether a shaped charge formed hypervelocity penetrator or a long-rod penetrator. When an impact occurs along a surface of a vehicle’s armor a series of mechanical shockwaves propagate throughout the armor, normally cracking and fracturing the armor. These properties have been exhibited with steel, but are much more obvious in new lightweight armors such as aluminum or ceramic, and especially in new armors which exhibit high-hardness but low tensile strength like high-carbon steels (high-hardness steel (HHS) and very hard steel (VHS), for example). In other words, spalling occurs in greater quantity when the material in question is more brittle relative to another. The fracturing of the armor, or spalling, can sometimes do the most damage to an armored fighting vehicle because it’s what will have the largest volume effect. In simple terms, the showering of sharp and sometimes hot metal or composite fragments will probably do more damage than the remnants of a shaped charged jet. Another type of spalling is the fragmentation of a long-rod penetrator during penetration. As the penetrator defeats the armor, the armor succeeds in breaking off pieces of the long-rod throughout the penetration process and if the long-rod succeeds in perforating the target a showering of shards of long-rod penetration into the inner volume of the armored fighting vehicle normally occurs. These shards normally exhibit extremely high temperatures, and if they penetrate into the crew cabin they can kill, wound or blind the crew.

Spall liners may have been in existence before the 50s, but they began development after the introduction of all-aluminum armored fighting vehicles. Spall liners are lightweight inner armor protection which ‘catch’ and absorb the spalling before it enters the vehicle, and adds yet another dimension to armor protection. Interestingly, many spall line materials are also used to encase ceramic modules in infantry body armor. This illustrates the idea fairly effectively. These materials absorb the fragmentation of the ceramic and keep the ceramic in place, increasing ballistic efficiency and saving the life of a fortunate soldier. These materials are normally very light – especially when compared to the weight of the accompanying ceramic – and are fairly cheap. Since the introduction of more mass efficient armors, and especially new composite materials, spall liners have made an important presence in the design of armored fighting vehicle armor. In the Lince’s case, a spall liner is extremely important throughout the vehicle’s internal surface area. Throughout the front 120º of the vehicle, for example, the spalling of the thicker structural steel, ceramic and encasing titanium is a threat to the wellbeing of the crew in the chassis and the continued working of the main gun, as well as the autoloader. Elsewhere throughout the sides of the chassis and turret, the spall liner protects from the spalling of the S-Glass and the structural steel, as well as spalling of small-caliber armor piercing projectiles and shaped charge penetrating jets. Importantly, the spall liner protects the entire tank from the deformation and spalling of the two spaced metal plates which provide the tank’s anti-mine armor protection.

Several materials were available to choose from for the Lince’s spall liner, although particular interest was placed in the use of a metal matrix composite. Early tests with metal matrix composites did not prove as fruitful as one would hope, as little evidence was shown that metal matrix composites helped increase the mass efficiency of any type of armor. During tests with high velocity cylindrical tungsten penetrators, impacting at around 800m/s, materials reinforced with metal matrices did exhibited better ballistic characteristics than non-reinforced materials. Historically and scientifically speaking, interest into metal matrix composites arose originally for space shuttle protection against high-velocity impact of meteorite fragments or orbital debris. In 1995, a series of tests in a number of defense companies which worked for the government for the development of new and advanced manned space shuttles and unmanned orbital satellites rated the efficiency of a metal matrix reinforcing an aluminum plate. Aluminum was chosen given that its ballistic properties were already well tested and recorded in a number of declassified papers. During impact, it was found that the reinforced aluminum plate did not spall. Therefore, it could be said that the information on the ballistic efficiency of metal matrix composites is not positively exaggerated or necessarily negative.

Aramid was also researched and tested given the advantages it has over a number of other materials. These advantages include low density (1/5 the density of armored steel), high specific strength, low elongation, good shockwave absorption and cost. Historically, Aramid (also known as Kevlar) has been used widely as a spall liner material throughout vehicles which are currently sold on the international market. It’s light and effective, and ballistic research was conducted on Aramid fabric reinforced by a metal matrix. It was found that the efficiency of the new Aramid composite increased slightly. However, other materials were also studied. Ultimately, Dyneema was chosen due to the fact that it’s a third lighter than Aramid and ballistically comparable to fiberglass. It’s worth to note that given that all the names of the armors tested are capitalized – their names do not denote the material used, but the name of a product. Unfortunately, the original manufacturers of this material are no longer known and these fabrics are manufactured throughout the world under the same names. In any case, Dyneema was reinforced by a metal matrix and applied to the inside of the Lince in varying thicknesses. One can imagine that the thickness is greater where the threat to the tank is more acute. In other words, thick liner protection can be witnessed along the floor of the vehicle, inside the turret and on the sides of the chassis which protect the crew compartment and the engine. A thin liner of this reinforced fabric is also installed on the moving breech block of the main gun, to protect the mechanics of the gun against shards of armor piercing projectiles – at least, as much as possible.

Armor protection against top-attack munitions
Top-attack missiles have long been a threat, and large diameter shaped charges are hard to defend against – especially when the turret roof is relevant. In fact, it’s probably near impossible to protect the turret’s roof against a shaped charge with around 600mm of penetration. The Lince’s protection requirements in the roof area are different from other tanks given that the Lince’s turret is completely unmanned. The areas of the most necessary protection are the gun breech and the liquid propellant cells. The ignition of the liquid propellant in the turret will effectively put the tank out of action until the turret can either be repaired or replace – in other words, a long time. The new generation of threats to a tank includes top-attack submunitions, such as radar guided explosively formed penetrators. These new weapons are small and powerful, with the ability to perforate up to 150mm of steel, and they are hard to defeat with active protection systems due to their angle of attack and the quantity they attack with. The use of the ‘Jungla’ netting helps protect the tank a bit, by making it extremely difficult for a top-attack weapon to lock-on, but a physical layer of armor is desired.

To illustrate the problem at hand it’s best to use the example provided by the Nakíl 1A2 export brochure. During the Battle of Ishme-Dagan, where hundreds of thousands of tanks operated simultaneously in a much reduced field of battle, top-attack munitions fired from tanks and large caliber artillery systems reigned supreme. Entire tank platoons, or even companies, were eliminated in artillery bombardments on known tank positions. The appearance of these anti-tank weapons rendered massed tank attacks risky and inefficient, given that they could be broken up by a combined artillery strike. Although detection reduction methods will help curve the efficiency of top-attack explosive formed projectiles, massed attacks will always be a threat to a tank and a tank formation of any given size. These weapons are cheap and are plentiful. A single 155mm artillery round can hold more than six. Assuming six, a battery of ten guns with the ability to ray up to five rounds simultaneously by using different trajectory rounds for each round can thus attack a tank formation with no less than three hundred top-attack submunitions! Three hundred in technically a single artillery salvo (all fifty rounds will impact simultaneously). This threat is no joke.

Many new tanks have included thicker layers of ballistic steel to increase protection on the roof, while others have begun to use roof-mounted explosive reactive armor boxes. The Lince design team has opted for the latter, given that it’s one of the most lightweight solutions available. However, instead of explosive reactive armor the design team has designed to apply non-explosive reactive armor (NxRA) panels integrated into the turret roof. These are more lightweight and offer multi-hit capability – something light explosive reactive armor doesn’t. The panels are constructed out of aluminum and are completely modular, making replacement easy. The reaction is caused by expanding gasses, instead of an explosive, and the reaction is much more limited. NxRA not only offers a high level of protection against explosively formed penetrators, but it helps stop the growth of the metal slug. These lightweight panels add less than 350kg of weight to the turret roof, are cheap and extremely effective. The ballistic plates are constructed out of titanium and S-glass, which are mass efficient against such chemical energy threats. Another advantage of NxRA over explosive reactive armor is that it’s completely passive and doesn’t have a chance of damaging the structure of the thin steel turret roof. On the other hand, lightweight explosive reactive armor admittedly offers far more protection for its thickness and mass. Nevertheless, it’s arguable whether that level of protection is required. Furthermore, it’s hard to give explosive reactive armor multi-hit capability without using multiple impact plates which invariably add mass.

The non-explosive reactive armor modules on the Lince’s tank roof can protect from multiple explosively formed penetrator impacts on the same module (two to three impacts, notably) and can be replaced quickly, cheaply and in the field. If there is an artillery strike on a tank formation made-up by the Lince, the tank formation will have a high chance of survival given that the chances of the threat locking-on have been reduced, and the tank’s roof is protected by an armor system which can receive multiple impacts before being rendered obsolete. However, they can’t protect against the more powerful shaped charge munitions which offer penetration capabilities in the area of 500mm or more. Although the modules will help absorb the energy of the jet and break it up, the jet will most likely still perforate the roof’s steel construction. Protection against such threats is largely up to the camouflage netting and to the active protection system built into the tank.

