BlackTailDefense Doesn't Know Shit About Tank Design

[Collimatrix]

You've seen them before; poorly edited videos with an alternating loop of John Phillips Sousa and Weird Al, purporting to tell you about the various design mistakes armored fighting vehicle designers have made over the years:

 

 

But does the maker of these videos one Blacktail Defense, know shit about AFV design himself?

 

Haha, no, no he does not.

 

Because of Sturgeon's House strict hate-speech enforcement laws, I am compelled to mention that Blacktail Defense is a furry.  So know that should you click any of the links to his material, you will need to decontaminate yourself per protocol DG-12-23A with bleach.

 

Blacktail Defense is a military reformer, a storied and interesting political movement in the United States that has gone from being a force of some consequence to being a ragtag group of scoundrels.  I'm not going to say that they weren't idiots and scoundrels when they were of consequence, n.b.

 

Military reformers are at they're strongest when they're on the attack.  They're a lot like creationists that way; when they can hurl invective at (mostly imaginary) weaknesses within whatever it is they hate, they can look like concerned citizens campaigning for the taxpayer's right to have their money spent wisely and the soldier's right to have the best practical equipment.

 

But give a military reformer some lined paper and a slide rule and tell them to come up with a design, rather than tear down an existing one, and you will quickly see that these people have no idea what they're talking about.

 

Ready?

 

 

This is taken directly from Blacktail's furaffinity page.  Careful analysis shows that, no, this man has no idea what the everliving fuck he's talking about.

 

Are you ready?  No, you're not, but let's go ahead anyway.

 

"The Tigerwolf may look vaguely similar to contemporary MBTs, such as the ubiquitous M1-series Abrams, but is in fact wrapped around a lot of design features and technology that are comlpetely alien to today's tanks."

 

 

Blacktail is going to prove to you that he's a better tank designer than all those idiots at Chrysler by designing a tank using technologies that didn't exist at the time of the design of the Abrams.

 

"For starters the crew is quite large, with a Commander, Driver, Gunner, TWO loaders, and an Engineer. Many designers favor a smaller crew, usually adding an autoloader to eliminate the Loader from the crew (like in the Russian T-64 through 90, the French Leclerc, and the Chinese Type 85 through 99)."

 

 

... What?

 

"However, there are a lot of problems with a smaller crew. First, autoloaders work at a painfully slow pace (14 seconds to reload in a T-72), which gives manual-loading tanks a huge rate-of-fire advantage (just 4 seconds in the M1A1 Abrams)."

 

 

 

"There's no autoloader either, as that only slows the ROF, requires smaller, less powerful and versitile ammo to be used, adds another complex, delicate set of moving parts to break, and only serves to expand the guantlet  of things that can hurt you inside the vehicle.In fact, the Tigerwolf's main gun ammo is extremely large and heavy, and probably would break an autoloader --- it's would be an incredible feat of strength for a single Loader crewman to load in under 10 seconds."

 

 

The Leclerc uses the same ammunition as the Abrams and Leopard 2.  As for his 145mm smoothbore howitzer ammunition breaking an autoloader, does he not know that the Pz 2000 SPG has an autoloader for its 155mm gun?  Of course he doesn't know that; Blacktail doesn't know what he's talking about.

 

"The engineer is useful as well, because the large size of the Tigerwolf --- coupled with it's simple drivetrain (most modern tracked vehicles have a deceptively simple drivetrain) and small, flat engine (compred to a "Vee" or gas turbine) make for easy engine maintnance[sic] and repairs from inside the tank --- there's no need to abandon it if you lose a sparkplug while under small arms fire."

 

 

Simple drivetrains, eh?


 

Note that per the graphic, the Tigerwolf has a diesel wankel.  Does Blacktail not know that diesel engines don't have spark plugs?  Of course he doesn't know that; Blacktail doesn't know what he's talking about.

(Diesel wankels don't exist.  Three companies have tried making them; Rolls Royce, John Deere and some Japanese company I CBA to look up.  None of the three ever got them to mass production.  I'm not sure what the problem was.)

 

"As for the armor, instead of using a large amount of steel and other metals, most of the Tigerwolf's armor is made up of thick panels and blocks of woven fabric Carbon 60 and 70 --- which are genarically[sic] known as "Fullerine". [sic]

Fullerine has ove 100 times the tensile strength of steel, it's 10's of times lighter, and theoretically could be manufactured quickly and inexpensively. Essentially, the Tigerwolf has a sort of "Super Kevlar" armor, but unlike current Kevlars (which are made of polimers[sic] or composites), fullerine does not have a molecular structure that distorts or melts under heat or pressure --- a single piece of this new type of armor can withstand MANY direct hits from rounds with tank-killing power, KE and CE alike."

