Authors: Mark Kalina
Armored Tears (31 page)
Mid-to-Late 21st Century Battle Tanks.
The
evolution of the modern battle tank from the "main battle tank" (MBT)
of the late 20th and early 21st century has been fairly gradual, but none the
less profound. A modern (mid-to-late 21st century) battle tank is larger,
heavier, more armored, more destructive and faster than anything that has come
before it.
The
characteristics of the modern battle tank (as opposed to the main battle tanks
of the past) are enhanced mobility, enhanced crew interface and survival
systems, fourth-generation composite armor, anti-missile and anti-mine
countermeasures, and a modern electrothermal-chemical propellant main gun.
In
almost all modern battle tanks, enhanced mobility comes by way of a fuel-cell
powered electric drive system linked to a four-track-pod system. Instead of two
tracks (one on each side of the tank) there are four independent track pods,
two per side, with relatively short tracks running on each pod. Each track pod
has its own road-wheel suspension system, but also, each pod is itself capable
of limited articulation. Even a small degree of pod articulation allows for a
very substantial improvement in a tank's ability to cross obstacles or rough
terrain and an even bigger advantage in terms of steering and agility. In
addition, the loss of one of the four track pods will not totally immobilize a
modern battle tank, though mobility will be sharply reduced. This allows a tank
that takes a mobility hit to retreat instead of being immediately immobilized. The
actual tracks of most modern battle tanks are made of a light-weight
carbon-composite material instead of metal or rubber. The overall result is
that, while earlier main battle tanks tended to be limited to about 75kps on roads
and 60kps over moderate terrain, modern tanks can expect to manage as much as
100kph over moderate terrain and 120kph or more on good roads.
Protection
on modern battle tanks consists of both active and passive armor measures.
Armor can be one of several sorts of composite types. In most cases a very hard
surface alloy is backed by several layers of spaced carbon-composite and
ceramics, in order to provide maximum protection against shaped charge, kinetic
energy and high explosive projectiles.
In
addition, modern battle tanks feature automated fire-fighting systems and crew
safety "survival pods" to allow crew to eject from a burning tank. (Survival
pods are a set of inflatable, fire-resistant, shaped "air bags" that
rapidly inflate from compact storage to form a sealed cocoon around a
crewmember. The survival pod is then ejected with a high pressure blast. The
inflated pod absorbs the impact with the ground and then deflates, allowing the
escaped crewmember to move towards safety.)
In
addition to armor and crew safety systems, modern battle tanks tend to feature
active counter-measures for defense against enemy targeting systems and
missiles. High capacity launchers for concealment grenades can be used to
rapidly envelope the tank in a cloud of "hot smoke" that interferes
with both laser, visual and thermal targeting. In addition, inbound anti-tank
missiles can be engaged with batteries of very small
"counter-missiles" and as a last ditch mode of defense, with very
rapid fire point defense guns, often of the "Metal Storm" type, which
consist of a cluster of barrels, each with multiple superimposed rounds that
can be fired at very extreme rates of fire. (The original prototype of the
system, called "Metal Storm" by its developers, was first tested in
the late 20th century.) Most modern battle tanks also carry dedicated anti-mine
countermeasures, consisting of assorted thermal and ground-penetrating-radar
sensors and batteries of small ground-penetrating rockets to detect and
detonate mines ahead of the tank.
The
armaments of most modern battle tanks feature several computer-assisted
"auto-smartguns" (in effect, heavy machineguns with computer-assisted
targeting) and a modern main gun.
Modern
tank guns use electrothermal-chemical propellant and feature tapered bores to
attain very high projectile velocity. (Chamber diameter ranges from 75 to 90mm,
but the muzzle diameter ranges from 45 to 60mm. Bores are usually given
polygonal rifling to stabilize the shot fired.) This makes caliber or bore size
designations based on muzzle diameter not very useful, and guns are usually no
longer rated or designated by bore caliber, as was the case for earlier main
battle tanks. Instead, tank guns are rated or designated by the calculated
muzzle energy of a kinetic shot. Thus modern battle tanks mount guns such as
the iconic 41 megajoule cannon, and the somewhat more powerful 44 and 47
megajoule successors to that design.
