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LoneSentry — Broadsword MBT: Upgrade
Published: 2012-03-01 02:11:57 +0000 UTC; Views: 7979; Favourites: 73; Downloads: 0
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Description
BGM:[link]
or, perhaps you might like this one better:
[link]
Whew. Finally done with this. Lots of new technical things being tried here, mainly the extra stuff around the tank itself. The interface is inspired by this flash portfolio that Bionic Systems did waaayyy back in like 2002. Anyways, thought that this old thing needed re-doing:
[link]
2008...man that was long ago. So drew up new lines from scratch, massively fixed it in good ole' PS, and I even shaded it. Also, trying to do multi-paned camo patterns to make it look less mediocre.
I still feel that this was rushed, however. Eh, done is done.
WARNING TL;DR BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOLLOWS. SCROLL TO BOTTOM IF YOU CAN'T READ THE SMALL PRINT
When the Tharsius Standoff began in 2670, the Resistance Armed Forces' main battle tank was the T-51 medium, a wholesale copy of the Confederate SMF-50 used in First War of Resistance. The T-51 itself was designed in 2651 with some minor communications upgrades. It emphasized quantity rather than quality, and was good enough for its day, but its rifled 100 mm L/43 main gun could not penetrate the thick armor of modern Confederate tanks like the SMF-54 and it was incapable of upgunning due to a cramped turret. Moreover, the original T-51 had only normal RHA to protect it, which left it vulnerable to even basic HVAP shells and it was prone to ammunition cook-off when hit or on fire. Because it lacked blow-out panels, the tendency was for the three-man turret to be launched high into the air when such a detonation occurred, more likely than not killing everyone inside. Thus, despite improvements with ICVAS Phase I-A RHA added in 2672 and II-A composite armor added in 2673, it fared poorly in every major armored engagement. A new battle tank was sorely needed, this time an indigenous design.
The MV-90H MBT was the winner out of thirty other designs in a long development cycle. It first rolled off the production line in 2675 and began reach respectable numbers in 2676. It did not prove to be a war winner for the thick forests and rolling hills of Silas proved to be poor tank country, but the war would have been lost without it. Today, it serves as the backbone of the Commonwealth Armor Division as it did for the Resistance. It can go places where larger vehicles cannot, but possesses greater durability than lighter vehicles. The underlying chassis has not been modified since the end of the Tharsius Standoff, instead receiving improvements in constituent materials. The weapons and armor systems have undergone modularization and are upgraded to keep up with advancing technology.
Initial manufacture began with the MK I, which had a crew of 4 and sported a VM-MPVG-110 L/44 105 mm rifled tank gun. This gun proved far more accurate and potent than the 100 mm L/43, but the rifling meant that it could not fire APFSDS shells or ATGMs without the use of special bearings. Protection consisted of the newly developed ICVAS Phase I-B FHRHA and II-B Composite, improving vehicle survivability immeasurably. The close quarter weapons were rudimentary, with a single GP-MH130 .50 caliber machine gun for the loader and a coaxial GP-M93V .30 caliber machine gun for the gunner. Vision equipment also left much to be desired, as the commander could only see what he saw with his eyes out of his 360-degree viewport (which proved to be problematic, as the viewport was a structural weakness in the turret). It was powered by dual CCF-74 HETs and could reach a speed of 100 km/h.
With the MK II, armor thickness was increased and a new main gun was introduced. The VM-MPVG-259 L/60 150 mm smoothbore gun could fire a variety of different types of ammunition from its six shot revolver-style autoloader, but ammunition for it was broken down into standardized charge packs and the actual projectile while stored in the magazine. Despite the decreased accuracy, kill counts rose significantly. Blowout panels were added in the bottom rear of the tank, designed to give way first in case of ammunition cook-off and improve crew survival.
The MKIII saw the inclusion of a new powerplant, a single CCF-75 HET, which increased the top speed to 120 km/h. The commander's viewport was supplemented with a fixed IR and wide angle camera on the front of the turret.