 

 

Ah yes, fullerenes; every hack futurist's favorite crutch.

 

Fullerenes have many interesting and useful properties, but their large-scale bulk mechanical properties may not be that amazing.  Many materials have amazing strength at small scales, but disappointing strength at macro scales.  Sapphire whiskers are an example.

 

Moreover, high tensile strength (which is what fullerenes have going for them), does not necessarily imply that a material will make good armor.  The properties that make materials effective against high-velocity threats are somewhat esoteric.  Aluminum alloys, for instance, have a better strength to weight ratio than does steel, and while several of them do protect better on a weight basis than steel against lower velocity threats like artillery fragments and small arms fire, suffer badly against high-velocity penetrators and HEAT threats due to sheer failure modes that only exist at those higher velocity ranges.

 

Also, why the fuck does Blacktail think that "Kevlars" melt under pressure?  Aramids don't melt.

 

"Even though it's much larger than an M1A1 Abrams, the Mk.75 Tigerwolf is over 30% lighter, and can swim over water obstacles, rather than slog though on the bottom. And because it floats, there are no depths that it cannot cross."

 

 

This is how big a 40 tonne boat is.

 

"Also important is it's low ground pressure, stemming from it's low 40-ton weight, super-wide tracks, low height, and enourmous horizontal size --- it has the ground pessure of a "Light Track" vehicle, like the M113 Gavin. This is important because almost half the world's surface is closed to heavy tracks (again, the M1A1 Abrams), due to thier height, ground pressure, and high centers of gravity.

The Tigerwolf can directly cut across many areas that no existing or projected MBT will ever be able to --- not to mention traverse certain terrain features, such as bridges and paved roads, without damaging them."

 

 

Is Blacktail under the impression that it's ground pressure that damages bridges?  Jesus, if that were true the last thing you'd want to get anywhere near a bridge is a car.

 

"As the Tigerwolf has 40% more power and torque than the M1, and weighs 30% less, it is 40% faster and could probably accelerate as quickly as a Humvee. This would make contemporary tanks very hard-pressed to cut-off a Tigerwolf, and no current or projected tanks could ever hope to pursue a Tigerwolf.

Other advantages offered by the powerpack include a small number of moving parts, extremely low vibration and ocillation (inherent to Wankel Rotaries; not in piston engines), low heat emissions (less than in 700+ degree piston engines, or 1500+ degrees in Gas Turbines), a very small, flat, light engine block, and stonger individual components than in any current or projected tank engine, and a 5-speed AT, to take advantage of the high engine output. "

 

 

Uh huh...

 

So this is a magical wank(el) engine that has equal SFC to a diesel, rather than falling between a diesel and a turbine as existing ones do.

 

"Other advantages offered by the powerpack include a small number of moving parts, extremely low vibration and ocillation (inherent to Wankel Rotaries; not in piston engines), low heat emissions (less than in 700+ degree piston engines, or 1500+ degrees in Gas Turbines), a very small, flat, light engine block, and stonger individual components than in any current or projected tank engine, and a 5-speed AT, to take advantage of the high engine output."

 

 

WHAT THE FUCK KIND OF TURBINE REJECTS HEAT AT 1,500 DEGREES?!  The highest turbine inlet temperature on record is 1,600C!

 

Per Honeywell, AGT-1500's exhaust temperature is 500 C, but it's unclear if that is before or after it enters the recuperator.

 

And if he's using bullshit Imperial units he's still wrong.

 

If you don't know the difference between heat rejection temperature and turbine inlet temperature, you have no business discussing turbines.

 

"All tanks require high firepower, and the Mk.75 Tigerwolf has plenty of it. The large size of the Tigerwolf's hull and turret enables a heavier-caliber howitzer to be used than on any tank currently in service --- a 145mm Smooth-Bore Howitzer. Because the German-designed M256 120mm smoothbore (M1A1, M1A2, Leopard 2, etc.) has a 40% larger punch than the British-designed M67 105mm Rifled-bore (the standard to which ALL other tank guns are judged --- used on too many tanks to list), the Tigerwolf's gun probaly has at least 20% more punch than the M256 --- enough to outrange any of today's tank guns, with enough penetration to destroy an M1A1 from well beyond it's maximum gun range."

 

 

Any fictional Main Battle Wank needs to have a smitey, terrifying weapon... I'm not sure why Blacktail has saddled his design with a howitzer.

 

Also, how many places on Earth are there where you can even see further than the engagement range of an M1's armament?

