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[X] Captaen Lucio mac Vaemari, Army
Your captain in charge of the B Company of the batallion, and a decent commander of motorized task elements. He might drink too much in garrison, but in the field he understood his men's limitations. You've served with him for two years and a war previous to this, and trust his skill in using these vehicles.
[X] Leifteanant-Cheannasaí Mahri Siemprevidas, Navy
A ship commander left berfit his torpedo ram, and more importantly a well-known commander of naval landing forces. While he's Navy, and therefore totally irrelivant on how to design, not many people alive today can claim his experiance at breaking into armed and armored strongholds.
[X] Manuel Fabricio O'Sylvester, Irizar Bus Works
A corporate flunky like none other, Manuel works for one of the two major vehicle manufacturers in Galaceia and is totally up to date on everything you can do with them. More importantly, he also has contacts over at Ghermain Brothers Automotive over in the Irromes in case you need to order some parts from out of the country.
[X] Captaen Lucio mac Vaemari, Army
Your captain in charge of the B Company of the batallion, and a decent commander of motorized task elements. He might drink too much in garrison, but in the field he understood his men's limitations. You've served with him for two years and a war previous to this, and trust his skill in using these vehicles.
[X] Ceannfort Johan Muller Santiago y Portezon, Air Corps
One of the darling boys of the ground attack portion of the air force, and more importantly one who's not got his head so far up his ass he's turned into Oruboros, Johan's big item he's bringing to the table is the ability to turn anyone standing against you politically into wet paste.
[X] Felix Austorias van Doragio, Elizalde Automotive
A corporate flunky who is also a girl, because after the manpower shortages in '43d9 women's rights have basically got shot into bloody orbit, and a negotiator from one of the two major heavy industries left in Galaceia. More importantly, if you want to contract the armor out, she's also got contacts over in Skoda Panzerschiffenwerke, who've been working hand in hand with the tank guys forever.
You managed to rope mac Vaemari, a maniac of a Naval Officer, and some auto representative together for your impromptu board of affairs. The meetingplace was a table at the local tavern that had popped up outside the battalion camp, and the discussion was done over tapas and a cheap red sangria that honestly wasn't worth the twenty dollars real you'd paid for it.
Starting with mac Vaemari, you got to work. His objective in this was to make sure you had a vehicle that could charge up into the thick of it, spraying suppressing fire all the way. The problem was, he explained using a china marker and a stolen napkin, if they did that with any of his existing trucks the mounting for the gun (tentatively a Bahlk Portative) would loose out on space. Armor-wise, it would need to be proof against rifle caliber machine guns, and after that everything would be gravy. If you needed to, the equipment existed and you had the freedom to reorganize your infantry squads, which would then force a reorganization of your platoon and company structure.
The maniacal naval officer, Siemprevidas, was a bit more opinionated. According to the strategic doctrine, the Motor Rifle Batallion was supposed to be a relative outrider unit, assigned to operating at the extent of an advancing column or fighting in skirmishing retreats. Therefore, the end platform needed reasonable cross-country ability and speed first and foremost, with the next priority being keeping the full-size squad. This quickly proved to be a bone of contention, since mac Vaemari was of the opinion that in a field engagement the extra manpower in the squad would be worthless since the majority of the squad was armed with the Jackal SMG, which was hard pressed to deliver anything near accurate fire at more than fifty yards. The problem was, unless or until the small arms commission could sort out a domestic production of the far-superior Ntja carbines, or develop a knockoff, there needed to be a way to engage at long range aside from the two autoriflemen. While that doctrinal disaster spiraled out, you turned to the car rep and got ready to talk turkey.
van Doragio was a young woman with bright black hair, blue-green eyes, and a slight stammer when she spoke. The main problem that Elizade Auto would have with any of your orders was going to be a chassis- everything else could be rolled out without any major issues to get a good base model, and then getting it all armed up. Due to legal issues, though, a state armory would need to partner with them to mount any weapons, and the only place they'd be able to get armor was from the contacts at Skoda unless you were willing to guarantee a several thousand unit order.
With that done, and after rescuing Sr. van Doragio from the ensuring brawl when Siemprevidas said the Jackal was a decent gun, you got back to your command area and started pounding paper on how to get the new system integrated into your scrap iron battalion. Testing for different systems would have to be split off across existing battalions, but once you started getting the new assault carrier how would you issue it? Would you re-equip the companies one platoon at a time, or would you evenly distribute the new system everywhere to maximize the likelihood it saw use? Questions rattled through your head as you finished up notorizing the results of the meeting in officialesse, as well as a clean copy in your private journals.
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OPEN PLAN VOTE: Write your RFQ
An RFQ is a Request For Quotes, where you lay out a list of specifics you want in vehicles you're going to test soon. Whether you want wheels or treads, certain engine sizes, armor or guns, and any other thoughts all go into the RFQ. This isn't a Christmas list, though: the larger your RFQ, the more expensive the resultant entrants will be, and the more time and energy it will cost you as the players to see through. Likewise, being overly specific will be equally painful as manufacturers have compromises they need to make to deliver your project. An example RFQ from SACQ 3/2s will be provided below as an example. I will not say whether or not it is a good plan; just that this is the general format anyone wondering about making their own plan should use.
[X] Plan Sanity
-[X] Turreted-mounted main armament consisting of at minimum one 5.5cm gun or rapid fire cannon.