Production of the most recent model, the MK IIIA, began in 2695. Numerous improvements were made to the tank's survivability in close quarters after post-combat reports from the Tharsius Standoff showed that most MKII and IIIs were destroyed in heavily forested or urban areas by infantry tank hunting teams and not in tank-to-tank combat. Additional armor was added to the sides and rear. The gunner's machine gun received a gun shield and a remotely controlled minigun was added for the commander's use. A rotatable camera was also added to the tank's visual equipment. Active defenses against anti-tank missiles were added in the form of the MVAD-67 and MVAD-2, each designed to destroy missiles before they even reach the armor. The MVAD-67 can defeat missiles with chaff in a 120 degree arc in front of the vehicle or with two high energy lasers on either side of the vehicle outside of the deep dead zone.
Previously, the main gun had to be between -5 and 30 degrees in order for the autoloader to work and the manual override was somewhat cumbersome. With the MKIIIA, the autoloader has been given greater freedom of movement. This has the added benefit of making manual loading easier. The FCS was improved tremendously with a brand new sensor package that made dynamic gun stabilization possible, eliminating the disadvantages of having a smoothbore gun. The main gun itself was upgraded to the D1 variant of the VM-MPVG-259 L/60, with a toggle-able MAGCOIL system similar to those perfected on infantry small arms. Another lesson learned from the Standoff was that often times tank crews had to engage an multiple armored targets at once, resulting in a battle of maneuver that the enemy would most likely win out of strength in numbers. To remedy this, the VM-MPSGM88 ATGM MMLS pods were added on either side of the turret. Since the missiles are fire and forget, the gunner can engage up to seven targets at once. The added weight required the additional horsepower and having a single engine had proven to be a liability in the MKIII, so the MKIIIA reverted back to dual engines in the form of two CCF-76 HETs.
Passive crew protection still consists of the ICVAS Phase I-B Face Hardened Rolled Homogenous Armor for structural strength, but the primary amor has been upgraded to the ICVAS Phase II-C Composite due to the proliferation of kinetic penetrators on the battlefield. The engine compartment is located in the front, itself being a formidable obstacle to any pojectile that might make it through the armor. MA-49 NERA tiles may be applied anywhere on the hull for additional measures against kinetic penetrators. The Broadsword also features complete NBC protection, including a boron fabric and wire mesh inner lining to ward off the effects of neutron bombs and EMP. In the case that the tank needs to be buttoned up, that is achieve complete NBC isolation, the autoloader's fume extractor allows for efficient smoke removal and the extensive air filtration system can supply clean air indefinitely. This means that the tank will still be able to fight, even under NBC conditions.
Concealment is provided by standard camouflage patterns, and the MVAD-2 which can fire twelve smoke grenades on the left and right side of the tank for quick concealment. The CCF-76 HET can also inject some of its spare coolant directly onto the ceramic radiators to create a cloud of fog in case of an emergency. IR signatures are reduced through the use of ceramic heatsinks all around the tank, redirecting all heat produced to the bottom and rear of the vehicle where it is less likely to be seen by thermal imaging or tracked by heat-seaking projectiles.
Compared to its Confederate counterpart, the SMF-54, the Broadsword is bigger, heavier, and somewhat slower. However, its large road wheels and wide tracks allow it to disperse its weight and navigate the muddy or non-existent roads in the Commonwealth's many, many undeveloped areas. Track pressure per square inch is normally no more than the weight of a fully kitted infantryman, allowing the Broadsword to cross short bridges that would normally not take its weight. Ride comfort has been reported as good thanks to a spacious hull and turret and excellent suspension. The torsion bar suspension is extremely durable and the tracks are self-adjusting, giving the chassis a long service life. The climate control system means that battlesuits are not required inside of a Broadsword. Up to 3 infantry may ride on the turret during non-combat transit, one on each missile pod, and one in the back on top of the mortar hatch, although not many infantry are fond of sitting on live ammunition.
This main battle tank is completely amphibious, but limited on-board emergency oxygen supplies limit how long it can stay completely submerged. Modular armor sections on top of a forged one-piece turret make manufacturing somewhat more complex but the tank itself is mechanically simple, very low maintenance, easy to repair. It is balanced in firepower, mobility, and protection, but it is outclassed in each individual area by other tanks. It also has some other disadvantages. Only the minigun is on a powered mount, controlled by the commander remotely. In order to use the heavy machine gun, the gunner must open the hatch, rendering him/her vulnerable except for a gun shield, compromising NBC protection, and transferring the job of firing the main gun to the commander. The breech loading mortar also has a restricted elevation, and due to the vehicle's turret configuration, it can only fire in high arcs, giving would be targets advance warning. The top and bottom armor is thinner, meaning that the tank is vulnerable to airstrikes and anti-tank mines. Furthermore, the MVAD-67’s laser defenses have duty cycles, which means that it cannot defeat high volumes of missile fire or advanced missiles with decoy warheads. The chaff launcher in the front does not have a duty cycle, but it can only fire a limited number of volleys and must be reloaded from the outside. The rear of the vehicle is comparatively vulnerable since neither of the active defenses can reach it."