 

"The Co-Axial MachineGun (COAX) fires 7x50mm rifle rounds, which combine the low cost and recoil of the 5.56x45mm NATO round, with the accuracy and penetration of the 7.62x51mm NATO round. 7mm rounds would also have a smaller casing daimeter than a 7.62mm round, which when coupled with significantly larger magazines and canisters, means the Tigerwolf totes one hell of a lot of MG ammo. As such, it is unlikely that a Tigerwolf will have to resupply MG ammo during a battle, and may even have thousands of rounds to spare --- if it is supporting friendly troops, the Tigerwolf may be able to spare a few thousand rounds for them."

 

 

Someone doesn't know the difference between case head diameter and caliber.

 

"A smooth ride and steady aim are achieved through hydropneumatic suspension and stabilization (versus the comparatively rougher torsion and hydraulics used in current and projected tanks) . The gun, turret, and hull each have thier own stabilization. While each of these are mechanically independant, they are balanced and co-ordinated via computer (which also feeds stability data to the gunnery computer, adjusting the GPS crosshairs in real time). This is unlike current tanks, whose ballistics comuters only react indirectly to the actual stability of the vehicle."

 

 

I don't know what any of this means, except that Blacktail doesn't know how suspension and stabilization work.

 

 

That's all I can stand.  I'm done.  Go read it if you want to, or not, whatever.

[Priory_of_Sion]

"I'm going to design a huge-ass tank that dwarfs the Abrams and then talk about it like it is the best thing ever" 

[Tied]

 

"However, there are a lot of problems with a smaller crew. First, autoloaders work at a painfully slow pace (14 seconds to reload in a T-72

 

I counted literally half of that, and that isnt even a modern T-72

 

Here is an Abrams for comparison, about the same rate of fire. Keep in mind though that auto loaders dont get stressed or slow down with combat fatigue (and then a myriad of other benefits such as smaller size, which i plan to address with my upcomming "myths of cold war armor" thread )

 

The T-90, T-80, and T-64 all have faster autoloaders than older T-72s

 

The T-14 being at least as fast as the Lecrec 

 

and if you think the autoloader was just there to save manpower, your fucking retarded

 

this is the Soviet Union we are talking about, do you really think we had a problem with manpower shortages? 

[Marsh]

Black Tail Defense appears to be linked to Mike Sparks. Yes the bloke who devised the name "Gavin" for the M113 and insists it be referred to as such, even though in reality it never has been given that designation. Frankly those who have had any kind of dealings with the man on Tank Net et al, believe he has some mental health issues. I wouldn't take anything written by Black Tail Defense, as being worth analysis or rebuttal.

[Tied]

To be fair

 

Gavin rolls off the tongue alot better than M113

 

Beside's, that mediocrity on tracks dosent deserve anything over two syllables 

[Mike E]

Black Tail Defense appears to be linked to Mike Sparks. Yes the bloke who devised the name "Gavin" for the M113 and insists it be referred to as such, even though in reality it never has been given that designation. Frankly those who have had any kind of dealings with the man on Tank Net et al, believe he has some mental health issues. I wouldn't take anything written by Black Tail Defense, as being worth analysis or rebuttal.

I've been following his content for many, many years now (not to say I agree with it outside of a few things) and BTD doesn't seem to be connected with Sparks. They share a general opinion, but Sparks had his own channel for a while and just died off eventually. 

 

BTD raises a few good points on the validity of decisions US politicians and Army officials make, besides that it can be a lot of fluff.

[Marsh]

Mike, never mind that BTD has the identical style, content and font used for Sparky's videos presentations on different sites over the years? Have a google search for "Black Tail Defence and Mike Sparks", 

[Tied]

They also share an IP address, im sure it was a joint shitposting session over at the annual convention of batshit crazy military reformists

 

I think Pieire Spray brought the crack that year 

 

and for pete's sake, get avatars people

[CrashbotUS]

Holy smokes that is bad. 

[Collimatrix]

Black Tail Defense appears to be linked to Mike Sparks. Yes the bloke who devised the name "Gavin" for the M113 and insists it be referred to as such, even though in reality it never has been given that designation. Frankly those who have had any kind of dealings with the man on Tank Net et al, believe he has some mental health issues. I wouldn't take anything written by Black Tail Defense, as being worth analysis or rebuttal.

 

I'm agnostic whether BTD and Mike Sparks are the same person, and yes, nothing either one writes should be taken terribly seriously.  I mostly wrote this for fun, and as a vaccination for the ignorant who might otherwise be taken by reform scoundrels (remember the CNN clip where they call the M113 a "Gavin?").

