Lord_James

Yes, more of that!

B-Baka! Don't you know T-34 is most advanced tank in the union? 
 
 

279 roadwheel

I believe the top is the air filtration system the bottom is the engine cooling system.

Ukrainian tankers come in top ten in the Strong Europe Tank Challenge


 

WT community: "Russian bias is ruining the game, German tanks are unplayable"
Also WT community: 

Stop being daft. It's embarrassing watching the American Left openly root for World War III and a failure of the Singapore Peace Summit because they are still frosty that they nominated the worst human being in recent American history to steal the Democratic nomination.
 
Nothing like yesterday's events have EVER happened in American or Korean history with a face-to-face between and American President and the leader of North Korea.
 
There has been nothing like the four written agreements listed above - and one verbal promise to begin disassembling the Nork's missile testing facility - because there has never been a direct face-to-face between the leaders of the two countries. It's the Chief Executive of the US directly negotiating with the Chairman of the Democratic  People's Republic of Korea. If you understand Asian culture, that is significant. 
 
And it was repeated like a dozen times that this was just the first step of many in this process. 
 
Honestly, if all we get is the repatriation of the remains of American soldiers from the Korean War (something like 6,000-8,000 bodies) that alone is a significant milestone in the peace process. And all it cost was a sit down lunch of braised beef, avocado salad, sweet and sour pork, and ice cream... that the Singapore government paid for in part.
 
Oh, and the temporary halting of war games with South Korea.
 
The antics of the American Left leading up to this summit, during, and now afterwards is downright childish and I don't know you guys are going to climb out of the political hole your party is digging right now. 

Key points of the document signed by Kim and Donald Trump at the end of Tuesday's talks:
1. US and North Korea commit to establish new US-DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.
2. The two countries will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.
3. Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, North Korea commits to work towards the complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.
4. US and North Korea commit to recovering remains of prisoners of war including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.
 
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/document-signed-by-trump-and-kim-in-singapore-summit-says-north-korea-will-work-towards
 

E-MBT is just two parts of two MBTs duck taped together to please investors.
The REAL work is within the tank to make it work as one.
Armor is out of the windows as long as there is no confirmed customer.
If there are no customers, this vehicle may become a test bed for futur development for MGCS.

This is a Leclerc turret on a Leopard -2. 
Trials on the firing range were good. 
 
The French 140mm is very different but is said to be proposed for the MGCS. 

"Vegetarian Fried Chicken"
 
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Contest Idea: Wehrapocalypse now
 
You work for a model-making company, and have been instructed to come up with a new line of tank/afv models to sell to punters. Unfortunately, the market for german tanks (ie: the biggest market in the industry) is completely filled - with manufacturers making every single variant of german AFV for which any historical documentation exists, usually in at least three paint schemes. Digging desperately through the archives one night for a varient which has not already been made, you have a flash of inspiration: why not design your own?
 
The tank/afv you will present to the board must be plausibly German (or modified by Germans, captured by Germans etc), and must fit into a 1939-1946 time period. It must be recogniseably teutonic in terms of design and construction, but must use the minimum number of existing parts and components in order to make a design/trademark filing easier and prevent your competition from reusing their old moulds. The history of the tank/afv must be plausible, and must include some reason why it hasn't been discovered up until now. This means that the design should be for a 'lost' prototype, limited production type or exotic conversion of a captured design done in very small numbers.
 
The design must be appealing to punters for some reason, which must be explained in the pitch. It should also be detailed enough so that said punters can get their wehraboner one by drooling over all the technical specifications and fancy-sounding german equipment names.
 
The winner of the competition will be judged by a board of wehraboo and model experts (I'm nominating EE and Walter to start with, please provide other suggestions), with part of the prize being that someone will try to slip the winning design into wikipedia in the hopes of getting it taken up by real-life model makers. The ultimate prize here would be to buy your own model back in 1:35 scale to mount of a plinth. For this reason it would be great for each pitch to include faked documentation, design drawings, archival footage and the like for inclusion into wiki.

