Rat King
Izutsumi-pilled
What's our total budget? Or, in better terms, how much of our budget would getting additional models eat up?
Strategic Arms Quest 3/2: Armor Edition
- Thread starter 7734
- Start date
- Original
What's our total budget? Or, in better terms, how much of our budget would getting additional models eat up?
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
You have 1850 thalers of cash in the bank, and if pressed you could probably scrape up another 200 or so by ditching little formalities (like your staff cars and mail forwarding) for the sake of the War Effort. Prices for aditional units are ranges, because the manufacturers aren't really sure how much these things will cost outside of materials (the low end costs) and parts, prototype labor, and overtime (high end costs) unless it's Wanderer because he's got literally zero tooling and has been employing guys in garages.
TortugaGreen
Constantly out of the loop
- Pronouns
- She/Her
So we really can't afford more vehicles. We could afford a few, but if we want any more wanderer-tanks we wouldn't be able to get any others and even three more vehicles are getting close to our maximum.
Money Examples
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
To be totally fair, these are massively expensive vehicles. Two hundred thalers, for reference, is roughly the cost to buy and outfit a good farm, and your personal salary is twelve thaler ninety kreutzer a year, plus combat pay and benefits. A conscript might get seven thalers a year, eight if he's skilled trades and gets combat pay. Its no joke to say these tanks are a massive investment, and that they're quite literally more valuable than the operators. Hell, the Werser recovery teams who have to scrape the last crew out get paid more than the actual crews for that exact reason.
Contest 1: Testing Phase 1
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
After looking over the prices for additional tanks and listening to your secretary scream about costs, you came to the rather sound decision that you'd use the existing models you had. This proved to be an excellent plan, since shipping was going to cost you an arm and a leg for three flatbed cars and one high weight bulk car. Once the prototypes were assembled at the Ulm Testing Ground, crews were drawn from the mechanically literate conscripts, and salvage crews were trained by the Werser Technical Delegation, you got to work preparing your eight acres of testing field. You had a week for testing, and happily you managed to get the use of most of the testing center staff for the event.
Once the simulated battlefield was constructed, you got to work posthaste. First up was general mobility and field testing. The results were… lackluster. After an hour of maintenance and general repair, you began the test. Each tank's trial run would last for either three hours, or twenty stopages of function. Unsurprisingly, none of the tanks came up to that lofty goal.
The AV-4 lasted forty-five minutes before it hit all its allotment of stoppages. Of them, there were four incidents where the crew asphyxiated and/or were disabled due to heatstroke, ten detracking incidents, four clutch failures, one throttle failure, and one failure in the fuel lines that doused the inside of the tank in gasoline (leading to asphyxiation incident #3 after improper cleaning). The crew repaired all the issues not related to their own incapacitation in ten to forty minutes, excepting detracking incidents #5 and #6, in which the second track snapped after the first had almost finished getting replaced. You weren't quite sure how to record that one, honestly.
Next came the GK-1; which true to form did have a running engine for the proscribed six hours. The fact the engine had to be started ten minutes prior, and ran until forty minutes after the test didn't change that, the tank in question lasting an hour before mechanical conniptions shut it down. Of the stoppages, seven were related to heatstroke, six were detracking incidents, four clutch failures, one throttle failure, one cracked support wheel tied to detracking incident #2, and rather memorably (and unfortunately) one incident where the tank detonated an unexploded 208mm mortar shell and lost most of the right track, killing three of the crew. Aside from the last incident, the crew repaired all non-crew related stopages within ten to fifty minutes, and after the impromptu track removal the tank was salvaged by the salvage team in forty-five minutes to weld a skid to the hull, and half-tow half-drive it back to the garage tents.