[Tied]

that was glorious, im surprised they didnt say "general Gavin"

[Priory_of_Sion]

Sam Damon Jr is another name for BTD and Sparky. I would link to his amazon review page, but I have morals. 

[Walter_Sobchak]

I don't know much about the John Deere SCORE (rotary) engine, but my best guess would be that they never completely solved the issue of the engine seals.  This has been the primary bugaboo with Wankel engines in general.  

 

BTD's deviant art website is a rabbit hole, so entertaining for all the wrong reasons.  He seems to take particular pleasure in attacking 20 year old articles by Jim Warford.  Jim basically slaps him upside the head in the comments section.  

[LostCosmonaut]

Did anybody else notice that he measures the slope of the front armor in %? I guess this is technically allowed, but it seems slightly less reasonable  than measuring the temperature in degrees Rømer,

[Tied]

I don't know much about the John Deere SCORE (rotary) engine, but my best guess would be that they never completely solved the issue of the engine seals.  This has been the primary bugaboo with Wankel engines in general.  

 

BTD's deviant art website is a rabbit hole, so entertaining for all the wrong reasons.  He seems to take particular pleasure in attacking 20 year old articles by Jim Warford.  Jim basically slaps him upside the head in the comments section.  

 

the fact that they are both wrong is all the more hilarious 

[CrashbotUS]

To be fair

 

Gavin rolls off the tongue alot better than M113

 

Beside's, that mediocrity on tracks dosent deserve anything over two syllables 

 

That's why we just called them "tracks". 

[EnsignExpendable]

"Weapon: 145 mm smoothbore howitzer" *draws what is clearly a gun and not a howitzer*

 

This guy is a complete cretin. Is he supposed to be important?

[Tied]

Funny thing is, he considers rifled guns to be vastly superior to smoothbore, but yet even he still picks smoothbore for his fantasy tank

[CrashbotUS]

It's made of space aged polymers. 

[Khand-e]

Black Tail Defense appears to be linked to Mike Sparks. Yes the bloke who devised the name "Gavin" for the M113 and insists it be referred to as such, even though in reality it never has been given that designation. Frankly those who have had any kind of dealings with the man on Tank Net et al, believe he has some mental health issues. I wouldn't take anything written by Black Tail Defense, as being worth analysis or rebuttal.

 

I've been following his content for many, many years now (not to say I agree with it outside of a few things) and BTD doesn't seem to be connected with Sparks. They share a general opinion, but Sparks had his own channel for a while and just died off eventually. 

 

BTD raises a few good points on the validity of decisions US politicians and Army officials make, besides that it can be a lot of fluff.

 

It's actually reasonably well accepted here that BTD is either an alter ego of Sparks (seriously, the guy is probably schizophrenic as fuck, wouldn't be surprised if he had alter egos.) or at the very least, friends who have crossed paths with each other at some point.

 

Part of this goes back to when BlacktailDefense' account on tanknet had an IP trace done, and, forget the exact details, but it placed him within the same neighborhood (possibly even the same house) as Sparks.

[Walter_Sobchak]

ARMOR, the official journal of the armor branch has published articles written by:

 

A: George Patton

B: Steven Zaloga

C: John Wayne (yes, the actor)

D: Mike Sparks

E: All of the above

 

 

 

Answer: E

[Mike E]

Mike, never mind that BTD has the identical style, content and font used for Sparky's videos presentations on different sites over the years? Have a google search for "Black Tail Defence and Mike Sparks", 

Undoubtedly inspired by the man doesn't mean it is him. IP however.... 

 

Sparks used to be a complete ****head to talk to, even politely. BTD is actually willing to talk on his videos, *most of* the time. 

[Khand-e]

Undoubtedly inspired by the man doesn't mean it is him. IP however.... 

 

Sparks used to be a complete ****head to talk to, even politely. BTD is actually willing to talk on his videos, *most of* the time. 

 

I legitimately believe Mike Sparks has Schizophrenia or some form of multiple personality disorder that's "hidden" by the fact not many outside of those with an interest in military weapons design will have ever really heard of him and will bother looking into it. Let alone on the internet where finding definitive evidence of a persona's real existence is harder to verify.

 

I have a cousin who's Schizophrenic and has hallucinations/changes personality on a whim, he acts so similar to Sparks, or BTD when he's on a different ego it's almost shocking to think about.

[Mike E]

There's no point in trying to figure him out, Sparks does not deserves anyones' attention. 

[Priory_of_Sion]

Sparks is like a train wreck you can't look away from