Tusk Cat Medium Tank

[Grim]

Affiliation: Design licensed to Donomel Manufacturing, Mandalorian Confederation and Mandalorian Underground


Ownership: N/A


Intent: To give the Mando groups some mobile firepower that doesn't require many people to crew and serve while being relatively cheap to manufacture and purchase (For a tank) for the near future

Model: Elthar Security Solutions and Drolan Plasteel MHT-1 "Tusk Cat" Medium Tank

Size:
L: 10m
W: 3.3m
H. 2.4m

Weight: 44 tonnes

Armor Composition:
Outer Hull: Durasteel with thin Ablative Ferrocerramic coating
Inner armor: Duraplast, hybrid plexisteel, and Impervium coated Tunqstoid rods (located on the front armor faces only) and a Faraday cage around all important electrical bits.
Spalling liner: Flex-Armor

Armor Rating:
Proof against all small arms up to and including Rifles(Massdrivers and Blasters) on all sides as well as blast cannons

Light Laser/Kinetic Cannons: Resistant(6-10) on the sides, proof frontally, minimal(2-4) protection from the rear.
Medium Laser/Kinetic Cannons: Minimal side protection, resistant to the front, no protection on the rear.
Heavy Laser/Kenetic Cannons: Minimal protection frontally, no protection to any other sides.

The armor is designed to be pretty decent against all forms of attacks but is built for protection of Mass drivers first. The layering of the armor makes it effective at it, but finds itself least effective against heavy laser cannons. The armor is resistant to most anti-tank rockets and missiles.

Shield Rating: N/A

Propulsion: Fusion Generator and Repulserlift. Top seed of 75 kph, its fast to accelerate in any direction but has a relativity slow top speed for a repulsercraft

Crew: 3 (Commander, Gunner, Driver)

Armament/Equipment:
Main Gun: 105mm Mass Driver (similar power to one of the main laser cannons on an AT-AT)
Secondary: Repeating Blaster mounted Co-axially to main gun, Automated point defense laser(anti-missile only)
-Hunter-Killer system, commander and gunner have independent sights, commander can take control of gun
-Full sensor suite and communications suite(including battlenet)
-Targeting and ballistic computer (holographic with Helment Link)
-full 3-demenstional gun stabilization
-Full NBC protection with overpressure.
-automatic fire suppression system
-auto-loader for main gun (8rpm)
-full spectrum disruption smoke launchers 360 degree spread (6 total launches)
-Redundant computer system for all systems, also controls the recoil managment by boosting the tank in the opposite direction than the gun is facing. This leaves only a slight shift in the direction of recoil.


Description: Created to be used by Mercs and security forces the tank has good protection and firepower while only requiring a crew of three. ESS made the weapon systems while Drolan Plasteel made the hull and contracted out many of the parts. The vehicle while made of some more expensive materials, their strong attributes mixed with its composite nature makes it so that they don't have to be as thick as they normally would be. That with the added rods it has good protection from most forms of weaponry only really suffering as the laser cannons get more powerful, notably against heavy laser cannon which do fair a bit better against this tanks armor.

The powerful gun with its reasonable mobility makes this tank a dangerous foe for those it fights. Able to move around at a good clip the tank is known for being able to get into position and unleash its firepower before scooting off to next location it needs to be. The gun is able to fire all types of rounds and can carry 40 total rounds of main gun ammo. The craft has 2 sets of repulsers one under the main body and four smaller ones on the side. The main one can support the craft but at reduced speed and acceleration (appx. half the top speed) even if all four external ones are removed. The tank is finally topped with being easy to field repair as most breakable and the parts that wear the fastest are located in easy to get to places as well as the main power plant being able to be swapped for another at a depot.

While ESS and Drolan Plasteel created the design, the main license for production was issued to Donomel.

 

[Commissar Brett]

This... feels... really underpowered. Only 70km/h? The tanks during the Clone Wars maxxed out at over 300km/h. I also have to ask how this is less than 40 tonnes? I mean, no complaints, it seems like it has potential, but its stat-lines are just... weird.

 

[Grim]

Its your tank that is too fast. To put it into perspective this with its four side engines gone is nearly as fast as a AAT at full speed. Those tanks also didn't have the kind of armor to stop heavy laser cannons.

 

[Commissar Brett]

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/TX-130T_fighter_tank

My tank is less than half this speed, for the record.

And if your tank has that kind of armour, why is it still less than 40 tonnes?

 

[Grim]

Yes it is slower than that, but that has paper armor. Mine has a nice composite armor more strength, less weight and it is over all pretty spartan. It only has what it needs to do its job.

 

[Commissar Brett]

The TX-130T never mentions weak armour, but I'll take your word on that. I still feel you should up the speed a bit, or increase the weight to explain why it's so slow. Nut that's just my two cents, I'd like to see what others have to say.