Finally, the W-1 was up. Due to the lightness of the design, two were used for the test at once, one prototype and one pre-production model. The prototype lasted nintey minutes before hitting the stopage limit; with its more developed companion hitting eighty-five minutes. The prototype's stopages were almost universally detracking accidents, with sixteen incidents, one case of heatstroke, and three engine malfunctions that were fixed with some well-applied spanner smacks. The preproduction model only had twelve detracking incidents, four engine incidents, three cases of heatstroke, and one memorable case where the rear sprocket wheel came off entirely. Retracking took a record eight minutes, with the engine repairs being almost as fast. You estimated the lost wheel was about fifteen minutes, having lost accurate time due to laughter and your driver nearly putting the staff car in a ditch.
When it boiled down to actual manuveres, though, that's where things changed. When presented with a standard field trench of one by two meters, all three tanks cleared it without difficulty. The more extreme trenches, such as the one by two and a half meter didn't have a strong effect, but none of the tanks cleared the Fortification Trench of two by three meters with a point seven five meter backstop with anything remotely approaching alacrity. The AV-4 practically dug its own counter-trench getting through, while the GK-1 did roughly the same thing on the opposite side of the entrenchments. The W-1, after several incidents where the driver went around the obstacle, eventually managed to clear it via the expedient maneuver of wedging itself nearly sideways in the trench, tipping itself onto its right side to bring the bow up, and then digging/sawing a path out that way. Both you and the driver needed a drink after watching that, to be honest.
Armor testing came next, and presented some small problems. Aside from the gaping hole in the side of the preproduction GK-1 and corresponding hole in the crew, you needed a way to assess damage to crew whom could not actually be in the tanks. Fortunately, the test facility had some hogs for the purpose, which were quickly conscripted, killed, and hung whole in the vehicles. The operating facility would then pour a minute's worth of continuous fire into the vehicle, they would stop, and you and the recovery teams would examine the result. After fifteen minutes of this, the crews would then attempt to get the tanks off the field without Recovery Team assistance.
This went downhill spectacularly, as far as plans went. The pigs inside the AV-4 were probably lethally shredded after two minutes, and Schwarzenegger just grinned smugly at you from under his fifteen pounds of tanker armor he'd worn to the occasion to spite you. You got revenge, naturally, by having your driver slip some vinegar into the annoying Fdwbl's canteens. After about eight minutes, the pigs were unrecognizable, and at ten minutes two of the bow plates sprang loose and a side plate shattered. At fifteen minutes, most of the side panels were shattered or shot off, the bow was unrecognizable, the fuel tanks were perforated and empty (after eight minutes you stopped attempting to look inside) and the engine was more hole than operational system. The first crewmen who attempted to climb in fell off vomiting from the smell, the second group could barely stand it, and the recovery team elected to slide a pair of skids on jacks under the damn thing to tow it out to a high-pressure fire hose.
In that vein, you got ready for the disaster of the GK-1. It took three minutes to lethally shred the bow pigs, and the driver pig lasted four. Panel perforation and shattering started at twelve minutes, and once the gore had been hosed out it turned out the aftmost fuel tank had somehow survived half-full. Once the engine had been heated up (via a lit stick held up to the bulb through a hole in the armor) the vehicle managed to limp home on one cylinder, losing both tracks repeatedly in the process and shattering three of the ground wheels. Still, it self-extricated… technically.
Last up was the W-1, and if that wasn't a show you didn't know what was. After spending the first two rounds trying to consistently find the dang things (not helped by the test crew parking them in craters) the machine gun crews quickly discovered that bullets aimed at the front had an alarming propensity to ricochet everywhere. After minute five, the pigs were ruined from side fire, and the panels shattered there at minute six. Interestingly enough, the front panels held to minute fourteen, and enough of the suspension was left so that it could be put in neutral to get towed back- without worrying about the tracks coming off, no less.
In light of the obviously ruined nature of the vehicles, large caliber and explosives testing is put off in case you need to do more testing. Leaving the vehicles at the testing center with the commanding officer's blessings, you go home back to Luneberg to get ready for further paperwork.