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Indvidual Combat Vehicle Armor System
ICVAS originated during the proxy conflict of 2670, when Resistance forces first began to indeginiously develop armored vehicles. Prior to this, Resistance armored corps had used hijacked or duplicated Confederate vehicles. While the first Resistance manufactured tank rolled off the assembly line in 2656, it was still using Confederate-derived armor. Initial armor faliure rates proved exceedingly high, and thus Resistance brass demanded improved vehicle armor and construction. R & D began in 2671 under the name ICVAS
Phase I objectives were simple:
Develop superior chassis materials for basic vehicular structure
Develop basic anti-shell armor
ICVAS Phase I completed field testing of the much lauded Prototype 23 in late March of 2672 and approved it for mass production.
ICVAS I-A RHA (Rolled Homogenous Armor) is comprised of high-grade titanium alloyed with mithrillite in a long-grain pattern for 100% uniformity. It provides the underlying chassis strength of all modern Commonwealth tanks. This type of armor is not very effective against modern Confederate anti-tank armament, especially kinetic energy penetrators, but provides near impervious protection against small arms fire, sharpnel, and physical stress.
In early May of 2673, Phase I finished developing the I-B RHA. I-B is identical to I-A RHA in all aspects save for the added layer of FH (Face-Hardened) plate for additional protection against high-caliber rifle rounds and low-velocity RPGs.
Phase I armor proved to be poor against shaped charge projectiles, but was more than sufficent for overall strength.
Phase II objectives extented into:
Develop advanced anti-shell and anti-missile armor.
Initial goals were not realized December of 2673 with the completion of II-B Composite. A layer of II-B consists of 25mm wide (measured from the vertices) mithrillite-carbide ceramic tiles in a hexagonal titanium matrix backed by a tungsten plate with an energy absorbing layer of nanographite in between to minimize energy reflection and runaway fracturing. The matrix is always manufactured hot in order to keep the tiles under constant stress and maximize protection against kinetic penetrators (although KP rounds are still very potent against composite amor). These layers are held together using elastic nanoscale rubber to prolong service life by protecting the tiles from vibration. The completed assemblage is then compressed and sprayed with a thin layer of molten mithrillite to maintain compression (compressed tiles suffer less from a low energy impact). In all implementations, the backplate is always the outermost layer.
As an unintended side effect of its shaped-charge immunity, II-B Composite has proven extremely resilient against plamsa.
By 2693, the Confederacy had begun to employ kinetic penetrator rounds in its tanks, which the ceramics in the II-B Composite were not particularly effective against. So, in October of that year, heavy metal modules were added to the II-B Composite armor package. These modules consist of a tungsten-uranium alloy around a wire-mesh and encased in a stainless steel casing. These metal modules (typically employing perpendicular rods) have many perforations or expansion spaces and are generally arranged underneath the more expensive composite layer, reducing the weight up to about a third while keeping the protective qualities fairly constant. An additional layer of aramid fabric was used to line the crew side to protect against spalling.
When the development of the modules were complete, the new armor was renamed II-C. Unlike earlier composite armor plates based on a titanium or silicon ceramic, the mithrillite based II-C has sufficient strength and energy absorption to benefit from a sloped arrangement, and as such is able to deflect projectiles when stuck from an oblique angle.
After the introduction of the Behemoth class heavy tank, an H variant of the complete ICVAS (I and II) package was developed. ICVAS-H is similar to regular ICVAS, except its metallic components are all aegisite based.
Availible upragade kits:
MA-49 Heavy NERA Tiles
These tiles are an add on to portions of a vehicle where it is most likely to be struck, namely the front and sides. NERA tiles are expendable and independently replaceable.
Two stainless steel plates sandwich an inert liner of rubber. When struck by a shaped charge's plasma jet, some of the impact energy is dissipated into the inert liner layer, and the resulting high pressure causes a localized bending or bulging of the plates in the area of the impact. As the plates bulge, the point of jet impact shifts with the plate bulging, increasing the effective thickness of the armor. This is almost the same as the second mechanism that explosive reactive armor uses, but it uses energy from the shaped charge jet rather than from explosives. Against a long rod penetrator, the projected plates serve to deflect and break up the rod. NERA is not as effective as ERA, but it is less hazardous to infantry and maintenence personnel, and can be mounted on less heavily armored vehicles such as APCs or IFVs. The MA-49 is a direct descendent of the MA-48, the difference being that the MA-49 has thicker layers of metal and rubber (hence the "Heavy" designation).
MA-3 Slat Armor
The MA-3 is one of the Commonwealth's oldest forms of protection against shaped charges, dating back to the first upgrade kits for captured Confederate tanks. Currently, it is used as throw-away armor that can extend the service life of NERA tiles. MA-3 kits often come with replacement slat holders, and these can be used to improvise armor with steel re-bar or even wood. Slat armor can be defeated with tandem-charge warheads.
MV-90H Broadsword Main Battle Tank
Height: 2.75 m
Width: 3.52 m
Length: 9.08 m
Weight: 70 mt (clean, no munitions)
Crew: 3 (plus up to 3 daring infantry)
-Commander in turret front left
-Gunner in turret front right
-Driver in hull front center
Maximum speed: 150 km/h
Range: 4,784 km (cruising), 3,567 km (combat)*
*Range is not limited by fuel in practice, as CCF-76 HET is plasma based, range shown is calculated based on
wear and tear of parts and crew life support.
Powerplant: 2 x CCF-76 HET (1,750 HP each)
Suspension: A2C Torsion Bar
Transmission: A995-ERZ hydromechanical automatic, 7 gears
Protection:
-ICVAS I-B FHRHA (4/3.5/3 cm hull, 5/4/3 cm turret)
- ICVAS II-C Composite (2/2/1 cm hull, 2/2/2 cm turret)
-MVAD-67 Chaff launcher array + point defense laser system
- MVAD-2 Multiple smoke grenade launcher
- Full NBC protection
- Heat shielding to reduce IR signatures
Sensory package:
- Battlefield awareness:
2x EM3-Band optics w/ image intensifiers (thermographic, normal light, gamma radiation)
Medium resolution radar (Range: 500m)
External speakers + infantry communications system
Laser designator
Floodlight at 1 million candela
Full integration with DBM systems (including IFF transponder and multi-band radio)
-Fire control assistance:
Integrated meteorological sensors
Crosswind analyzer system
Dynamic gun stabilizer
Laser rangefinder
Primary turret:
-Traverse rate: 30 degrees/sec
-Elevation rate: 50 degrees/sec
-Elevation range: 75 to -10 degrees
-Armament:
VM-MPVG-259D1 L/60 150 mm Smoothbore tank gun (HVAP, HEAT-DP, APFSDS)
-48 rounds
VM-MPSGM88 90 mm ATGM MMLS (2)
-3 missiles per pod
GP-MH130 12.7 x 108 mm Machine gun
-1000 rounds
-240 degrees limited traverse
GP-M93V 7.62 x 51 mm Machine gun (coaxial)
-5,000 rounds
GP-MH990 7.62 x 51 mm Gatling gun
-10,000 rounds
VM-MPSG44 120 mm Mortar (breech loading, internal)
-8 rounds
-85 to 45 degrees limited elevation
Additional equipment:
GP-M78 MK II Mod IV ABR Carbine (3)
-540 rounds (6 x 30 round magazines per carbine)
-Supplements crew sidearms in case of contingencies
GP-RE30 Towing Line (2)
-10 meters long
-Rated for up to 80 mt of tension
GP-ITR1 Entrenching Tools
-Includes full-size shovel and picks
VM-VC8 Large Dynamic Camoflauge Net
-Programmable patterns
-Further reduces IR signatures
VM-RK5 Repair Kit
-Includes standard metric pattern tools
-Spare track segments, enough to repair 25% damage
-Plasma cutter, arc welder, and raw nanite blocks
VM-S3 Survival Kit (3)
-5 days rations
-Water purification tablets
-First aid and field surgery kit
-Waterproof magnesium flares
-Backup UHF/VHF radio
-Backup navigation equipment
Done in Photoshop CS5.1, 8 hours.
(c)2012 LoneSentry