‘Ariete’ Active Protection System
Active protection systems are a relatively new defensive system developed around the world at different times – and many times independently. They are a response to the requirement of lightweight protection against a myriad of threats. Originally, active protection systems were useful for defeating unguided rocket propelled grenades, and the processing speed of the computers which control these systems has sped up in response to the velocity increase in the more modern anti-tank guided missiles. Some of the newest active protection systems are said to be effective against long-rod penetrators during flight, although most of these are marketing ploys and tests are composed of an active protection system defeating a long-rod penetrator from a known angle of attack, know velocity and an early warning. Reliable defeat of long-rod penetrators is not an established trait in any known active protection system of this era. Nevertheless, over the years active protection systems have helped increase reliability, accuracy and efficiency against rocket propelled grenades and large anti-tank missiles. For example, early active protection systems developed during the early 1990s and tested in the field report an efficiency of over 80% (meaning, 80% of the target rocket propelled grenades were destroyed in flight), while newer systems report efficiencies of up to 98%. That means that current active protection systems can defeat singular threats almost guaranteed, and can destroy multiple threats simultaneously with a high chance of success.

The Ariete system on the Lince tries to achieve this rate of success with new technologies that will decrease system size, without trying to spiral up costs. One of the major areas of work is the respective radar of the system. Phased array radars used on early and recent systems suffer from having huge antennas which had to hide. Fortunately, there have been successful integration of X-band phased array radars into active protection systems – these radars are many times smaller than the originals. Furthermore, cheap active protection systems (cheap in cost) only have an effective frontal arc of protection (300º), while in order to provide 360º of protection a tank must have multiple sensors or a rotating radar mast. Many of the more recent active protection system which have made a debut on a number of new main battle tanks use millimeter wave radar as their detection system of choice, stating excellent detection capabilities from a compact radar source. This may not be true. Millimeter wave radars suffer from problems with ground clutter, and the filtering of ground clutter is imperative for any tank-borne radar system. Although ground clutter may not be imperative in an active protection system given the detection and engagement ranges in question, it’s intuitive to believe that the longer the radar can detect a threat the more the system has a chance to counter it. With this in mind, it’s also true that longer detection ranges will make engaging and destroying long-rod penetrators in flight will be a much easier task. However, ground clutter isn’t the only problem. Millimeter wave radars have trouble distinguishing targets in rain, with the intensity of the rain playing a large role in the efficiency of the radar system, and targets covered and surrounded by snow. In respect to these problems, it was found during testing that millimeter wave radar with bandwidths of around 35 GHz preformed better than those with bandwidths of 95 GHz.

The Ariete uses wideband X-band phased array radar, with an active antenna, as its detection radar. Ground clutter is avoided through the use of a high-temperature superconducting high-purity local oscillator. These are highly effective and compact as compared to their older technological brethren. The radar antennas mast is located on the turret roof, to the rear, and rotates to provide 360º protection. The antenna is smaller compared to the phased array and millimeter wave radar masts currently in use in other vehicle designs, and is amongst the most effective. Not only is the detection range increased, and the efficiency against aerial and ground clutter augmented, but its capabilities versus stealth targets have also been incremented in the face of new stealth tanks and stealthier anti-tank missiles.

The new phased array radar is matted with an electromagnetic warning system with all-around coverage of the tank using a number of sensors (one per reception arc). This system helps detect guided anti-tank missile threats by detecting when the tank has been locked-on by an electronic source. These systems are in wide use and in this case the Lince offers no technological improvements. The system can work in tandem with the radar to decrease the time required to detect a threat, and increase the allowed time to respond to any given threat. This includes tank-gun threats, like long-rod penetrators, which rely on the tank ‘lasing’ the Lince with a laser rangefinder (LRF). The electromagnetic warning system is of 3rd generation (current generation) and is relatively light weight. The sensors are protected against artillery shrapnel, and include electrically moving shields to protect from rocks and small-caliber anti-personnel gun fire. For example, the sensor for the frontal arc of the tank is included in the tank commander’s main sight which is protected by an armored flap.

The Ariete active protection system is a multi-layer defensive aid suite (DAS), and includes a soft-kill mechanism. The grenades used by this soft-kill system have already been explained in the lethality section, above, but it should be noted that these can be used by the system to lay a smoke screen to confuse a laser guided or radio guided missile. The soft-kill system also uses a small laser blinder located on the gun mantlet, to the opposite side of the co-axial 20mm autocannon, which is designed to ‘blind’ incoming anti-tank missiles along the frontal arc (for example, gun-launched missiles or missiles launched from an infantry combat vehicle). The protection capabilities of the soft-kill suite are dubious, but it adds an important and lightweight defensive layer to the tank. In other words, nothing is extraneous when it comes to tank survivability! Well, to a certain extent, of course!

The hard-kill system is offered by a number of grenade launchers arrayed along the turret and even on the toe glacis plate of the tank. The grenades launched are specifically designed to deal area effect damage on a long-rod penetrator or on a missile. The grenades are packed with thousands of tungsten balls and upon fragmentation these are dispersed in the air. The result is the destruction of the incoming rocket propelled grenade or anti-tank missile, or the yawing of the long-rod penetrator which will either decrease penetration into the tank’s armor or steer it off course completely. Due to the rotating mast, the hard-kill system covers a bubble around the entire tank and matches (or exceeds) the efficiency of current hard-kill active protection systems against missile threats. Like what has been said above, the system is nowhere near reliable against kinetic energy threats such as long-rod penetrators. However, the technology is being developed to make the defeat of long-rod penetrators a real possibility.

Gazing into the crystal ball
What exists in the future of armor protection? Sistemas Terrestres Segovia will always be looking into the development of advanced armor materials which can substitute current materials to increase the mass efficiency of armor. Furthermore, current materials will be perfected in order to increase the efficiency – this includes optimization of the ratios between backing material and ceramic material for the frontal array armor on the Lince. Given the modularity of the Lince’s armor, it’s effectively much easier to replace the tank’s current armor protection with more advanced modules should these become available in the future. In the end, it saves development time and development costs which would have to be put into the development of a brand-new tank. Instead, the Lince can continue to be modernized and improved over a long period of time. Given the Lince’s lightweight, the chassis will continue to be relevant for a long while. When foreign tank producers devise their own ways to decrease tank weight, the Lince will already be there – in other words, the Lince will not suffer from antiquation in the next-generation of tank design. Sistemas Terrestres Segovia is sure that the Lince is one step ahead of all current generation main battle tanks.

Other necessary developments in armor materials include more effective spall liners which will allow increasing thickness and therefore increasing internal volume existent for all the mechanisms which make up a tank. This will, in turn, allow for empty space to be used for other purposes (spare ammunition, for example). Material science will continue to progress where relevant to lightweight plastic and fiber reinforced glass armored materials which the Lince can use to replace current state-of-the-art armor panels along the side and rear of the turret and chassis. The ultimate goal is to decrease the weight of the armor as much as possible, to the point where the Lince might be able to weigh less than forty tons. Although this is not currently possible, with the required protection levels, in the future it might be. These new armors include electromagnetic armor, electric reactive armor and smart armor. The latter, as an example, will be able to optimize the threat-defeat mechanism through the use of embedded sensors which can determine impact location, projectile velocity and diameter and can detect the optimum time to react to the threat. Smart armor has the capability of being highly mass efficient. In other words, smart armor is a highly advanced and efficient form of explosive reactive armor.

Developments in active protection systems will always be flowing through Sistemas Terrestres Segovia and the subcontracted companies. Reductions in radar size, for example, are bound to happen, as well as the increase in power and efficiency. Processors will be designed to allow almost instantaneous reactions to inbound threats, increasing hard-kill system efficiency versus kinetic energy threats like long-rod penetrators in flight. Advances in laser technology will also increase the efficiency of existing soft-kill systems, to the point where their inclusion in armored fighting vehicles would be a completely requirement. Protective suits like active protection systems promise high levels of protection for a low corresponding weight. In other words, when active protection systems gain faultless reliability they may be able to replace physical armor, given that by then physical armor will be obsolete. Of course, the chances of anything become faultless is close to zero and so most likely active protection systems will always be matted to some sort of physical armor protection. However, the thickness required for the armor protection on the vehicle will reduce considerably.

Over time new lightweight protection systems will be devised to enhance survivability of an armored fighting vehicle against anti-tank land mines, improvised explosive devices, and top attack munitions. This includes the use of more advanced electric reactive armor which may be able to completely neutralize a chemical energy threat of any given size. Advanced electric armor will have to be accompanied by smaller and more lightweight power supplies, capable of offering the required electrical output. Nevertheless, reliable and lightweight electric reliable armor is not a long distance away, and new pulsed power supplies being developed will manage to offer more than the electrical output required to defeat any given chemical energy threat. However, advances need to be made on giving this type of armor multi-hit capability. Over a large surface area this capability can be provided by building the armor into independent modules. However, this technology will require more time in order to develop lightweight module systems and efficient electrical providers to power multiple modules without the necessary wiring.

Despite the necessary technological advancements in order to provide future protection systems, the area is promising. Small nations, with limited defense budgets, are continuously looking at lightweight protection for their lightweight cavalry vehicles (a line of vehicles based on a common chassis, which can be transported by aircraft – like the BSI). Given the high demand for these technologies, most defense companies around the world will continue to invest heavily on lightweight protection schemes. Furthermore, lightweight protection development is not only specific to armored fighting vehicles. Like always, naval protection schemes go hand in hand with tank protection schemes. For example, there are several international projects to adapt electric reactive armor to an all-electric aircraft carrier. Not to mention that the development of lightweight alternatives to steel interest both fields of defense. With this kind of optimism in mind, Sistemas Terrestres Segovia is certain that the near future will reveal new lines of advanced technologies.