(Vote is BY PLAN. Adopting a tank and awarding a contract is possible at this stage, but ill-advised. Making a recommendation to change features is perfectly acceptable. Lists of parts manufacturers are available on request. If a contract is adopted, it will not end the current competition until a unit with the attached vehicles is deployed and High Command can mull your decisions over with field experience.)
Once the simulated battlefield was constructed, you got to work posthaste. First up was general mobility and field testing. The results were… lackluster. After an hour of maintenance and general repair, you began the test. Each tank's trial run would last for either three hours, or twenty stopages of function. Unsurprisingly, none of the tanks came up to that lofty goal.
The AV-4 lasted forty-five minutes before it hit all its allotment of stoppages. Of them, there were four incidents where the crew asphyxiated and/or were disabled due to heatstroke, ten detracking incidents, four clutch failures, one throttle failure, and one failure in the fuel lines that doused the inside of the tank in gasoline (leading to asphyxiation incident #3 after improper cleaning). The crew repaired all the issues not related to their own incapacitation in ten to forty minutes, excepting detracking incidents #5 and #6, in which the second track snapped after the first had almost finished getting replaced. You weren't quite sure how to record that one, honestly.
Next came the GK-1; which true to form did have a running engine for the proscribed six hours. The fact the engine had to be started ten minutes prior, and ran until forty minutes after the test didn't change that, the tank in question lasting an hour before mechanical conniptions shut it down. Of the stoppages, seven were related to heatstroke, six were detracking incidents, four clutch failures, one throttle failure, one cracked support wheel tied to detracking incident #2, and rather memorably (and unfortunately) one incident where the tank detonated an unexploded 208mm mortar shell and lost most of the right track, killing three of the crew. Aside from the last incident, the crew repaired all non-crew related stopages within ten to fifty minutes, and after the impromptu track removal the tank was salvaged by the salvage team in forty-five minutes to weld a skid to the hull, and half-tow half-drive it back to the garage tents.
Finally, the W-1 was up. Due to the lightness of the design, two were used for the test at once, one prototype and one pre-production model. The prototype lasted nintey minutes before hitting the stopage limit; with its more developed companion hitting eighty-five minutes. The prototype's stopages were almost universally detracking accidents, with sixteen incidents, one case of heatstroke, and three engine malfunctions that were fixed with some well-applied spanner smacks. The preproduction model only had twelve detracking incidents, four engine incidents, three cases of heatstroke, and one memorable case where the rear sprocket wheel came off entirely. Retracking took a record eight minutes, with the engine repairs being almost as fast. You estimated the lost wheel was about fifteen minutes, having lost accurate time due to laughter and your driver nearly putting the staff car in a ditch.
When it boiled down to actual manuveres, though, that's where things changed. When presented with a standard field trench of one by two meters, all three tanks cleared it without difficulty. The more extreme trenches, such as the one by two and a half meter didn't have a strong effect, but none of the tanks cleared the Fortification Trench of two by three meters with a point seven five meter backstop with anything remotely approaching alacrity. The AV-4 practically dug its own counter-trench getting through, while the GK-1 did roughly the same thing on the opposite side of the entrenchments. The W-1, after several incidents where the driver went around the obstacle, eventually managed to clear it via the expedient maneuver of wedging itself nearly sideways in the trench, tipping itself onto its right side to bring the bow up, and then digging/sawing a path out that way. Both you and the driver needed a drink after watching that, to be honest.
Armor testing came next, and presented some small problems. Aside from the gaping hole in the side of the preproduction GK-1 and corresponding hole in the crew, you needed a way to assess damage to crew whom could not actually be in the tanks. Fortunately, the test facility had some hogs for the purpose, which were quickly conscripted, killed, and hung whole in the vehicles. The operating facility would then pour a minute's worth of continuous fire into the vehicle, they would stop, and you and the recovery teams would examine the result. After fifteen minutes of this, the crews would then attempt to get the tanks off the field without Recovery Team assistance.