--[X] Between one and three machine guns as secondary weapons encouraged but not required.
-[X] Armor sufficient to withstand sustained rifle and machine gun fire
-[X] Sufficient tactical speed and endurance to keep up with infantry for 8 hours.
-[X] Able to be transported without disassembly using existing portable bridges, landing craft and rail cars.
-[X] Able to cross an unbridged river two meters deep and ten wide under its own power.
Personally I'm inclined towards a basic feature list of 'Carries at least one machine gun, maybe more, at least resistant to light machine gun fire and 'being somewhere near an exploding artillery shell', enough rough terrain capacity it's not limited to roads and can actually be used on battlefields with a crater or two, and not being a giant hassle to get people in and out of' but I am not a vehicle or military expert.
What other traits do people think we want our IFV/APC/Hopefully Not A DisasterCar to have?
[X] Plan Babby's First IFV
-Turret-mounted 2cm or 3cm autocannon
--GPMG and/or HMG as secondary armament, pintle-mounted or co-axial
-Armoured against rifle-caliber machine-gun fire, prefer armouring against GPMG or larger fire from the front
-Space for at least 6 infantrymen and equipment
-Cross-country/off-road capability, including soft ground
--Ability to cross a river 10 meters wide and 2 meters deep without external assistance
--Must be transportable without disassemble by rail and landing craft, able to cross portable bridges unloaded
See if we can strike a balance of protection-firepower-mobility-capacity. Not sure if we use 10-man sections or something else, but with 6-man capacity two of these can shift a section of 10-12, which for what amounts to an IFV ain't half bad.
[x] Little Box of Wonders
-[x] Vehicle must be amphibious, with as little preparation as practical.
--[x] Ideally vehicle should be amphibious with no more preparation than erecting a trim vane or whatever else can be handled by the driver without leaving their position.
-[x] Vehicle may be wheeled or tracked.
-[x] Vehicle must have a combat range in excess of four hundred kilometers and should require maintenance intervals no more frequent than four hundred kilometers.
-[x] Can use multiple variants for meeting some requirements, but must share the same engine and transmission and majority of drivetrain and suspension components, although track length may be extended with identical bogies, or the hull otherwise vary in length if necessary.
-[x] Any personnel carrier variant must be able to transport a minimum of six passengers plus the crew.
-[x] Vehicle must be armored against a heavy machine gun in the frontal arc, and be protected against small arms fire and shrapnel in all other directions.
-[x] Vehicle should ideally be proof against chemical weapons.
-[x] Vehicle must have the ability to mount at a minimum a machine gun for protection.
--[x] Vehicle should ideally support a heavy machine gun or autocannon and/or a low velocity gun or gun mortar capable of firing HEAT or HE ammunition to support infantry.
---[x] This requirement may be met through a separate variant pursuant to above requirements.
-[x] Vehicle weight must not exceed fourteen tonnes and should ideally be under seven tonnes in all versions.
-[x] Vehicle hull must not exceed 2.5m in height
-[x] Vehicle must fit existing railcars and transport aircraft.
I'm sort of skeptical about any of the amphibious stuff actually working out at all,, much less without horrific compromises in literally everything else. But...tentatively:
It's perfectly reasonable to put in riders on repairs and field matinence. As it stands, any vehicle you pick will have a reasonable amount of organic repair, since the crew are all trained in the basic maintenance of their rides to reduce logistics tail. You can't call a tow out in the field, after all, especially when you don't have tow trucks.
[x] Little Box of Wonders
I like this one more because I cant stand making an IFV with a bloody autocannon. This is supposed to be a battle taxi and not a Tank! Also this proposal is likely more useful as it can also be used as a utility vehicle or a mobile hq!
Yeah the SKOT is barely outside the requirements, while the M113, BTR-60 and most other late 50s/early 60s APCs will actually fit inside that minimum set of requirements, thought the strict weight limit should get us something closer to a gas-proof Panhard M3 VTT.
[x] Little Box of Wonders
-[x] Vehicle must be amphibious, with as little preparation as practical.
--[x] Ideally vehicle should be amphibious with no more preparation than erecting a trim vane or whatever else can be handled by the driver without leaving their position.
-[x] Vehicle may be wheeled or tracked.
-[x] Vehicle must have a combat range in excess of four hundred kilometers and should require maintenance intervals no more frequent than four hundred kilometers.
-[x] Can use multiple variants for meeting some requirements, but must share the same engine and transmission and majority of drivetrain and suspension components, although track length may be extended with identical bogies, or the hull otherwise vary in length if necessary.
-[x] Any personnel carrier variant must be able to transport a minimum of six passengers plus the crew.
-[x] Vehicle must be armored against a heavy machine gun in the frontal arc, and be protected against small arms fire and shrapnel in all other directions.
-[x] Vehicle should ideally be proof against chemical weapons.
-[x] Vehicle must have the ability to mount at a minimum a machine gun for protection.
--[x] Vehicle should ideally support a heavy machine gun or autocannon and/or a low velocity gun or gun mortar capable of firing HEAT or HE ammunition to support infantry.
---[x] This requirement may be met through a separate variant pursuant to above requirements.
-[x] Vehicle weight must not exceed fourteen tonnes and should ideally be under seven tonnes in all versions.
-[x] Vehicle hull must not exceed 2.5m in height
-[x] Vehicle must fit existing railcars and transport aircraft.