Mobility
Suspension
The velocity at which a tank can move cross-country is normally limited by the comfort of the crew and not by the power offered by the tank’s engine. To give an idea, some tanks sport very poor power to weight ratios and yet have superior cross-country mobility than other tanks with far more powerful power packs. Crew comfort during movement is termed ‘ride’, and superior suspension systems can offer superior ride. Some tanks have introduced all-steel torsion-bar suspension systems which have drastically reduced the amount of force felt during high velocity cross-country movement. Discomfort during cross-country movement is a product of the jerking of the human body, to the point where serious injuries can occur. Consequently, most tanks have been limited in maximum off-road velocity. However, the Lince had a number of goals in mind, including quick acceleration (more relevant to the engine) and an extremely high cross-country and on-road velocity. To accomplish these goals the Lince design team abandoned the classis torsion-bar suspension which had been used on all of the Castillian tanks since the 1940s, and instead install an advanced active hydropneumatic suspension system.

Coupled with the high-output TA serie 600 advanced gas turbine (AGT), the new hydropneumatic offers the Lince incredibly high on-road velocities without maximizing engine output and without sacrificing torque. Off-road velocity is increased, as well, although the engine output is largely irrelevant in this case. A standard hydropneumatic suspension system has proven to improve ride considerably, as compared to the torsion-bar system. Hydropneumatic suspensions are not new technology and are widely available on the civilian market for civilian automobiles. In these applications, hydropneumatic (or hydrogas, as known in some nations) suspensions have shown to require less roadwheel bump vertical deflection range to ensure comfort of the crew. Furthermore, energy transferred to the crew is decreased by the use of anti-mine crew seats (explained in greater detail in the ‘fightability’ section), given that these are suspended from the floorboards to help the crew avoid bone crushing mechanical shockwaves of an explosion of a powerful anti-tank land mine. These seats also help to do the same during cross-country mobility, as the crew will feel less since the energy of the ride has a far more troublesome time traveling to the crew given that the seats are suspended. In any case, the active hydropneumatic suspension used by the Lince achieves an even greater ride and decreases to an even greater extent crew discomfort. Through computer processing, the suspension can react better to any type of terrain and can calculate the optimal movement lengths of the suspension. In this way, such a suspension can make a tank feel as if it was moving through air, so to speak. Velocities never beforehand thought possible on a tracked vehicle are now completely possible, and the reduction of movement in the vehicle due to better energy absorption also helps increase the gun’s accuracy on the move and reduce the processing requirements of the ballistic computer. Furthermore, active hydropneumatic suspensions are lighter than torsion-bar suspensions, contributing to the Lince’s drive to lose as much weight as possible wherever possible.

Ride comfort also has a lot to do with the vertical deflection movement of the roadwheels, as already alluded to. To give an idea, a tank of the 1960s normally had a vertical deflection range of anywhere between 240 and 380mm. The next-generation of main battle tanks increased this movement range of the roadwheels to up to at least 430mm, and some have it as high as 600mm! However, increasing the range in which a particular roadwheel can bounce and rebound will increase the height of the chassis, and thus of the tank system. Therefore, achieving a more comfortable ride by increase the range of vertical deflection is a trade-off. Fortunately, given that hydropneumatic suspensions re quire less distance to provide the same comfort then the roadwheels don’t require as large of vertical deflection ranges. The Lince’s roadwheels can bounce and rebound within a vertical deflection range of 510mm, which is considerable. This is effectively 130mm more than the Juumanistran JBT.24 main battle tank.

However, ride tolerance is not only a question of the crew, but a question of the quality of the parts which make up the suspension. The more stress any given part of the suspension has to put up with the larger the chance that it will break. Consequently, all parts of the Lince’s active hydropneumatic suspension system are built out of high quality steel. Thus, the Lince’s suspension is highly reliable and can tolerate high off-road velocities in very rough terrain. Given the predominance of agricultural roads in the kingdom this ability is very important, since most of these roads are poorly maintained. Furthermore, the Lince’s suspension had to be designed to be compatible with the mountainous terrain of Vault, given that during a short period of time the development of the Lince had been joined to the development of a future main battle tank with three other nations. With the construction of the suspension, roadwheel deflection and in quality of the parts the Lince can achieve cross-country velocities of around 90km/h! This breaks many conventional restrictions on the velocity of tracked vehicles off-road, and is very close to the goal of over 100km/h set for hyper mobility. In comparison, most main battle tanks can only achieve off-road speeds of around 40km/h. Some heavy main battle tanks – of the sixty-five ton class – have achieved cross-country speeds of 60km/h through the use of roadwheel deflection ranges of over 600mm and through extremely reliable suspensions, but the ability of the Lince is unique (or very close to it).

The Lince can possibly reach cross-country mobility of 100 km/h, however field testing of the suspension has to be recorded first in order to completely understand the effect of extremely high velocities on tracked vehicles. For example, the effects on track lifespan have to be studied, as well as the capability of suspension parts to withhold the vibrations during fast velocity movements. Currently, a governor limits maximum off-road velocity to 90km/h although much slower speeds are more frequent during tactical movements. Nevertheless, the opportunities in moving from cover to cover are now almost endless – or at least, drastically increased. Furthermore, with the introduce of ‘quick-fit’ rubber pad inserts (explained below) for tracks, damaged rubber pads can be replaced quickly meaning a tank can now afford to have as high an on-road mobility as a wheeled armored fighting vehicle without fear of damaging the roads or the tracks.

TA serie 600 advanced gas turbine
The vehicle’s power is provided through a new advanced gas turbine. Originally, Santa Barbara Sistemas had offered an international contract for an advanced high output diesel engine for the Lince – the nation’s indigenous diesel industry focused on technology for lower output engines for military trucks and even light armored fighting vehicles. However, Turboas – a local gas turbine producer – managed to show a prototype for a new gas turbine with the fuel efficiency of a diesel engine with an advanced cycle for use in a heavy military vehicle. As a consequence, the international contract was dropped and instead the army decided to fund further research into gas turbine technology. The weight and volume of the new engine envisioned by Turboas was unbeatable by any other defense contractor, especially by diesel manufacturers. Up to now, tank turbines have had the issue of gas expenditure since classic vehicle gas turbines have used as much fuel during idle as when it’s at 60% efficiency. Consequently, the issue in gas mileage is mostly related to decreasing the burning rate of fuel when the gas turbine is idle. Most new tanks with gas turbines have solved the problem through the use of an auxiliary power unit (APU) which allows the tank to turn off the engine when it’s idle and turn it back on when the tank wants to move. However, Turboas also aimed to increase fuel efficiency when the engine was working. Ultimately, Turboas presented the series 600 gas turbine for use in the Lince.

The series 600 gas turbine produces a little bit over of 1MW worth of energy, or 1,400hp. With said output, the Lince has a power to weight ratio of over 30:1, which is considerable. Comparable vehicles have power to weight ratios of around 24:1 and have engine outputs of over 1,500hp. This rather high power to weight ratio is necessary for fast acceleration, especially over rough terrain, which consequently improves battlefield mobility (in the ability to move from one cover to another). The serie 600 has a volume of about .73m3 and weighs a bit over 600kg, which is roughly three times lighter than a comparable diesel. Furthermore, the series 600 has about a forty percent reduction in parts meaning it’s less complex and easier to maintain. Its lightweight design also allows fast field power pack replacements by the tank crew. Furthermore, its fuel efficiency, power output and low volume make it ideal for a hybrid power system – like that used on the Lince. Coupling the series 600 gas turbine with a high-output electric generator allows considerable volume reductions in regards to the engine.

The biggest change in gas turbine design with the series 600 is the placement of an advanced recuperator in the air stream of incoming air. Recuperators, as their name suggests, recuperate energy lost as heat and reinsert it into the turbine cycle. However, not only does this recuperator do this but it also serves to preheat the incoming air used by the turbine, increasing energy efficiency. Through the use of alloys cycle temperature can increase from around 1,315º © to 1,537º, increasing energy efficiency and fuel efficiency. These alloys include replacements for steel and the use of nickel coatings and ceramics for gas turbine blades. Furthermore, the series 600 achieves a pressure ratio of over 60, which is considerable for a gas turbine and is based on technology developed for aircraft gas turbines. Further volume reduction, as said above, is done through the incorporation of a 24,000rpm high speed generator using the same cooling, lubrication and bearings as the gas turbine. Thermal efficiency of the series 600 is rated at 65% through the use of a combined cycle, which is an improvement over the 45% achieved through a simple cycle. This means that no more than one-third of the engine’s power output is lost to heat, meaning the series 600 is considerably more efficient than most other engines currently on the market.

Engine life is enhanced by a use of turbine diagnostic system (TDS) which is composed of a number of sensors built into the turbine which can detect when the engine needs to be repaired, or if it’s close to breaking down. More accurately, this system gives the tank crew and maintenance crew the necessary information to make an assessment of the tank engine and to make sure that the engine is in its maximum shape before it enters the field. Through the use of this system engine lifespan is enhanced because it will help avoid operating the engine under non-ideal conditions. Given that the series 600 gas turbine will remain in the army’s inventory as the power producer for the Lince for a long time to come, engine life is very important. It will help save money over the long run and will help keep tanks moving on the field. As a result, less field maintenance issues are expected and fewer tanks will need engine replacements during maneuvers. Field breakdowns will be kept at a minimum, meaning more tanks will be available for any given tactical battle.

The engine is combined with an under armor auxiliary power unit (UAAPU), which is easily installed and maintained through a hatch near the toe glacis under the hull. The battery provided is a lithium-ion battery, and is able to keep the tank’s electronic systems running while the engine is turned off. This not only keeps a tank fully operational while the engine is turned off when the tank isn’t moving (avoiding gas expenditure at idle), but allows a tank to utilize at its maximum available stealth to ambush an enemy. The former is extremely important, especially when taking into consideration the large amounts of time a tank engine can spend in idle. The reduction in gas expenditure is immense. In the latter’s case, that means that there is almost no heat production coming from the tank engine and no noise. The tactical advantages during an ambush should be obvious.

The use of new turbine technology has increased all the advantages of a gas turbine system (low volume, low weight, smaller amount of parts and lower noise production) and negated the disadvantages (fuel consumption). Nonetheless, advanced in gas turbine technology will always be looked for given that the technology used in the series 600 will most likely soon be on the open market, even though the series 600 will not be exported. Rumors exist that Turboas is currently working on the series 610 gas turbine which will decrease volume further and increase output. One of the most important exporters of gas turbines in the world, Vault 10, is also rumored to make available equally as efficient gas turbines for use on main battle tanks. This engine may make an appearance in the nation’s future main battle tank, which should resemble to a high degree the Lince. Some has suggested a technological partnership between Turboas and the respective Vault manufacturer, but that’s pure speculation.

Balzán 800T-96A electric transmission
The design of the tank’s transmission system proved to be one of the most difficult areas of development throughout the entire program. A number of options were presented by various different companies. The most advanced conventional transmission presented was Industria Mecánica Real’s (IMR) IMR-8020-20 hydro-kinetic planetary gear shift transmission, with four forward and two reverse gears. The transmission transmitted around seventy-eight percent of the engine’s power to the sprocket – in this case, sprocket power was rated at 1,092hp. This is a considerable improvement when compared to other transmissions – on average, horsepower at the sprocket is rated at approximately 1,000hp from a 1,500hp engine (a 67% transfer rate). The new transmission was neither heavy for its class, nor light, being similar in weight to comparable transmission systems. Other automatic transmission systems were showcased, but none of them offered the transfer power of the IMR-8020-20, and furthermore IMR’s transmission was not more expensive than the competition. IMR’s only competition was provided through Balzán’s 800T-96A electric transmission. The major advantage of this transmission over any mechanical transmission is weight loss – Balzán’s transmission weighs over half as less than IMR’s, which is of major importance for a tank with a weight goal of forty-five tons. On average, a power plant can consume an average of 20% of a main battle tank’s weight. Using this figure one can assume, for example, that the power plant on a sixty-five ton tank weighs 13 tons. This is a considerably amount of weight since that’s effectively the maximum weight limit of the Lince’s turret Therefore, priority on weight loss had to be put over cost (to an extent).

Balzán’s new electric transmission delivers about 75% of the engine’s power to the sprocket, or roughly 1,050hp. Better efficiency is provided through more suitable conductors, although electric transmissions remain less efficient than their mechanical brethren – at least those which are ready for integration into a combat vehicle. Although Balzán’s system has been implemented into the Lince as an advanced lightweight transmission, it still hasn’t eliminated other heavy parts of standard transmission systems – the clutch, reduction gear and differential gear. Most of what today is considered a transmission would disappear through the use of magnetic electric drive motors attached to the roadwheels, designed to deliver high torque. Testing is still underway in order to increase rotational velocity to maintain high vehicle velocity, since current motors reduce speed in order to producer higher values of torque. Although this type of transmission is much more efficient than an electric transmission electric roadwheel motors are not understood or developed to a stage where they can be successfully implemented.

Furthermore, extreme cost is still an issue. The issue remains if a twenty million dollar vehicle is as lethal as the vehicle would be if it cost closer to ten million. The argument takes into consideration that a country can buy an effective ‘third-generation’ main battle tank for an average of eight million dollars if the vehicle is widely produced. That means that for a platoon of ten twenty million dollar vehicles the enemy can have a platoon of twenty-five eight million vehicles. That constitutes an advantage of 2.5:1. This has been exemplified by the recent Juumanistran procurement of the Kyton main battle tank for an average of twenty-five million per vehicle. At what point does cost become an issue? It becomes an issue when money is a limiting factor in the amount of vehicles a nation can procure. Although larger nations, with larger budgets, have expectations that they can procure what they want in the numbers they want this becomes untrue under the circumstances that a nation has to maximize procurement – such a total war. For a nation like Juumanistra this might not be important, given that the threat of total war is low. However, it is when it comes to export. It makes little sense for Castilla y Belmonte to purchase the Kyton at twenty-five million per tank, even assuming the tank was four times as effective as the JBT.14 (which goes for about two million per tank). The kingdom can procure more than twelve JBT.14 tanks per Kyton, which is important to consider. Let’s assume that Castilla goes to war with a nation of equal economic capability. That enemy buys a total of one thousand Kyton main battle tanks for 25 billion dollars. Castilla spends the same amount of money (similar economic purchasing parity) on the JBT.14, buying 12,500 of them. If the Kyton is four times as effective that means that theoretically one Kyton can knock-out four JBT.14 tanks. Let’s say that one Kyton has been knocked-out and four JBT.14 tanks destroyed – suddenly, the odds are 12.09:1. Let’s assume that in the war one hundred Kytons have been knocked-out and four hundred JBT.14 tanks – the odds are now 13.5:1! Despite the greater loss of the inferior tank (four times as much, as theory suggests), the odds in battle grow in the inferior tank’s favor. That is when cost becomes an issue. At one point technological superiority becomes irrelevant and inferior to quantity.

This must be taken into consideration when one begins to second guess the Lince program’s procurement policies. Cost is not an issue to a certain extent, but some limitations in money allotted to development and construction must be set or else the technological advancement of the tank is outstripped by the cost. That’s why an electric transmission was chosen over the mechanical transmission, but not the independent motors for the roadwheels. Balzán’s transmission was more expensive than IMR’s, but not exponentially so. It was a cost worth the advantage, in other words.

Track design
Tracks have evolved a long way since the introduction of the tank, especially in durability and weight. Today, a tank can expect to travel up to 5,000km without requiring a track replacement! The tracks constitute an important part of any tank design, and their influence is largely ignored by most tank designers around the world. Today, a track set on a sixty ton main battle tank can weigh around 5,592kg! Most of today’s tanks use a double-pin connector track with a cast monoblock body. These tracks reduce stress on the track bolt, increase track lifespan and decrease manufacturing costs. And although they have a considerable weight, it can be largely assumed that track weight has decreased by small amounts over the decades. However, 5,500kg would constitute about 12% of the Lince’s weight (although the total track weight would be considerably less on the Lince, due to the smaller length of the track)! As one can imagine, quite a bit of effort has been put in the reduction of track weigh and has led to several different ideas. There were tests with aluminum tracks, which garnered a weight of about 75kg per meter of track, but aluminum was found to be an insufficient metal to deal with the stresses imparted on the track and therefore the project was abandoned.

Admittedly, the idea of continuous band tracks was toyed with given that these are lightweight and produce considerably less noise. The use of a continuous band track makes more sense on the forty-five ton Lince than it would on a sixty ton tank, but even then it was found hard to justify the lightweight for the remainder of the disadvantages. Given that the track isn’t made out of independent track links, in order to replace a track on a tank the tank would have be tipped over. Furthermore, small damages which would normally be resolved by changing a track link have to be repaired by complete replacement of the track. Consequently, the use of a band track was found to be unfavorable with the design goals of the Lince. There have been developments in continuous band tracks produced out of rubber, but these are for armored fighting vehicles in the low weight class (ten tons).

Ultimately, the Lince program reverted back to steel tracks, but searched for a more lightweight design. One of the available solutions was a new track system that had the sprocket tooth interact with the track body and not with the external connectors, relieving the track bolt from much stress. Therefore, the end connector can be made much lighter since it doesn’t have to deal with the impact stresses the original track had to. Although the track body has an increased service life, the rubber pads don’t – reduction in rubber pad size has led to increased pad wear. Although this is not a major problem, there was an alternative track to choose from. MecániCas offered a lightweight track design with a weight of around 95kgs per meter of track composed of two lightweight steel bodies on two hollow steel pins with rubber bearings, and they’re connected by two end connectors and a steel center connector with an integrated center guide. Pads are replaced through a ‘Quick-fit’ system and are locked in by a latch, which increase the service life of the rubber pads. The classic rubber pads have been replaced by an elastomer which can withstand higher temperatures, and thus putting up more favorably with high-speed vehicle travel. These tracks achieve a service life of 5,000km on a forty-five ton vehicle and save nearly half the weight! MecániCas’ track, called the Tipo 640, weighs around 1,800kg for the set of tracks on each Lince.

As a comparison, take into consideration that the average track weight of a sixty-ton tank is 5,500kg – this is nearly 1% of the weight. The Lince’s tracks made up roughly .04% of the vehicle’s total weight, which is almost three times the improvement. Originally Sistemas Terrestres Segovia was looking into the possible use of ceramics and composites to make the tracks and roadwheels from. However, none of the available materials compared to steel. It was found that a composite roadwheel could better survive the explosion of a land mine given its flexibility, but the service life was found to be ridiculously low. However, if materials of this type are developed to replace steel that could constitute a further loss in weight by a large margin which is one step further to the development of a forty-ton, or less, main battle tank. The Lince E export project will exhibit a number of different tracks for export, meant for different weight classes of tanks, and the development of tracks for the export market may lead to development of innovative ideas for the Lince. Furthermore, the Lince E export project will probably attract foreign defense companies to cooperate with the project and sell a number of their products as possibilities for a ‘home-made’ Lince. This means that there may be cooperation between indigenous track companies, including MecániCas (a trucking company, for the most part), and foreign track companies.

For quick repairs the Lince offers a mounting on the upper glacis for up to four track links. This organization goes back to the development of the KJ-1930, which organized spare track links on the glacis to increase protection (given that at that time protection was based on steel). The KJ-1930 also included two spare roadwheels in an open-air bin on the chassis, but the Lince includes two spare roadwheels in an aluminum storage box on the side of the chassis. The maintenance tools for the new tracks are considerably lighter than those for previous track designs, and less are required – these are stored in an under armor storage box towards the rear of the chassis, with the rest of the maintenance tools used by the crew. If a track is damaged and there are no spares a crew is expected to begin the process of repair by themselves and have it ready for when the maintenance crews arrive. Castillian armor doctrine teaches to shorten time between field repairs as much as possible, which is evident with much of the design doctrine of the tank (lightweight power pack, for example). This maintenance doctrine and the use of high service life tracks go hand in hand.

Tactical mobility
Tactical mobility is defined by a tank’s ability to move cross-country, using either small agricultural roads, trails or other unpaved routes. It can be assumed that a tank’s proficiency in this area is especially relative to the terrain the tank is fighting on. The Kingdom of Castilla, for the entirety of its history, had an agricultural based economy – the slow industrialization of the country can be considered one of the principle causes for the economic poverty the kingdom has faced for hundreds of years. Therefore, the majority of the country’s terrain is composed of rolling hills and large-area savannas split up into small plots of land. Soil quality changes from square kilometer to square kilometer – one town can have soft, rich black soil and the next can have rocky and hard soil. These areas are crisscrossed with small agricultural dirt roads, which although well designed and built, are not paved and not maintained by the national government. The recent large scale construction of highways and toll roads throughout the country has led to the construction of bridging to unite divided agricultural roads. In the kingdom highways aren’t built by digging, they’re built at a higher elevation than the surrounding landscape (cities are exceptions, where highways are built completely underground). Consequently, agricultural bridging is normally made-up of bridges with extremely high slopes. Any Castillian indigenous tank has to be able to climb those slopes without problems – not only on the paved section of the bridge (all bridges are mass manufactured and built out of concrete, so they can be considered paved), but up the sides of the slope as well.

The decade (and more) of development for the Lince was spent with various test vehicles of varying weight to test soil strength and the effect of different ground pressures on the various soils that make up the kingdom’s terrain. Given the lack of dedicated tracked vehicles, and the lack of money (most of it had to be left aside for the Lince), tractors with add-on weights were used. Local farmers from the towns visited were paid to rent out their tractors to government scientific teams to test soil strength and find out what the theoretical vehicle cone index for the Lince on each type of soil tested. The ultimate aim was to allow the making of a tracked main battle tank capable of comfortably traversing all the terrain in the kingdom without leaving a major footprint in the area and with the maximum comfort possible. This included the relatively minor mountain chains in some areas of the country.

The tank’s ground pressure is jeopardized by the small track contact with the ground, due to the reduction of the length to offer far more maneuverability. This jeopardizes the tank’s ability to move over the softer soils of the kingdom’s terrain. Nevertheless, the majority of the kingdom’s terrain is navigable by wheeled tractor, and no wheeled tractor can match the ground pressure of a tracked vehicle. Therefore, the Lince has little problem traversing the different soils and terrain types of the kingdom. Given that the kingdom is not expecting any major war on foreign soil in the near future, even with the recent induction of the kingdom into NATO, the ability of the Lince to easily traverse soils such as soft and sandy deserts is not a priority. Nevertheless, Sistemas Terrestres Segovia offers a number of alternative tracks with extended widths which can replace the standard track design on the field. These are designed and manufactured incase the army ever finds itself in situation where it’s at a disadvantage with the lightweight standard tracks. This includes during rainy seasons, when agricultural roads can suddenly change to mud. Although this doesn’t happen in Castilla y Belmonte, the situation might be radically different on foreign soil. Nothing can be discarded, and the Lince has to have ready alternatives to make it a viable weapon in any scenario.

The tank, however, does have a relatively large sprocket to provide a large quantity of torque. The Lince’s design priorities changed when the kingdom entered in agreement with other tank producing countries for the design of a join-tank. Vault 10’s mountainous terrain required a tank capable of traversing high slopes and rocky passes. Although the capability of climbing steep slopes was shared with Castilla, due to the bridging policy previous described, Vault’s requirements were for long-term ability to climb slopes of an average of 20º - mountain passes are longer than a bridge’s slope, after all. Consequently, the Lince includes a heavyweight torque converter box and a large drive sprocket in order to give the tank the capability to climb mountainous terrain. Although Castilla left the project soon after joining it, it was found cheaper to incorporate technologies already developed for the joint tank program. Furthermore, the possibility of exporting the Lince to Vault 10 has never been discarded; given that the Lince can be modified to meet other of the partner nation’s specifications (these included two redundant engines and a smaller gun caliber). The original Lince has also been cleared for export to The People’s Freedom and Lyras should those nations decide to abandon the joint-tank program, or their own tank program, and just purchase the Lince which is the closest thing available to the original ideas of the joint-tank program.

Another important aspect of tactical mobility is the ability to cross rivers. Castilla has a large number of minor rivers crisscrossing the country, and most urban areas are built up along the banks of rivers. In fact, repopulation programs between the 12th and 16th centuries based their new towns and villages on minor rivers to guarantee a water supply and to promote agricultural fishing to reinforce the ever weakening national economy. The Lince includes a lightweight low-diameter snorkel. A large-diameter snorkel is available for export and will be offered with the Lince E – the larger snorkel is the diameter of the average human, allowing the crew to escape the tank if required. Problems with snorkeling capability are alluvial soil’s tendency to collapse and soft soils due to osmosis of water into the soil. Consequently, normally special reconnaissance is required before a tank formation can cross a river by snorkeling, which doesn’t go hand in hand with unrestricted tactical mobility. Fortunately, during the summer most of the nation’s rivers are either extremely shallow (enough for a human to walk through them) or dry and during the winter most rivers don’t tend to fill up remarkably. Furthermore, many provincial governments are currently undergoing programs to cover a river’s soil with concrete to avoid loosing water. However, these programs have experienced furious negative comments from fishermen which are important for the local village’s economy, given that the reinforcement of the river bed with concrete has the impact of killing much of the fish population. The problems with limiting a tank’s freedom through rivers is that the enemy can easily find the ideal crossing points of any given river and orient their defenses to that point – or mine it. Although in a defensive war this might not be a completely important problem, it can be if much ground has been lost and the defending army is carrying on a counteroffensive.

As a consequence, the Lince’s tactical mobility can only be accurately rated from nation to nation depending on that nation’s soil type. The Lince E will offer so many export kits that most resulting products will be completely different from the original Lince, meaning that this might not be a problem in a custom Lince E design. Nevertheless, given the limited amount of nations the original Lince has been cleared for exports for, its tactical mobility over these nations’ soil is an important problem. Some solutions will have to be devised on a case by case scenario.

Battlefield mobility
This type of mobility is defined by the speed and freedom of any given tank during contact. The principle component of battlefield mobility is exposure time, and in that area the Lince excels. Exposure time is defined by the time a tank requires to move from one cover to another, regardless of the fact of whether or not that tank has already fired a round. The longer the tank has been exposed during movement the longer the enemy has to get a ballistic calculation and engage. Exposure time is not all controlled by the tank; distance between cover and the type of terrain between cover will have a major impact on exposure time. Nevertheless, the tank also plays an equally large role – especially when the separating terrain is navigable. Exposure time is dependent on a number of non-fixed variables: mobiquity (the percentage of terrain which a tank can cover), agility and power. In all of those, except the first in some cases, the Lince is at the top of the line.