Currently
the technology seems to have reached a plateau of deliverable muzzle energy, as
can be seen by the modest increases in hitting power between weapons like the
"forty-one" (which is over 25 years old) and more modern weapons like
the "forty-four" and the "forty-seven." (A new 49 megajoule
gun is rumored to be in development by Russia, but its size and bulk suggest
that the next generation of tank guns will need some sort of breakthrough to
achieve substantially greater effectiveness. Electromagnetic propulsion, in the
form or rail-guns or coil-guns, seems to be a likely candidate, though at
present technical difficulties remain serious enough to make use of such
weapons in a tank impractical.)
Given
the very high velocity and high projectile mass of a modern tank gun, recoil
management is crucial. All modern tank guns use electromagnetic recoil absorption
mechanisms in place of the hydraulic recoil mechanisms of earlier generations
of tank guns. In the event of a failure of these electromagnetic recoil
dampers, the weapon cannot be safely fired even once.
Modern
tanks guns are capable of accurate and effective fire to ranges as long as 10
kilometers, though effective range tends to be somewhat less. They are also
capable
of rapid fire, to the point
of being able to fire accurate bursts (of up to 7 rounds per second, for the
fastest guns) in order to compensate for interference with targeting or for
enemy evasion (which can be significant at longer ranges.)
Most
modern battle tanks generally carry only kinetic energy rounds. These are not
(as was the case with earlier main battle tank rounds) discarding sabot
projectiles, and thus have substantially more mass per shot (delivered at a
much higher velocity) even though weight and bulk per round has gone down to a
fraction of that of earlier tank rounds. Most modern battle tanks have
ammunition loads on order of 200 to 250 rounds carried.
The
energies delivered from these kinetic rounds are high enough that secondary
fragmentation effects from near misses make conventional explosive warheads
redundant. (For comparison, the kinetic energy of a 120mm tank gun from the
early 21st century was on order of 12 megajoules.)
A
modern battle tank tends to have a crew of four; a commander who manages the
tactical situation and acts as a backup to the other crewmembers, a driver to
drive the tank, a gunner to operate the weapons systems, and a sensors operator
to manage the tanks complex sensors suite and to remote operate deployable
reconnaissance drones. (Indeed, the use of such drones has made a substantial
difference in the tactical operations of modern tanks, in that they can conduct
reconnaissance and detect infantry ambushes before the actual tank enters into
danger.) (Note that there is no loader; modern tank guns are auto-loaders,
feeding from a self-contained ammunition feed system.)
Side-elevation
schematic of a Type-51 Mk.IIIb tank:
Infantry Frames and Smart Rifles:
An
infantry frame is a powered exoskeleton worn by a single soldier, which allows
that solider to carry more than a hundred kilograms of additional armor and
gear without any notable encumbrance. A soldier so equipped is called a
"framer" and is the most common form of infantry for high intensity
battle operations.
A
frame consists of a back-pack mounted power system and a servo-powered
exoskeleton that runs along the wearers arms (ending in wrist-and-hand
reinforcing servos ) and legs (ending in ankle and foot reinforcing servos) and
up their back, taking the weight of anything they might be carrying. The power
system is fuel-cell based, and can operated at full power for several hours,
though for the most part, framers use their frames at full power only in short
bursts of activity.
The
frame allows its wearer to bear very heavy suits of armor. Articulated suits of
carbon-ceramic plate armor make a framer largely bullet-proof against personal
weapons. The standard combat helmet (the weight of which is taken by the
"spine" of the frame) has a heavily armored visor and extensive
sensor gear (such as laser detectors, thermal sight goggles, etc.) In addition
to armor, a heavy pack and several heavy weapons can easily be carried.
A
frame does not allow a framer to run faster than an un-augmented human (as this
is limited by the speed with which the framer can move their limbs) but does
allow them to move as fast, and with as much agility, as an unencumbered human,
even while carrying well over 100 kilograms of armor and gear.
The
primary weapon carried by frame infantry is called a smart-rifle. This is a
very heavy caliber self-loading rifle designed to be able to penetrate the
heavy personal armor carried by a framer. Most smart-rifle fire a heavy 8.5 or
even 9mm round at velocities of over 1000 meters per second. The weapon is
matched to a smart-sight system that combines targeting sensors and a
fire-control system that takes over the actual firing of the weapon. The
shooter selects and designated a target using a designator trigger and the
sight. Once this is done, the shooter presses the "engagement"
trigger and the weapon fires at the exact moment that the barrel is perfectly
lined up with the target. This makes aiming the weapon very easy, and a
properly delivered shot will always hit its target; unless the shooter
designates the wrong target, or the designated target moves before the round
arrives, a hit is guaranteed. Such weapons are quite heavy (10kg or more) and
recoil is severe, but since the frame can take the weight and counteract the
recoil, this is not an issue.
Tactics
with frames and smart-rifles become a matter of rapid target acquisition and
rapid evasion. Volume of fire tends to be very low, as a single shot is often
enough to take out a single target; most smart-rifles feed from 10 to 20 round
magazines, but many engagements involve the firing of less than five rounds
total.
For
close range engagements (where the process of targeting and using a smart-rifle
might be too slow) most framers carry a short ranged, heavy caliber, high
rate-of-fire weapon, colloquially known as a "zipper." These weapons
tend to fire very large rounds (11mm caliber or larger, with projectile weights
as much as twice those of a smart-rifle round) at velocities of 500 meters per
second or so. These tend to be heavy weapons (6 to 7kg) with considerable
recoil, despite devices such as recoil-absorbing stocks and muzzle brakes. When
used by infantry without a frame, they are best utilized in very short burst.
With a frame, they can lay down long bursts of fire. A long burst from a
"zipper" is usually enough to be effective against an enemy framer at
close range; even if most rounds fail to penetrate armor, enough rounds in the
burst will hit weak spots, joints, etc., to defeat the target.
In
addition to smart-rifles and "zippers," framers often carry one or
more man-portable anti-tank guided missiles. Light anti-tank missiles can mass
from 5 to 15kg per round, while heavier weapons mass about 25kg per round or
more. In general, a framer might carry three to six rounds of the lighter
missiles or one or two rounds of the heavier version. This makes framers
capable of engaging tanks (usually with multiple soldiers delivering a volley
of missiles.)
Because
frame infantry is dependent on their frame power systems and cannot effectively
move with unpowered frames, they are almost always deployed by means of
dedicated
vehicles, generally known
as "frame carriers." A frame-carrier is, in effect, a very large
armored personnel carrier with facilities to refuel / recharge the power
systems of the framers assigned to the vehicle, and the ability to bring the
frame infantry it carries into battle at a faster speed and with less power
expenditure than the framers could manage on their own.
There
are many different sorts of frame carriers, from simple vehicles that are
primarily intended as transportation for the frame infantry, to infantry
fighting vehicles that carry substantial armament and can act, more or less, as
lighter versions of tanks.
In
general, any frame carrier will be a large, tracked vehicle. Because of the
bulk of a fully equipped frame infantry trooper, frame carriers are usually
designed to carry their framers in individual "niches," each with its
own rapid-deployment access hatch (as opposed to personnel carriers for
unarmored troops, where a single troop hatch can be used by all the troops
being carried.) Most frame carriers are designed around a squad of six to eight
frame troopers, and also have a driver and one or two extra crew to operate
sensors and weapons. This means that even a light frame carrier will often be,
dimensionally, somewhat bigger than a battle tank (though frame carriers are usually
only lightly armored and are thus much, much lighter than any tank.)
Even
light frame carriers will mount heavy automatic weapons (auto-smartgun) capable
of supporting frame infantry operations, as well as some degree of anti-missile
defense. Likewise, sensors and drones are carried and provide a crucial
reconnaissance capability to the framer squad. (Sometimes there is a dedicated
sensors operator aboard the frame carrier; other times there is a combined
gunner/sensors operator.)
Heavy,
combat-vehicle version of frame carriers will be somewhat better armored, but
more crucially, will carry more advanced anti-missile defenses and will also
mount batteries of multi-purpose (anti-tank, anti-bunker) missiles of their
own, as well as multiple anti-framer automatic weapons. (In some cases, light
caliber cannon may be mounted, though in general, extra missile ammunition is
seen as a better "bang for the buck" than low-caliber cannons.)