This went downhill spectacularly, as far as plans went. The pigs inside the AV-4 were probably lethally shredded after two minutes, and Schwarzenegger just grinned smugly at you from under his fifteen pounds of tanker armor he'd worn to the occasion to spite you. You got revenge, naturally, by having your driver slip some vinegar into the annoying Fdwbl's canteens. After about eight minutes, the pigs were unrecognizable, and at ten minutes two of the bow plates sprang loose and a side plate shattered. At fifteen minutes, most of the side panels were shattered or shot off, the bow was unrecognizable, the fuel tanks were perforated and empty (after eight minutes you stopped attempting to look inside) and the engine was more hole than operational system. The first crewmen who attempted to climb in fell off vomiting from the smell, the second group could barely stand it, and the recovery team elected to slide a pair of skids on jacks under the damn thing to tow it out to a high-pressure fire hose.
In that vein, you got ready for the disaster of the GK-1. It took three minutes to lethally shred the bow pigs, and the driver pig lasted four. Panel perforation and shattering started at twelve minutes, and once the gore had been hosed out it turned out the aftmost fuel tank had somehow survived half-full. Once the engine had been heated up (via a lit stick held up to the bulb through a hole in the armor) the vehicle managed to limp home on one cylinder, losing both tracks repeatedly in the process and shattering three of the ground wheels. Still, it self-extricated… technically.
Last up was the W-1, and if that wasn't a show you didn't know what was. After spending the first two rounds trying to consistently find the dang things (not helped by the test crew parking them in craters) the machine gun crews quickly discovered that bullets aimed at the front had an alarming propensity to ricochet everywhere. After minute five, the pigs were ruined from side fire, and the panels shattered there at minute six. Interestingly enough, the front panels held to minute fourteen, and enough of the suspension was left so that it could be put in neutral to get towed back- without worrying about the tracks coming off, no less.
In light of the obviously ruined nature of the vehicles, large caliber and explosives testing is put off in case you need to do more testing. Leaving the vehicles at the testing center with the commanding officer's blessings, you go home back to Luneberg to get ready for further paperwork.
(Vote is BY PLAN. Adopting a tank and awarding a contract is possible at this stage, but ill-advised. Making a recommendation to change features is perfectly acceptable. Lists of parts manufacturers are available on request. If a contract is adopted, it will not end the current competition until a unit with the attached vehicles is deployed and High Command can mull your decisions over with field experience.)
We can probably eliminate the first entry entirely but the second one seems pretty functional and the third one is actually impressive for the time, it's only problem is that its extremely cramped and kind of lacks fire power but this might be offset by being able to produce more of them and grouping them together.
Winged_One²
SACQ Tablemaster
- Location
- Germany
The only thing I can say for sure about this is that they probably should try to increase the ventilation.
Made a quick table of the test results. GK-1 needs ventilation, W-1 needs better tracks. Ironically our light tank is the most armored, I would like to see the resistance against rifle fire (machine gun fire) of the GK-1 be a bit higher.
I should probably also table the actual stats of the vehicles, but that will be later.
| Heatstroke | Detracking | Transmission/Engine | Other | Time | Fortification Trench | Front Resistance | Side Resistance | |
| AV-4 | 4 | 10 | 5 | 1 Fuel Lines | 45 | Countertrench Front | 2 | |
| GK-1 | 7 | 6 (1 round wheel lost) | 5 | 208mm shell hit | 60 | Countertrench back | 3 | |
| W-1 | 1/3 | 16/12 | 3/4 | 0/Sprocket Wheel Lost | 90/85 | Some acrobatics | 14? | 5? |
I should probably also table the actual stats of the vehicles, but that will be later.
Last edited:
globalwarmth
ruining the weather.