Agility is defined by a tank’s maneuverability. As has been mentioned before, agility has been a priority during the Lince program. The excellent electronic transmission is durable during sharp turns, even in succession, and the track design gives the tank inherent excellent agility. The ability to make sharp turns is not entirely dependant on the transmission, although a durable transmission can make an inherently non-agile tank make sharper turns than it could have without that specific transmission. Nevertheless, the ability for a tank to turn is decided by the relation between the length of the track’s contact with the ground and the width between the centerline of each track. In the Lince’s case, contact with the ground is roughly 3,900mm (3.9m) and the respective width is 3,000mm (3m), giving a ratio of 1.3:1. Generally speaking, ratios above 1.5:1 make turning more difficult, to the point where most transmissions will break when a tank turns at a certain angle (during movement, of course). Most tanks have a ratio (the ratio is called the L/C ratio) of around over 1.4:1, which makes the Lince a very agile tank. The short track length on the ground is what makes lightweight technology paramount on the Lince, given that minor increases in weight can have detrimental effects on the tank’s average ground pressure. Nevertheless, during contact the Lince has a high probability of being much more agile than its opponent. Some turretless tank designs have accomplished L/C ratios of 1.1:1, thanks to low weight – a turretless version of the Lince might be designed with this design goal.

In terms of power, the low engine volume and high horsepower output makes of the Lince’s gas turbine is very important. With a horsepower to ton ratio of over 30:1, the Lince is superior to most tanks currently serving in foreign armies and even in the Castillian army. This gives the Lince beforehand unseen acceleration capabilities in short times – 0kph to 60kph in under ten seconds isn’t rare in the Lince’s automotive performance. The result is a serious deduction in the time the Lince will spend in the open during tactical movement from one location to another. This aspect is important in both offensive and defensive battles. On the offensive it will give the enemy less time to lock-on and accurately fire, while it will make the Lince’s job to get as close as necessary to get off a good shot much easier. On the defensive it will allow the Lince to move from one predefined shooting location to another to avoid enemy artillery reappraisals and blind shooting by an enemy who knows the Lince will remain in the same location (so one round has to hit). Coupled with the Lince’s agility, on a one-on-one basis the Lince is a very difficult opponent and probably superior.

Thanks to the Lince’s suspension, the Lince can also fire when moving at fast velocities and the crew ride tolerance is much better than it otherwise would be. This makes fast accelerations possible given that cross-country mobility is limited both by engine performance and ride tolerance. Different nations have different tendencies, which should be discussed. The Questerian MBT-8/E and the Doomani MAD.II both had similar mobility goals in mind – both tanks aimed at high road speeds and high road range over agility and mobiquity. Nevertheless, both tanks had relatively high agility since they had an average L/C ratio of 1.41:1. The JBT.14 only stressed mobiquity on certain terrains (mountainous) and leant towards agility. The JBT.24 was far more centered, leaning towards road speed but largely balanced between road speed and agility, with no so much importance placed on mobiquity. In theory, the Lince is much like the JBT.24 in this aspect. The Lince, however, tries to use technology to enhance both, without ignoring the other. Mobiquity is hard to remedy, but the soil type of the kingdom is largely forgiving.

Mobiquity will have to be improved in a case by case method by exchanging track type. This will limit agility, but for a given terrain agility might be less important than mobiquity (such as muddy conditions). Agility will be improved over time with more advancements in gas turbine technology allowing more power to be produced per volume (engine size increase is not acceptable), better electric transmissions and improvements in the active hydropneumatic suspension system. If further reductions in weight are allowed at some point, mobiquity will be improved to a certain degree by decreasing ground pressure. Lightweight technologies for an acceptable price will always be something the Castillian Ejército de Tierra will keep its eyes peeled for. These includes new high durability composites, and especially in the plastics sector. Any future modification of the Lince might see a larger use of strong plastics to replace steel in many aspects of the design, including some parts of the tracks, the transmission box and the suspension. Lightweight plastics capable of taking the stress of acute vibrations during tank movement already exist and the only thing left is a further understanding of how they work in order to integrate them into a lightweight tank design. It’s envisioned that multiple tons of weight will be saved by exchanging steel with high-strength polymers. The kingdom’s agricultural mechanization industry has already experimented with several new products made largely out of plastic (including in the transmission and fuel tanks).

Strategic mobility
Strategic mobility is synonymous with operational mobility. Both are defined by the ability of a tank to cover long distances by road quickly and reliably. The Lince achieves a high road-speed through the use of a modern active hydropneumatic suspension system, a high vertical deflection range for its roadwheels and by suspending the crew from the vehicle’s floor. It’s lightweight and high engine power gives it the ability to make possible fast velocities over many types of terrain. Furthermore, its tracks are capable of sustaining movement for multiple thousands of kilometers. By what has been presented, the Lince has excellent strategic mobility. What is this good for? The purpose of operational mobility depends completely on a nation’s doctrine. A large quantity of armies believe that their tanks should be able to cover large distances without the aid of trucks or trains, and this belief is large based on the requirements which a future war will hold. The development of deep operation, lightning war or whatever else one wants to call ‘high mobility warfare’ means that in the past fifty years (or more) mobile battles have been fought in areas of an average of 10,000 km2 (based on an operational depth of 100km and a 100km front). During the Castillian Civil War penetrations into the enemy’s rear could require penetrations of over 200km! In nations where available operating space is much larger than that of Castilla it’s possible that the operating depth could be many times 200km. For example, the tank battle of Ishme-Dagan was fought in an area between 15,000-20,000 km2 in size. Some believe that a tank successful in these types of operations should be designed to successfully traverse long distances during peacetime maneuvers and during mobilizations to prepare for war.

Most large nations can’t afford this due to the expanse between one city and another and the required size of their armed forces to defend this territory. At its maximum size, for example, the Macabee army could count on some twenty-six million soldiers (representing less than half of a percent of the empire’s population) to protect the 700-900km front against the Havenic invaders. Starting in the first month of the second year of war, the Macabee Empire built three hundred thousand Nakíl 1A2 main battle tanks! Logistically, these would have been impossible to maintain had they been expected to cover large distances out of battle. During the war the Macabee nation built one of the most impressive locomotive and automotive armored fighting vehicle transport architecture ever devised in the history of modern warfare. The Ejermacht had to juggle armored forces between the Weigari Front, Havenic Front and the Sarcanzan Front. An early peace treaty with Stevid saved the Macabee Empire from what would have been a costly amphibious operation against the Stevidian island with over twenty thousand tanks – it would have been one of the largest amphibious operations in history; the Macabee Empire planned to put no less than two million soldiers on shore within the first three weeks, fifty thousand tanks, two hundred thousand other armored fighting vehicles and millions of tons of logistic materials. For these types of operations, alternative tank transports become imperative given that relying on their own tracks massed amounts of tanks would be too costly to allow.

For small, defense-minded nations like Castilla the need for a tank to cover huge tracks of land in small amounts of time is less important than a tank’s abilities to defeat other tanks in short range combat. In a defensive war, assuming that the ground army would have to abandon large portions of the kingdom’s territory to trade space for time, the maximum depth of operations is expected to be around 250km. For amphibious operations (most peacekeeping operations with NATO and any invasions would have to be amphibious) the kingdom accounts for a number of brand-new strategic projection ships, and once on the ground tanks will move on trucks or on train unless an enemy force impedes it. For the sake of deep operation, the Lince’s tracks, engine and transmission can survive long hauls without maintenance. Nevertheless, the army’s doctrine does not require a Lince to travel tens of thousands of kilometers to get to a battle – it relies on alternate means of mass transportation. By doctrine, each tank will have means of transport at any given time. The standard transport truck can carry two Lince tanks, meaning that the three armor brigades will require about four hundred and fifty transport trucks. The nation’s rail system can also comfortably transport the three armor brigades within a short time to any part of the nation. On the other hand, one shouldn’t assume it’s an operational lightweight – the priorities placed on the ability to move cross-country at high velocities, reliably, and the track’s service life alludes to the fact that the Lince can have a fine appreciation of operational mobility if need be.

Logistics has a large impact on operational mobility. Generally speaking, the heavier the tank the more expensive it will be to maintain it. The Lince is relatively easy and cheap to maintain, and not only because of its weight class. The reduction in parts in the power pack, power train and mechanics makes maintenance in these areas much, much easier and cheaper. Keeping a tank up to standards during large-scale movements over long-distances is not as much of a hassle as it was with the JBT.14 or the JBT.24, and maneuvers between armor brigades will put the Lince’s endurance to the test. The power pack can be changed on the field in less than thirty minutes, while the armor’s modularity makes replacing damaged armor much, much faster. It also means that a tank which had been impacted, but not destroyed, can go back into battle in a matter of hours because it will just require a new armor module. The strategic implications are amazing to comprehend – an army outfitted with the Lince will ultimately have more tanks on the field due to the ease of repair. It’s no longer viable to score a mobility kill, or to damage the armor to the point where it would be unwise for the tank crew to ride into battle without a new tank, given that these damages can be fixed in under an hour. A greater percentage of ‘lost tanks’ will be brought back on to the field in record times. It’s a general’s dream to not have to contemplate about ‘wounded in action’ – the Lince comes several steps closer to making this true for tanks.