FINAL VERSION
CARACAL MMEV
A MEDIUM TANK FOR THE MODERN AGE

THE HONDENAAIER INDUSTRIES, LTD. CARACAL MEDIUM MULTIPURPOSE EXPEDITIONARY VEHICLE
Hondenaaier Ind., Ltd. is proud to present its new design for a revolutionary medium weight vehicle. The CARACAL tank meets every need for a rapid deployment expeditionary vehicle for infantry support, long range fire, anti-tank missions, counter-insurgency warfare, and conventional engagements. The CARACAL tank sports a combination of all-around armor, devastating firepower, and great speed that makes it one of the most well-balanced and relentlessly effective vehicles ever designed.
CARACAL MEDIUM MULTIPURPOSE EXPEDITIONARY VEHICLE
SPECIFICATIONS

Crew: 3 (Driver, Gunner, Commander
Engine: MTU 871 Ka-501 1200 shp, 2,600 RPM
Cylinder displacement: 3.97 l
Total displacement: 31.7 l
Transmission: Allison X1100-3B, option for HMPT-1000 CVT
Suspension: Torsion bar, fully compatible with M2/M3 Bradley
Width: 3.350m, 3.920m w/ Second Chance-Light ERA
Hull height: 1.240m
Hull width: 2.160m
Hull length: 7.140m
Turret ring: 2.150m (same as M1)
Ground clearance: 0.46m
Empty weight: 35 tonnes
Combat weight: 36-40 tonnes, depending on configuration
Maximum speed: 80 km/h (governed)
Maximum reverse speed: 48 km/h (with X1100)
Fuel capacity: 230 US gallons (870 l)
Hull rotation time (360°): 8 seconds
Turret rotation time (360°): 7 seconds
Armament: 75mm Lancer CT Autocannon, 2-3 machine guns
Ammunition load: 150 75mm CT rounds, ~9,000 MMG rounds, ~800 HMG rounds
Stabilization: 2-axis, passively stabilized
Main gun elevation/depression: 25/-12 degrees
Ammunition types (75mm): HEAT-MP-T (programmable), HEDP-T (programmable), APFSDS-T, HEAT-T, TP-T, TPCSDS-T, HE-OR-T
FIREPOWER

The CARACAL has the most versatile armament of any modern fighting vehicle. Standard armament consists of a smoothbore 75mm automatic cannon, capable of variable rates of fire between 50 and 200 rounds per minute, in three shot bursts. This cannon fires caseless single-piece ammunition from a magazine contained in the turret bustle. The cannon is of the swing-chamber type, with a separate chamber segment that swings to the left of the gun axis under the force of recoil. At the end of its stroke, it triggers an electrically-driven feed mechanism capable of loading the gun at over 400 rounds per minute, limited to 200 in practice. This feed mechanism is capable of feeding the gun at all attitudes and arcs of rotation.
The 75mm cannon is fully programmable, and is integrated with the tank's stabilization and situational awareness systems. This gives the tank great capability against softer targets like infantry, helicopters, and light armored vehicles. For example, one mode coordinates a three-round burst of 75mm programmable high explosive projectiles, according to the target being engaged. When attacking infantry, the CARACAL's gun fires three projectiles at a calculated dispersion given the range detected by the tank's sensors, ensuring that each projectile bursts above the ground near the target at the very edge of every other round's radius. These rounds can be patterned in line, rank, cloverleaf, and other patterns, for destructive capability far, far beyond that of even higher-caliber artillery guns. Against lightly armored vehicles and IFVs, the CARACAL's 75mm gun can be programmed to either maximize hit probability or penetration. In the former mode, the gun works by attacking a smaller dispersion area against the identified target, ensuring the highest probability of a knock out hit. In the latter mode, three 75mm rounds are programmed to strike the exact same location, allowing the first two hits to detonate or disrupt any explosive reactive or non explosive reactive armor on the vehicle. Likewise, when attacking helicopters, this same capability allows the CARACAL to fire a maximum-hit-probability group at its target, enabling the CARACAL to quickly kill helicopters before they can engage it back. This enables the CARACAL MMEV to dominate its battlespace versus air and ground threats alike.
The CARACAL is not your average expeditionary light tank, however. With a 2,150mm turret ring, the CARACAL is capable of accepting all M1-compatible turrets and guns, including 140mm tank gun systems designed by Royal Ordnance, GIAT, and Rheinmetall. This ensures that the CARACAL chassis remains competitive in the event of a high intensity conflict with a high density of enemy main battle tanks. Against lighter, less capable offerings from other companies, the CARACAL is in a class by itself.
With the combination of an incredibly effective and versatile 75mm gun, and main battle tank caliber armament that can defeat even the most advanced threats, the HONDENAAIER INDUSTRIES, LTD. CARACAL MEDIUM MULTIPURPOSE EXPEDITIONARY VEHICLE is the right solution for the unpredictable future nonlinear battlespace of tomorrow!
ARMOR

The CARACAL MMEV provides the most cost-effective and flexible armor solution of any main battle fighting vehicle available today. At its foundation, the CARACAL MMEV comes proofed against 30mm HEDP ammunition from attack angles as generous as 60 degrees from the horizon. This basic layer of armor not only protects the CARACAL from small arms fire, heavy machine gun fire, and most autocannon fire, but shields the CARACAL against attack helicopter cannon fire as well. Even in the lightest package, the CARACAL protects against high explosive shells as large as 105mm from a distance of 5m, as well as rocket and light antitank weapon fire at severe angles. The comprehensive protection package doesn't end there, however, as the CARACAL also comes with a modular armor attachment system built-in to the base armor layer, allowing it to mount extensive Explosive Reactive Armor and Non-Explosive Reactive Armor packages over its glacis, mantlet, turret, and side skirts. The Second Chance-Light ERA package, for example protects against an additional 600mm of RHA penetration, giving the fully-equipped CARACAL MMEV a total of almost 800mm RHA protection from the frontal aspect.
Against mines and IEDs, the CARACAL MMEV is protected by a generous 40mm thick armor plate as the base layer, but also has mounting points for additional belly armor packages including NERA and laminate armor. At its maximum threat armor package, the CARACAL protects against TM-72 and Type 84 anti-tank mines, as well as large IED warheads.
Beyond its passive armor package, the CARACAL also offers upgrade capability with a wide variety of Active Protection Systems, including the comprehensive Regal APS, which couples a computer-controlled multi-function Doppler radar to Low Reaction Time (LRT) projectile dispensers that can intercept a variety of incoming missiles from 600-3,000 m/s velocity. Regal also incorporates a multi-function signal jammer to confuse and deflect incoming missiles away from the CARACAL MMEV.
Further, the CARACAL MMEV so-equipped with both ERA and APS systems still stays within the weight and size limits necessary for two to be comfortably transported in a C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft, with roll-on/roll-off capability. This allows the CARACAL MMEV to deploy to anywhere in the world within hours, to everywhere from major airports to unprepared grasslands, while doubling the strategic capability of an armored force versus current heavier main battle tank offerings.
So protected, the CARACAL is a tough adversary, capable of going toe-to-toe and emerging victorious against the latest man-portable anti-tank weapons, helicopter-fired ATGMs, and main battle tank cannons. Far from being “just another light tank”, the CARACAL MMEV is a true “high transportable” medium main battle fighting vehicle.
MOBILITY