- Location
- Polar ice caps
first generation anything sucks
TortugaGreen
Constantly out of the loop
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I note that while the W-1's armor is fantastically good, it has a very limited armament with only one gunner and only one machine gun, probably in a fixed or limited-arc mounting on the bow. Barring shocking and abnormal performance from one of the two heavy tanks, I'd back a mixed force adoption of W-1s and either AV-4s or GK-1s, currently favoring the GK-1.
[X]Plan Getting On With It.
-[X] Advise AV-4 and GK-1 developers to improve ventilation to the crew compartments.
-[X] Advise AV-4 and W-1 developers to improve track durability.
-[X] Note that contestants may request a retrial of endurance testing if they can prove to have improved their vehicle's performance. They are not required to do so, however.
-[X] Weapons testing - This is to be split into two trials, one with the armor test vehicles after being repaired as much as possible, and one with new and undamaged ones. With engine in idle, fire weapons. Record the arcs of fire of the weapons while stationary and with one minute of time to turn the vehicle, accuracy from within the vehicle, and any failures they experience. If weapons are undamaged, have them fire upon a set of steel plates of equivalent thicknesses to those of the most heavily armored tank presently available - that is, a seven millimeter sheet, a 14 millimeter sheet, and a 20 millimeter sheet.
The first four lines are to encourage the manufacturers to improve - Ventilation is really deficient if the crew are getting heat stroke and their tracks could stand to be better. The last line is a modified form of the weapons testing from my previous plan, to test both the beat up tanks and fresh ones, to evaluate how much they degrade under damage and repair cycles.
[X]Plan Getting On With It.
-[X] Advise AV-4 and GK-1 developers to improve ventilation to the crew compartments.
-[X] Advise AV-4 and W-1 developers to improve track durability.
-[X] Note that contestants may request a retrial of endurance testing if they can prove to have improved their vehicle's performance. They are not required to do so, however.
-[X] Weapons testing - This is to be split into two trials, one with the armor test vehicles after being repaired as much as possible, and one with new and undamaged ones. With engine in idle, fire weapons. Record the arcs of fire of the weapons while stationary and with one minute of time to turn the vehicle, accuracy from within the vehicle, and any failures they experience. If weapons are undamaged, have them fire upon a set of steel plates of equivalent thicknesses to those of the most heavily armored tank presently available - that is, a seven millimeter sheet, a 14 millimeter sheet, and a 20 millimeter sheet.
The first four lines are to encourage the manufacturers to improve - Ventilation is really deficient if the crew are getting heat stroke and their tracks could stand to be better. The last line is a modified form of the weapons testing from my previous plan, to test both the beat up tanks and fresh ones, to evaluate how much they degrade under damage and repair cycles.
Last edited:
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
What brings this up? None of the tanks had ammunition to detonate during the trials or guns (due to holy shit guns are expensive) mounted when this was ongoing. The 208mm mortar shell was a UXO that had been from back when mortars were being tested some thirty, forty years ago.
TortugaGreen
Constantly out of the loop
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Oh, I misread the update then. I thought the tank had for some reason been loaded during the trials and it had had a detonation. As I am evidently mistaken, I will remove that.
- Location
- Somewhere
[X]Plan We're Not Monty Python, Let's Not Just Get On With It Because People Die When You Do That
-[X] Advise AV-4 and GK-1 developers to improve ventilation to the crew compartments.
-[X] Advise AV-4 and W-1 developers to improve track
-[X] Suggest that the developers try to come up with an applique solution that can help remedy the "people getting killed by their own armor" problem, so we don't have to hose people out of tanks as often. This might be adopted even if your tank design doesn't.
-[X] Note that contestants may request a retrial of endurance testing if they can prove to have improved their vehicle's performance. They are not required to do so, however.