 

[Loco]

The TX-130T never mentions weak armour, but I'll take your word on that. I still feel you should up the speed a bit, or increase the weight to explain why it's so slow. Nut that's just my two cents, I'd like to see what others have to say.

The TX is a scout tank which, if Battlefront is to be believed, can be done in easily enough by infantry portable weapons. A scout vehicle that can rocket along through the air at 300+ kph should have shitty armor. I believe that sort of speed for vehicles like that should be a rare exception and, given the original source material, taken with a grain of salt.

That said, an M1 Abrams weighs in at over 60 tons, and even the old M60's were over 50, so I do think the weight on this beast is probably a bit low.

 

[Krajin]

I have a curiosity question here. How does the vehicle handle recoil from its 105mm Mass Driver cannon? Considering it's repulsorlift does it have some way of compensating for the recoil so it doesn't spin out or go flying off in the opposite direction of where the shell was fired?

 

[Grim]

@Loco I was going for a mix between the Osorio and the Type 10 MBT's which have really strong armor but are light. American and British tanks have usually been chunky in their weight. That said I will increase the weight some.

@Krajin I will add that in, but like any craft of the sort the computers in the tank automatically boost the craft forward to counter it.

 

[Tristar]

I will add that in, but like any craft of the sort the computers in the tank automatically boost the craft forward to counter it

Would this have any effect to the craft's accuracy, especially if it were to theoretically miss a shot and needs to fire at the same place in a few seconds? How many shots can it push downrange before going dry?

 

[Grim]

it has a full magazine of 40 at 8 RPM. Not at all as the round is usually out the barrel well before the system kicks in, this is of course happens very quickly.

 

[Commissar Brett]

It's just basically an auto-compensation system to put the tank back in place after the first shot is fired.

 

[Andrewza]

I actually like it. It is pretty well rounded. Sure it is not fast but it is agile. And it well armoured for its size.

But I don't see this gun matching the main gun of a ATAT. Maybe a ATTE the ATAT guns are crazy OP powerful.

Since it is a balstic gun why not add the ability to fire indirect like the centurion tank could.

40 rounds seems low. The olifant mk1B carries 68 rounds.

The weight is fine. This is more a T90 than M1 in any case.

 

[Grim]

My idea was that it used better rails to get the round up to speed since its easier to throw a smaller projectile faster than a larger one. Should it not be allowed as powerful as that, I will tone it down to an AT-TE level and bump up the ammo. I figured 40 was a nice middle ground for ammo.

 

[Andrewza]

It could maybe match the anti armour levels of a ATAT gun but not the raw destructive power of it.

 

[Grim]

that maybe so, but its still a lot of KE energy to impart when it hits something. Yes I do see where you are coming from.

 

[Vencu]

MandalHypernautics manufactured the Kandosii-class Heavy Repulsor Tank for the Mandalorian Clans and it saw widespread use during the Core Blitz. Like a lot of Mandalorian tech following the Claimant Wars, lower quality reproductions and even some original models requiring restoration can probably be found relatively easily by any determined buyer. It would need to be resubmitted here in the tech sub-forum for approval, but it would make more sense that a recently established group such as yours would restore and refit old Mandalorian tech rather than purchase new or even used models at top dollar. Honestly, if I were in your place, I'd have a thread or two where your group finds an old hulk or two on some distant battlefield or in the possession of some war souvenir collector. Then I'd gather up replacement parts, patch it up, and OOCly, that would account for its downgraded stats (since it's likely to be viewed as overpowered to some degree now). Just a thought, though.

 

[Grim]

I had thought of doing something similar, however in keeping with the cover of the manufacturer as a front company it seemed safter to use my NPC faction and a company stub to do the design. Seems less suspicious if its a new design and not a remake of a former Mando vehicle. Especially with the way the imps attack first and ask questions second. I will however take a look at that tank and make it a second write up for a heavy tank/MBT.

 

[Vencu]

You bring up a valid point regarding the Imperium, but also keep in mind that this tech is no longer exclusive to the Mandalorians at this point. By now, over ten years after the Core Blitz, the Claimant Wars, and the firebombing of the Mandalore Sector, it's likely that a lot of hardware that may have at one point been considered unique to the Mandalorian war machine have become widely used by pirates, mercenaries, crime syndicates, planetary security forces, and others. If the Imperium shot first and asked questions later every time they saw tech that was developed or used by Mandalorians at some point in history, half the galaxy's residents (and many of their own forces) would probably be dead.

 

[Grim]

I see you point but I would think if a company started pushing out new model stuff it would at least attract attention from them as I doubt many companies are churning out new versions of the tanks. Also on the manufacturing front for a tank that is on the very large side. The remaining mando's don't really have a way to man a craft as big as that right now let alone mass produce them. Just a glance at the size and it could hold nearly 3 Tuskcats. Given that most clans are short on ships that could land lots of those nice heavy tanks a simple smaller and cheaper craft would seem the best way to go until we as a group can churn out lots of bigger craft.