At its maximum weight configuration, the CARACAL MMEV is packing 32 hp/tonne, giving it a full third more power to weight than competing heavier main battle tanks. This additional power, coupled with advanced transmission and suspension options, gives the CARACAL unprecedented battlefield mobility that allows it to attack the enemy any time, anywhere, and melt away before the enemy can coordinate a counter-attack. The CARACAL embodies the modern incarnation of the firefighting tank, able to sprint from hotspot to hotspot to attack and defeat the enemy so that friendly forces can take objectives and defeat the enemy in detail. As a dynamic fire support weapon, the CARACAL is unparalleled; its speed, coupled with its devastating firepower allow it to rapidly support allied forces and defeat enemy air and ground threats alike, making it a key component in future battle plans that demand rapid, total victory.
OPTICS AND COMMUNICATION

The CARACAL MMEV is equipped with the latest optical sensors, thermal all-weather vision equipment, internal radar and early warning systems, laser rangefinders and designators, and electronic network integration systems. This comprehensive optics and communication suite makes the CARACAL the most situationally aware vehicle on the battlefield, as well as the vehicle with the lowest reaction time to any threat. Mounted on the right of the turret is the commander's cupola, fully equipped with all around multi-function day/night/all-weather periscopes mounted around the hatch. On the left of the turret is the gunner's periscope, also an all-weather multi-function model with full thermal and low light capabilities. Both the commander and gunner are fully equipped to fight in any weather under the protection of the CARACAL's armor, minimizing the amount of time that either crewmember must remain unbuttoned. Due to this, the CARACAL can fight at any time, in any environment, including in nuclear threat zones.
The CARACAL's databus is fully compatible with MIL-STD-1553, and also supports IEEE 1394, giving the CARACAL the most flexible electronics suite of any modern armored fighting vehicle, and that means the CARACAL is an eminently upgradeable vehicle that can adapt to changing requirements and new technology. Likewise, the CARACAL is a fully networked vehicle, able to communicate in an instant with allied air, sea, and land forces through its fully FIPS-140-compliant network suite. All of the network and electronics modules on the CARACAL are also completely modular, easing the demands of full fleet refurbishment and giving the CARACAL the lowest projected upgrade costs of any current armored vehicle.
THE CARACAL MMEV is the world's future premier lightweight main battle fighting vehicle, able to deploy rapidly to anywhere in the world at a moment's notice twice as efficiently as the modern main battle tank. Capable of defeating all threats, air or ground, while completing mission objectives and providing maximum survivability and battlefield persistence for allied forces, the CARACAL is THE next-generation fighting vehicle for tomorrow's non-euclidean battlezone. Choose to win. Choose the CARACAL MEDIUM MULTIPURPOSE EXPEDITIONARY VEHICLE.
HONDENAAIER INDUSTRIES, LTD., WE GO IN DEEP FOR DEFENSE
OOC Supplementary Stuff:
OK, so this is a section for out of character supplementary info regarding my design, some of which was requested by Colli. First, here's the Caracal with the maximum ERA package:

It's not a proper render because the render function on my SolidWorks appears to have broken for the moment. Oh well, anyway, it illustrates the package. More to come.
Alright, I've calculated the total weight of that heavy ERA package, and it comes to 4.2 tonnes. That's based on the weight of Kontakt-5, and the volume of ERA on the Caracal.
Here's the total weight breakdown for the Caracal:
Caracal weight breakdown:
Hull weight, bare: 11.63 tonnes
Driver's hatch weight: 0.196 tonnes
Turret weight, bare: 6.08
Mantlet weight, bare: 0.869 tonnes
Optics weight: 0.357 tonnes
Commander's hatch weight: 0.063 tonnes
Gunner's hatch weight: 0.035 tonnes
Periscope weights:
0.014 tonnes
0.014 tonnes
Total armor percentage: 56% (without ERA)
ERA weight: 1.9 tonnes (light), 4.2 tonnes (heavy)
Fender/side skirts weight: 0.49 tonnes
Gun weight: 1.144 tonnes (3.3%)
Ammunition weight: 0.810 tonnes
Fuel weight (230 US gallons): 0.696 tonnes
Powerpack weight: 4,300 kilograms (12.4%)
Track and suspension weight: 0.196 tonnes per roadwheel assembly
(including torsion bars; 14 total, equals 2.744 tonnes), plus
3.560 tonnes for all track links, plus 0.185 tonnes for two idler wheel assemblies, plus 0.485 tonnes for two sprockets. (22.2% for all track and suspension elements combined)
Total estimated weight (current): 34.4 tonnes (clean), 36.3 tonnes (light ERA), 38.6 tonnes (heavy ERA)
Track contact area is as follows:

That equals 4.87 square meters area. Here are the contact dimensions, if you want:

The dimensions of the ammunition, by the way, are 130mmx530mm. The ammunition is perfectly cylindrical.

I readf it ands I'm perfecatyly finye

Dare to Compare: Arjun vs Syrian Trebuchet.

Here it is with the other two.

The beautiful part is that the best game play is still in 7.7 and below, maybe even 8.0, so all these new 9.0+ vehicles are irrelevant. Sure, the are really cool, but end tier game play is nothing but campfest pixel hunt ass cancer anyways. Let the try hards have their fancy new toys, there is plenty of fun to be had elsewhere.

Otvaga members spotted a interesting button in VT-4

Incidentally, if you leave, the amount of nonsense sprouted drops.

I didn't say anything about penetration either.
 
 
See?  That's what I said.  I never claimed that HESH is impotent because it cannot penetrate.  I am saying HESH is impotent because it's impotent.

But do you know what's funny?  We had this exact same argument two years ago, and you argued in the same cringing, cowardly manner you are now.  Also, you said some hilariously insane shit, like claiming that gun-launched HESH rounds are "30+ kg."  Bitch, an entire M830 MPAT round is under 30 kg!  RDX has a density of under 2 gm/cm^3.  A 120mm wide 30 kilogram cylinder of RDX would be 1.3 meters long, or about 30% longer than an entire round of M829.

Do you know what I love though?  That you can maintain this attitude of haughty superiority when you say things that are so easy to show are wrong.  You must slay with chicks.  I can just imagine you walking up to a woman at a bar and spitting a line of bullshit about being a space shuttle door gunner in the dinosaur wars while there's visibly diarrhea leaking down your leg.  How do you manage it?  What is your secret, great master?

So that makes you pretty much entirely vulnerable to most modern ATGMs, especially the Russian Kornet which will get a serious overmatch. 
ATGMs are something you can swarm pretty easily, and is readily available to concealable infantry. Smoke will give a chance at evading them, for a while. But it's a very limited solution.
And APS is not enough to replace passive armor modules.
 
 
Want to add missiles? Give it to the IFVs, or have a gun-launched missile. Limiting yourself to using the gun only against medium-armored targets or soft targets, and only using ATGMs (HVMs) against tanks sounds a lot like what an IFV does. 
You know what's the good thing about NOT going your way? You actually have dual capabilities. You have the freedom to fire off missiles before you have a line of sight with an enemy, softening them up, and then reliably engaging them with a powerful main gun that you can know will pierce their armor. You don't limit yourself to just one capability that greatly limits you to a very certain range of engagement. If they get point blank, you're dead.
 
 
First, that depends highly on the APS itself. Developing a tank to use HVMs as its main anti-tank weapon is a very expensive undertaking. It takes billions. Updating an APS to utilize different launchers to avoid the physical restriction in time delay is nothing in comparison.
Second, this advantage in ambush situations is dwarfed by the fact that you never send a single tank to do anything alone. You send a platoon of 4 at the least, or you send a company, and even without HVMs they can deliver a LOT of firepower in a very short time. Short enough for a whole column to not realize what's hitting them. 
 
 
Hulls are already traditionally less armored than turrets. But it probably has nothing to do with sprinting from cover to cover. If you have still plenty of targets in LoS, that can also fire directly at you, you don't sprint anywhere. 
 
 
What you're essentially proposing is another Challenger 2. Not in its characteristics, but in its design philosophy. That's shit-tier. You leave no room for improvement. The UK MoD thought they could do with a tank gun that couldn't actually pierce modern armor properly. It was okay for a couple of years. But very shortly after, still when it was young, its gun became obsolete. And because of short-sightedness they need a crap-ton of money to put the firepower at a merely adequate level, for less than half their tanks. 
Same here. You want a tank whose firepower is easily countered but NOT easily replaced. You want a tank that is only lightly protected, but still go toe to toe with modern MBTs?
 
Just a little side note; The T-14's turret can be replaced. They won't do it for now, but if they'll feel it's necessary, they can either bolt on armor or have the turret replaced with something more mechanically resilient to add armor on it, whereas changing a gun to deal with such a change would require a tremendous logistical effort.
 

This is GMTI imagery, which incidentally I found on your blog, so you should be familiar with the technology and its implications for ground vehicle detection:


 
Look at the Spring 2017 Hama offensive in Syria vs the Autumn 2017 Hama offensive.  Or look at the Ukrainian conflict.  Modern surveillance is very good at picking up the movement of formations of armed vehicles even with basic day-only optics.  With advanced radar technology like GMTI the situation will be more like that facing the panzers in France in 1944; whether to risk force concentration and attract attacks or to disperse and become ineffectual.
 
Finally, and most importantly, I don't know if you've looked at a globe but not everywhere on Earth is Eastern Europe.  Modern weapon systems are expensive, and offsetting those costs means foreign sales.  Tanks that are designed to fight extremely well in one type of terrain at the expense of others don't exactly fly off the shelves.  Look at the Merkava.  Who would buy a tank that is intended only to penetrate enemy lines where they are overstretched, but cannot force an assault on a strongpoint?  Isn't breaking fixed defenses what tanks were invented for in the first place a century ago?
 
 
That's another problem with your idea; you assume that your tank will have HVMs and that the enemy will not ("slow ATGMs").  But ATGMs, while expensive relative to other infantry weapons, are much cheaper than tanks.  Why are you assuming that your relatively expensive tank will maintain an asymmetrical technological advantage against ATGMs, a much cheaper threat technology?
 
 
Yes, your hypothetical compromise tank is only marginally less protected in general than a T-90, and yet it is a few tonnes lighter.  And it's much lighter than the Western MBTs, again, despite not having much lighter protection.  How realistic is that?
 
About 50% of the weight of an MBT is armor.  If you want a lighter tank (which I agree makes sense in light of logistics and strategic mobility), protection level is probably the first thing you'll have to compromise on.  But the idea of a tank that you sketch out compromises very little on armor thickness relative to extant MBTs.  So, realistically, it isn't shaving much weight there.

Another way to make a tank lighter is to reduce the protected volume while maintaining armor thickness.  Soviet tanks took this approach.  Your idea does not.  You want ten degrees of gun depression, vice five for Soviet tank designs.  Yes, the breech of the 105mm M102 howitzer is shorter than an L7, but by a mere 220 mm.  Taking the sine of the gun depression times the round length, I get that an L7 that depresses five degrees requires less height than an M102 that depresses ten degrees.  But if you have more precise diagrams showing the thickness of the breech block and the CoG of the gun the matter could be settled more firmly.  Bottom line though, you aren't saving much weight by going to the howitzer, and you may in fact be making your tank heavier than it would be if you had a more traditional tank gun that sacrificed depression.
 
This is suspiciously similar to the idea that Blacktail Defense had about tank design.  He would often rail against needlessly large main guns on tanks and advocate that they be armed with howitzers instead.  But it simply isn't a sensible tradeoff.  The armament of a tank is 12% of its total weight, at the very most.  Compromising on armament doesn't save much weight, but reduces offensive potential enormously.
 
 
If you think this, you are not familiar with the extensive literature on the (in)effectiveness of HESH.  HESH is for poking holes in walls.  And nothing else.  It's that simple.
 
For some reason, the military reform movement (and the British military) had a sexual fetish for HESH ammunition, but you should listen to neither of these groups of people on matters of tank design.