-[X] Weapons testing - This is to be split into two trials, one with the armor test vehicles after being repaired as much as possible, and one with new and undamaged ones. With engine in idle, fire weapons. Record the arcs of fire of the weapons while stationary and with one minute of time to turn the vehicle, accuracy from within the vehicle, and any failures they experience. If weapons are undamaged, have them fire upon a set of steel plates of equivalent thicknesses to those of the most heavily armored tank presently available - that is, a seven millimeter sheet, a 14 millimeter sheet, and a 20 millimeter sheet.
-[X] Advise AV-4 and GK-1 developers to improve ventilation to the crew compartments.
-[X] Advise AV-4 and W-1 developers to improve track
-[X] Suggest that the developers try to come up with an applique solution that can help remedy the "people getting killed by their own armor" problem, so we don't have to hose people out of tanks as often. This might be adopted even if your tank design doesn't.
-[X] Note that contestants may request a retrial of endurance testing if they can prove to have improved their vehicle's performance. They are not required to do so, however.
-[X] Weapons testing - This is to be split into two trials, one with the armor test vehicles after being repaired as much as possible, and one with new and undamaged ones. With engine in idle, fire weapons. Record the arcs of fire of the weapons while stationary and with one minute of time to turn the vehicle, accuracy from within the vehicle, and any failures they experience. If weapons are undamaged, have them fire upon a set of steel plates of equivalent thicknesses to those of the most heavily armored tank presently available - that is, a seven millimeter sheet, a 14 millimeter sheet, and a 20 millimeter sheet.
globalwarmth
ruining the weather.
- Location
- Polar ice caps
[X]Plan We're Not Monty Python, Let's Not Just Get On With It Because People Die When You Do That
- Location
- Germiston, South Africa
Why? Breakthrough vehicles do not fight other tanks, they fight entrenched infantry, MG nests, and if they do really well artillery that is trying to run away.
the W-1s could be modified into Tank hunters. give them a rocket pod or an anti-tank rifle in place of their machine gun and you have something that could hide in custom fox holes or craters to pop out and kill breakthrough vehicles.
- Location
- Brisbane
[X]Plan We're Not Monty Python, Let's Not Just Get On With It Because People Die When You Do That(with an addition)
-[X] Advise AV-4 and GK-1 developers to improve ventilation to the crew compartments.
-[X] Advise AV-4 and W-1 developers to improve track
-[X] Suggest that the developers try to come up with an applique solution that can help remedy the "people getting killed by their own armor" problem, so we don't have to hose people out of tanks as often. This might be adopted even if your tank design doesn't.
-[X] Note that contestants may request a retrial of endurance testing if they can prove to have improved their vehicle's performance. They are not required to do so, however.
-[X] Weapons testing - This is to be split into two trials, one with the armor test vehicles after being repaired as much as possible, and one with new and undamaged ones. With engine in idle, fire weapons. Record the arcs of fire of the weapons while stationary and with one minute of time to turn the vehicle, accuracy from within the vehicle, and any failures they experience. If weapons are undamaged, have them fire upon a set of steel plates of equivalent thicknesses to those of the most heavily armored tank presently available - that is, a seven millimeter sheet, a 14 millimeter sheet, and a 20 millimeter sheet.
-[X] Armour testing - Because of the limited number of tanks available, test plates with different steel thicknesses and compositions against machine-guns and shrapnel(with pigs behind to test spalling). Recommend that manufacturers adopt whichever plate types gets the best protection to weight ratios. Use this as an opportunity to test anti-spalling designs.
-[X] Advise AV-4 and GK-1 developers to improve ventilation to the crew compartments.
-[X] Advise AV-4 and W-1 developers to improve track
-[X] Suggest that the developers try to come up with an applique solution that can help remedy the "people getting killed by their own armor" problem, so we don't have to hose people out of tanks as often. This might be adopted even if your tank design doesn't.
-[X] Note that contestants may request a retrial of endurance testing if they can prove to have improved their vehicle's performance. They are not required to do so, however.