Conclusions
Fightability
Much of the volume and weight reduction in the turret is thanks to the movement of the crew to the chassis, and the use of a three-man crew. A two-man crew was experimented with in a number of pilot chassis however there are a number of disadvantages which dissuaded the Lince designers to adopt a reduced crew. It’s generally accepted that a tank commander and a gunner can be merged into one crew member, since it has been done with other armored fighting vehicles, but it’s done at a cost of gunnery efficiency. On an infantry combat vehicle the earned deficiency might not be important, or noticeable, but the situation is different on a main battle tank where the vehicle is a dedicated hunter-killer and thus efficiency is increased when there is a dedicated hunter (the tank commander) and a dedicated kill (the gunner). Perhaps it’s a product of dogma and a lack of faith in new revolutionary concepts, but the adoption of an unmanned turret suggests otherwise. Furthermore, a three-man crew allows longer sleep shifts since there is one more man to pull guard duty. The Lince keeps a three-man crew, although it’s possible that some units will experiment with two-man crew tanks (the third man will sleep while the other two operate, and therefore two men are always available to operate the tank while a third is resting). Nevertheless, it should be remembered that a three-man crew configured in the hull will require less volume than a three-man crew configured in the turret.

Regardless, there are disadvantages to using an unmanned turret. First, the tank commander is buried in the hull and therefore the vehicle loses the commander’s direct vision of the battlefield. It remains true, within the bounds of modern technology, that the human eyeball and brain can’t be replaced by electronics. However, the Lince’s designers have attempted to do the best possible to supplement them. The Lince uses two independent periscopes – one for the gunner and one for the tank commander – linked to their helmets by fiber optics. These periscopes base their ability to raise themselves on an electric elevator which extends down into the turret ring – the diameter and length of the sights’ roots – and the periscopes are, in simple terms, charged coupled devices matted to a camera system. The periscope can move with the crew member’s head, meaning it resembles his own eye movement – a two-eyed plastic transmitter covers the crew member’s eyes. It perhaps can’t match a human’s resolution and perception, and peripheral vision, but it comes close. Future advances in vision devices for hull buried crews might further justify burying the crew into the hull. However, this limits the commander’s ability to work with the gunner to make gunnery faster and efficient – the tank commander loses the ability to lay the gun after the gunner has killed the target he’s tracking. Another disadvantage an unmanned turret was said to have was increased side profile. This isn’t true for the Lince, as has already been established. For externally mounted guns this might be true, given that there is no turret basket for the gun to depress into – however, the existence of a turret and a turret basket means that this doesn’t necessarily apply to the Lince. Another minor disadvantage is the inability to easily solve jamming problems with the co-axial gun and to fix much of the electronic equipment still inside of the turret when the tank is moving. These issues can only be handled with the tank stopped and a crew member working from the outside. This was one of the reasons why the 20mm autocannon uses combustible links – to avoid having the weapon jam. Residue buildup is probably worse, but long-term jams are seen as a lesser evil as compared to short-term jams. A future co-axial weapon might use caseless ammunition to avoid extraction jams, if these become a problem – although the ejection port is designed larger than normal to decrease the probability of a spent casing jamming the ejection port.

Nevertheless, burying the crew into the hull has a number of advantages. Armor protection along the glacis can be increased due to the loss of armored volume in the turret, and the crew is much better protected by armor and by the engine. Furthermore, putting all three crew members into a unified volume decreases overall volume requirements since the crew members now effectively share working space. Should penetration occur there is a much greater chance of all three crew members dying, however this is seen as a necessary evil given that survivability has increased due to the much smaller chance of being hit. Furthermore, in the hull down position a penetrator is much more likely to engage the turret and not the chassis. Given the shared volume a crew can also operate much more comfortably, given that it seems as if there is a greater volume to work in – even when it’s actually smaller. It also makes the organization of electronics and screens much easier and simpler. These reasons have justified the increase cost of using two dependent periscopes to recreate top vision and the loss of dual tracking between the tank commander and gunner. In the end, it’s much up to the nation’s doctrine and personal choice. A buried crew will likely remain a controversial issue for many years to come, although more and more armored fighting vehicles are throwing in the towel and using the concept. It’s definitely true that new technologies are making it more possible.

The crew disposes of a coffee maker (tea is not Castilla’s style), and the fighting compartment is air conditioned. Fortunately, given the lack of a gun in the fighting compartment, expensive and bulky air filtration systems can be avoided and instead the Lince uses a single air filtration system for nuclear, biological and chemical warfare – this filtration system works cooperatively with the air conditioning system. For personal defense the fighting compartment includes a rack for three personal defense weapons – the Iral model R, which is a shortened version of the assault rifle for vehicle crew members. There’s a wedge which is between the engine and the transmission, close to the vehicle’s floor, which holds a fridge and is accessible by the tank commander. The refrigerator is large enough to hold beverages and is also used to hold food rations, although these food rations can be stored in ambient temperatures. Although it might seem silly, these types of condiments aid in raising crew morale and their willingness to fight. Other things which might seem silly to many, but are entirely effective, are the use of large and neat labels, a well designed and aesthetically appealing control board, flashy technology (such as the eye pieces to the new tanker’s helmet) or the ability for a crew member to interact with another (which in this particular design, contact is difficult not to achieve). The crew suspended seats are built for comfort, and help keep a crew member’s head in place during an explosion to avoid damage to the spine or nerves.

Although smoking isn’t suggested and is actually condoned, a crew member can actually smoke in side of the fighting compartment. The air filtration system and the air conditioning system do good jobs in cleaning the air and help avoid the discomfort of two crew members due to the necessities of one. Although all floor hatches have been eliminated, the crew still has the driver’s electrically opened hatch under the turret – a man can escape when the turret is facing the same direction as the chassis – and there’s a rear door/hatch in the tank. Access isn’t easy, but it’s possible underneath the ammunition carousel. The knowledge that one can escape is extremely important for a crew, otherwise a lack of hope might exist. These small feelings may seem non-existent or ridiculous, but designing a tank to take them into consideration can work wonders to improve morale and crew efficiency.

The Lince does its best to make the fighting compartment livable, including appealing colors and enhancing aesthetic value. It’s common policy for a unit to allow a crew to customize their fighting compartments – some crews, for example, have installed compact disc players and a sound system in their JBT.14s. Crews which have used the Lince say that from all the tanks they have served with (MAD.II, MBT-8/E, JBT.14 or JBT.24) the Lince is the most comfortable. It’s the Lince’s policy that fightability is just as important as lethality, protection or mobility.

Advantages for the national industry
Industrially, the Lince has opened a series of new opportunities for the kingdom’s economy. The production of heavy vehicles for the Castillian Army hasn’t been undertaken since the early 60s, and the recent design of the BSI series and the Lince have not only justified, but have forced, expansion of industrial complexes. It’s envisioned that foreign sales of the tank will bring in enough revenue so that Castillian defense companies can even start buying out foreign competitors – it would be an economic empire based on merges and purchases much like what Macabee Kriegzimmer has done (albeit on a smaller scale). In regards to production, the Lince E is bound to bring in more revenue than the original Lince, given that export of the Lince described here is severely restrained. Nevertheless, the Lince will probably become the most produced tank in the history of the kingdom. However, the Lince has not only served to make Sistemas Terrestres Segovia a world renowned manufacturer and defense organization. The Lince Program has also served to bring other companies out of the backwaters, as subcontractors. For example, Indra might have the possibilities of working on electronic systems for foreign vehicles.

The benefited companies include not only Indra, but MecániCas (an already large defense company), Balzán and Turboas. Turboas has begun the development of a line of gas turbine engines which it will attempt to export for a number of foreign tank modernization programs, and Turboas remains a part of the Lince E export program. Balzán is moving into the mechanical transmission department and will provide a model for the Lince E, while it will work cooperatively with foreign contractors for other tank programs. Most of the vehicles subcontracted for the Lince will remain in the project far after the Lince begins production. The Lince chassis will be used for a large quantity of other vehicles, including a number of artillery systems, an infantry support vehicle, a heavy armored personnel carrier, an assault gun and many others. Chassis production cost is destined to decrease disproportionably than the rest of the tank given that the chassis will be produced in ridiculous quantities for export (as surrogates). The companies also continue research on Lince improvements, and it can be assumed that work is already progressing on the next modification of the Lince (it would be named Lince 1A1).

The amount of money to be cycled through the nation’s market is unprecedented – both from the government, and from foreign sources. Furthermore, many of the technologies developed for the Lince will be spiraled into civilian products. New technologies will be made available for the civilian population, spurring investment and the growth of the national economy. New technologies will also spur foreign populations to invest into Castillian companies and manufacturers, and purchase their products. The new dimension for the nation’s industry is unprecedented. Although the Lince forms only a part of this cataclysm, it’s a fairly large part. Other armament systems have also played a rather large role. MecániCas has recently scored a very large contract with the nation of Wagdog for the construction of their new Tiznao-60, and Sistemas Terrestres Segovia has signed a contract with Tyrandis over the BSI-30 and will most likely sign another contract with Doomingsland. There are also potential contracts which will be made between Sisnaval and client nations over the Type A diesel-electric submarine. Although the Castillian defense economy is not comparable to the defense empires of Kriegzimmer or the HTC, these small steps forward are promising.

Politically, these new contracts have achieved the future projection of Castillian power abroad. Recently, Northford has allowed the construction of a major Castillian naval base in the Eastern coastal waters – a special naval detachment has already been created, with two aircraft carriers, and a new independent mechanized amphibious brigade (1º Regulares) has joined the order of battle of the army (although not recognized as an official part of the future twelve brigade strong army). If similar treaties are signed it will spur a radical increase in armed forces manpower, which will increase demand for production of war material.

In terms of Castilla’s industrial relationships with other countries, Program Lince has greatly aided in establishing research and development agreements with foreign defense companies. In the future, Castillian industries will work in close cooperation with foreign providers in order to create much improved products. Ultimately, it’s hoped that Castillian industry will become project leaders and will drive world wide production which will benefit the kingdom. In other words, Castilla is looking for an economic empire of its own. Although it has to compete with the giants of Juumanistra, Mekugi, Questers, Doomingsland and Automagfreek, in the area of defense it might be able to compete through the introduction of superior products. Growth in the defense sector will lead to growth in the civilian sector, and soon enough Castillian made coffee makers and tea brewers will be used in Northfordian or Spizanian households. Ideally, Castilla y Belmonte will go from being the smallest nation in the region to one of the largest (economically), and will go from being a follower to being a leader.

Spurred largely King Alfonso VI’s new economic policies, the Lince is one of the new products which spearheads the modern industrial revolution within Castilla. The kingdom is no longer a backwater dictatorship, and it has high hopes of being an economic leader throughout the world. Innovation, determination and the lack of remorse are the characteristics which currently drive the kingdom’s economic expansion. The economic growth spurs political growth in the areas of importance and leadership, while the military will have to respond to protect this newfound wealth.

Lince production and deployment
The current twelve brigade army envisions three armor brigades – Ebro, Jarama and Brunete. This calls for a total of nine hundred tanks available at any one time, which means that a reserve of around two hundred will be kept to replace tanks being maintained. That said, total production for the twelve brigade army envisions one thousand one hundred Lince tanks in the first batch. However, there are pressures which are trying to persuade a further expansion of the army. Nevertheless, apart from the main battle tank all the brigades will require large amounts of infantry vehicles of all types, meaning the chassis might be produced into the tens of thousands of the kingdom’s needs alone. Production for foreign orders will many times the amount produced for the nation – the Lince production plants which dot the country and will soon dot foreign countries are not under threat at any point in the near future of running out of work. Continuation of vehicles currently developed will definitely continue for at least a decade, while modifications will keep production plants running for multiple decades. The Lince chassis will most likely remain in service for close to a hundred years.

However, the pressures which call for army expansion includes the nation’s recent induction into the NATO alliance, which means that the kingdom will have to send troops abroad to aid allies in peacekeeping operations and in wars of aggression. Furthermore, if the kingdom signs an economic treaty with any given amount of nations in the near future (1º Villa de León Conference) its armed forces will be required to be ready to keep trade routes open through military conflict. Furthermore, ships will have to be actively patrolling to defeat piracy. This calls for the expensive expansion of the navy, and will most likely require expansion of the army past the envisioned twelve brigades. Some generals have suggested reforming the army into divisions, based on brigades instead of battalions, and increasing the army to its original size – twenty-one divisions strong. This would increase manpower to over 250,000 men, twice as large as it’s currently envisioned to be. Such an army would require perhaps a total of two thousand five hundred Lince tanks in active service. Furthermore, Lince production could increase if the army requires the reserve forces to replace its MAD.IIs with the Lince main battle tank. If that happens, Lince production will increase to over ten thousand units. Although this pales in comparison to armies with hundreds of thousands of tanks in their ranks, the Castillian army prefers a touch of economic realism – the country doesn’t want to afford the ability to maintain that many tanks, and doesn’t need to.

In regards to export potential, Doomingsland is rumored to have acquired a contract. The amount of tanks which will be produced for the Doomani army is currently undefined, and there is no information on Doomani requirements for surrogate vehicles. Nonetheless, production of the Lince itself will most likely run into the tens of thousands. Sistemas Terrestres Segovia is also hoping to open contracts with a number of NATO nations – many of these nations use the Nakíl. Some nations in NATO have been ruled out given their insistence to use their own tanks; however Sistemas Terrestres Segovia is looking at replacing Nakíl fleets in NATO. Allanea for example, has purchased over a million Nakíl main battle tanks in both 1A1 configuration and 1A2 configuration – Sistemas Terrestres Segovia is hoping to replace the Nakíl fleet in Allanea. This nation is known for its extravagant defense expenditures, and may be willing to spend the money for the transformation. Other nations which Sistemas Terrestres Segovia is hoping to persuade include Automagfreek, Tyrandis and Scandavian States. Outside of NATO, Sistemas Terrestres Segovia is hoping to cater to the defense requirements of Franberry for a replacement for their antiquated armor vehicle fleet.

The export version of the Lince, no doubt, will have much more economic success. The Lince E takes advantage of the Lince’s modularity and will present a number of options for the foreign market. The export project includes the ability for a customer to custom pick its weapon of choice, whether it be large caliber or small caliber. Different turrets will be offered for production, and the client will be able to tailor the vehicle to its needs and national requirements. Sixty ton Lince Es will most likely not be rare. This type of ‘tank market’ is unprecedented and promises large sales. Sistemas Terrestres Segovia has hopes of selling more Lince tanks than Kriegzimmer has sold Nakíl main battle tanks. This means that there will have to be over eight million exports, but the Lince has not given up hope.

The Lince has truly revolutionized several aspects of the kingdom’s industry and military, and will probably have severe influences on foreign tank design. Through new technologies the Lince is a new tank concept built on modularity, lethality, unprecedented mobility and high levels of protection. It achieves the capabilities of a sixty-five ton main battle tank on a forty-five ton platform – twenty tons less. The Lince is truly the ‘future main battle tank’. Its introduction into the Castillian armed forces represents a technological leap from a JBT.14 to a Kyton main battle tank, or from a MAD.II to a MAD.V. Through the Lince the Castillian armed forces will find themselves technologically on par with their allies, and the Lince’s industry will spur developments into other weapon systems. Castilla has entered the modern age riding on a lynx.

Specifications
Manufacturer: Sistemas Terrestres Segovia
Country of Origin: The Kingdom of Castilla y Belmonte
Crew: 3

Dimensions –
Length (Hull): 6.8m
Length (with Gun): 7.9m
Length (Contact with Ground): 3.9m
Width (Hull): 3.2m
Width (Tracks): 3m
L/C ratio: 1.3:1
Height (to turret roof): 2.26m
Vertical Deflection Range: 510mm
Weight: 45,670kg

Main Armament –
Gun: CB.54 103mm L/61
Length: 6.695m
Extended Recoil Length: 400mm
Muzzle Break: Single-chamber muzzle break (70% efficiency)
Recoil Force: 35 tons
Muzzle Energy: 22MJ
Angle of Fire: -7º - 35º
Traverse: 360º
Range (at 0º): 6,000m
Rate of Fire: 3 ready-rounds within 4-6 seconds; steady rate of 15rpm
Ammunition: 3 ready-rounds in turret; 55 rounds in the ammunition carousel

N.174 –
Type: Armor Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot
Composition: Sheathed Depleted uranium core
Sheath: Amorphous Metal
Length (penetrator): 1m
Diameter (penetrator): 50mm
Length (extended): 1.75m
Penetration (vs. RHA): 1.2m at 2km

N.76 –
Type: High Explosive Anti-Tank
Liner Material: Gold
Jet Tip Velocity: 13km/s
Penetration: 1,442mm

Co-axial Armament –
Gun: Calzado y Bayo G379 20mm CTA autocannon
Grooves: 15
Angle of Fire: -20º to 60º
Rate of Fire: 215rpm
Range: 1.4km
Ammunition: 150 rounds

Other Armament: IRAL G4B 13.3mm heavy machine gun
Grenades: 16
Fire Control System: Mercenario
Engine: A serie 600 gas turbine
Volume: .73m3
Horsepower: 1,400
Power to Weight Ratio: 30/1+ hp/t
Transmission: TA Balzán 800T-96A electric transmission
Power to Sprocket: 1,050hp
Efficiency: 75%
Suspension: Active hydropneumatic
Tracks: MecániCas Type 640
NBC: One filter. Air conditioning system. Sealed.
Fire Protection: Two fire extinguishers.
Maximum Velocity (on-road): 100km/h+
Maximum Velocity (off-road): 90km/h
Range: 550km
Slope: 65º
Vertical Obstacle: 1.4m
Wading Capability: 1.5m
Amphibious capability with preparation: 4.5m
Preparation time: 45 minutes
Cost: $15 million

Production
Castilla y Belmonte - 900
Doomingsland - 20,000
Izistan - ?
Malatose - 50,000
The People's Freedom - 10,000

Units Sold

OOC: I'm actually interested in the CB-54, is there a possibility of licensing production rights (perhaps with a re-chamber to 105mm or 100mm - I like even numbers). Also, if I'm reading correctly, the shroud looks like the ARES?