-[X] Weapons testing - This is to be split into two trials, one with the armor test vehicles after being repaired as much as possible, and one with new and undamaged ones. With engine in idle, fire weapons. Record the arcs of fire of the weapons while stationary and with one minute of time to turn the vehicle, accuracy from within the vehicle, and any failures they experience. If weapons are undamaged, have them fire upon a set of steel plates of equivalent thicknesses to those of the most heavily armored tank presently available - that is, a seven millimeter sheet, a 14 millimeter sheet, and a 20 millimeter sheet.
-[X] Armour testing - Because of the limited number of tanks available, test plates with different steel thicknesses and compositions against machine-guns and shrapnel(with pigs behind to test spalling). Recommend that manufacturers adopt whichever plate types gets the best protection to weight ratios. Use this as an opportunity to test anti-spalling designs.
Rat King
Izutsumi-pilled
[X] Plan Improvement
-[X] Advise AV-4 and GK-1 developers to improve ventilation to the crew compartments, if possible.
-[X]Request samples of armored plate from all designers/producers
--[X]Conduct controlled weapons test and post-shoot analysis on plate at various angles, utilizing bacon as potential stand-ins.
-[X] Ask for W1 design improvements.
--[X]Add geared teeth on the drive sprocket and some rollers to improve track retention during maneuvers, as well as additional center guide; potentially widen tracks, as well.
--[X]Add armor to cover the forward axel or shift the armored plating forward to cover it and prevent damage from shells, etc.
-[X]If improvements are made (W1, AV-4, GK-1), conduct revised mobility testing to see if crew and vehicle endurance is improved over the first round.
-[X]Conduct weapons testing on remaining models.
--[X]Evaluate degrees of arc and elevation of weapons, as well as visibility from gunner position
--[X]Evaluate ease of reloading while moving.
--[X]Determine if fumes from either sustained machine-gun or light artillery fire are enough to be detrimental to the crew.
--[X]Determine accuracy, both on the move over flat ground and at the halt, on flat ground and on various slopes (ties back into degrees of arc and elevation).
--[X] Determine weapon effectiveness against most likely targets, i.e. bunkers, trenches, and sandbagged positions.
--[X]If time and budget allows, conduct weapons testing against armored plate; this should be considered a low priority since we don't plan on fighting enemy armor. These are infantry support weapons.
-[X]Consult with Schwarzenegger on crew armor possibilities.
-[X] Advise AV-4 and GK-1 developers to improve ventilation to the crew compartments, if possible.
-[X]Request samples of armored plate from all designers/producers
--[X]Conduct controlled weapons test and post-shoot analysis on plate at various angles, utilizing bacon as potential stand-ins.
-[X] Ask for W1 design improvements.
--[X]Add geared teeth on the drive sprocket and some rollers to improve track retention during maneuvers, as well as additional center guide; potentially widen tracks, as well.
--[X]Add armor to cover the forward axel or shift the armored plating forward to cover it and prevent damage from shells, etc.
-[X]If improvements are made (W1, AV-4, GK-1), conduct revised mobility testing to see if crew and vehicle endurance is improved over the first round.
-[X]Conduct weapons testing on remaining models.
--[X]Evaluate degrees of arc and elevation of weapons, as well as visibility from gunner position
--[X]Evaluate ease of reloading while moving.
--[X]Determine if fumes from either sustained machine-gun or light artillery fire are enough to be detrimental to the crew.
--[X]Determine accuracy, both on the move over flat ground and at the halt, on flat ground and on various slopes (ties back into degrees of arc and elevation).
--[X] Determine weapon effectiveness against most likely targets, i.e. bunkers, trenches, and sandbagged positions.
--[X]If time and budget allows, conduct weapons testing against armored plate; this should be considered a low priority since we don't plan on fighting enemy armor. These are infantry support weapons.
-[X]Consult with Schwarzenegger on crew armor possibilities.
Last edited: