Strategic Arms Quest 3/2: Armor Edition
- Thread starter 7734
- Start date
- Original
NothingNow
Corpse Wrangler
- Location
- Tampa
[X] Plan Practicality
-[X] Turreted-mounted main armament consisting of one 5.5cm gun or rapid fire cannon, or exceeding them in high explosive fill.
--[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 using existing portable bridges, landing craft and rail cars.
-- [x] Absolute Maximum weight limit of 40 tons wet, 30t dry.
-[X] Able to cross an unbridged river two meters deep and ten wide under its own power. Additional floatation devices may be allowed, but the basic vehicle should be buoyant with its full crew and fuel load and water tight.
--[x] properly sized Escape hatches must be placed near every crew position to reduce losses in the event the tank floods. Failure to do so will result in immediate disqualification.
-[X] Turreted-mounted main armament consisting of one 5.5cm gun or rapid fire cannon, or exceeding them in high explosive fill.
--[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 using existing portable bridges, landing craft and rail cars.
-- [x] Absolute Maximum weight limit of 40 tons wet, 30t dry.
-[X] Able to cross an unbridged river two meters deep and ten wide under its own power. Additional floatation devices may be allowed, but the basic vehicle should be buoyant with its full crew and fuel load and water tight.
--[x] properly sized Escape hatches must be placed near every crew position to reduce losses in the event the tank floods. Failure to do so will result in immediate disqualification.
- Location
- Brazil
We have 40t extra to play with.
No reason to handicap ourselves by going with such a drastically lower limit.
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
They're covered.
globalwarmth
ruining the weather.
- Location
- Polar ice caps
[X] Plan Practicality
One additional justification for plan sanity: additional line items and semi-independent clauses and such cost us money. We know this. I did the best I could to keep it trimmed down with that in mind. Practicality adds more that are, in my opinion, unnecessary. And that's even with assuming the ones that were already covered in our last vote don't cost us any money, which I'm not entirely willing to count on.
- Location
- Russia
- Pronouns
- He
[X] Plan Sanity
Why do we consider MGs as an optional requirement? Without MGs or small caliber autocannons the tank cannot lay down suppressive fire while it is crossing the river, as the main cannon will probably be shaking too much to aim it. If the tanks will be moving across together with the infantry, they will need to minimise return fire on the infantry. If they are moving first, they will need to shake off enemies with grenades off other tanks.
The point is moot, of course, if the tank is crossing rivers underwater.
Huh, I answered myself.
Why do we consider MGs as an optional requirement? Without MGs or small caliber autocannons the tank cannot lay down suppressive fire while it is crossing the river, as the main cannon will probably be shaking too much to aim it. If the tanks will be moving across together with the infantry, they will need to minimise return fire on the infantry. If they are moving first, they will need to shake off enemies with grenades off other tanks.
The point is moot, of course, if the tank is crossing rivers underwater.
Huh, I answered myself.
Himmelhand
Giant Sinkhole 2020
- Location
- Midwestern US
[X] Plan Sanity
Zeroth Jupi
Sporadic Writer and Haver of Ideas
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
[X] Plan Sanity
CthuluWasRight
Fresh Meat for the SV Grinder
- Location
- Canada
[X] Plan Sanity
We need to do the best with what we have, and while we at least have a little money left in the bank we don't want to overdo it.
We need to do the best with what we have, and while we at least have a little money left in the bank we don't want to overdo it.
TortugaGreen
Constantly out of the loop
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Plan Sanity
Contest 4: Entrants Round Two
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
With the request for quotes done, the contestants re-organized themselves. Skoda had to pull out entirely, while Reinhardt formally switched their entrant over to the MrW-5, an export design of armor car built around the not-quite entrant legal 4cm/47 high velocity quick fire cannon the Wersers had developed for tank destroying and suppressing bunkers. The six-wheeled monstrosity had a modification for tracks in the back (earning the nickname Halbkettenfahrzeug) and packed a not insignificant twenty millimeter foreplate and nine millimeter side plates. The mostly open top could be seen as a disadvantage, but the whole rig only weighed eight tons wet and had room to cram in a quartet of light machine guns in the back or get converted to the experimental anti-air variant with a 14.5mm quad-mount turret.
Thryssen left the KTW-3 unchanged in the competition, of course.
Ghermain Brother's Automobile and Commorate Casting both sent in a second prototype unit in apiece, to the same standards as the first. No significant changes were planned for either company from the new requirements- the Np-1 possesed individual hatches and a means to disconnect the turret roof to detach it, while the Ukw-1 had a driver's hatch and a pair of side swing-open hatches on the flanks of the turret to disembark from.
Interestingly enough, another group came out of the woodwork- Armind's, a delivery and carriage company who'd moved into motorcars recently. Their entry was a fairly traditional semi-turretless design, with the main armament in a open-topped gun shield on a pintle. Said armament was an 8,8cm naval anti-aircraft and anti-boat rifle for some reason, while the hull had six assorted heavy machine guns. They claimed unparalleled protection, and in arriving she made a whopping sixteen kilometers per hour. Their means of water crossing was a snorkel and sealing the tank shut, however in case of emergency their escape plan was to use doors built in the armor to allow everyone inside to escape. It only came in at thirty six tons too, somehow.
Before you get back into testing, again, Folgers took the time to send you a message. The regular army had standardized on the W-5/W-6 combination for their five new tank regiments, and he'd have to go be a company commander for one soon, so he'd be leaving inside the week to get on with that. After that, you wouldn't have him for testing.
Speaking of, you had your current run of prototypes here, and it was about time to get down to that whole testing thing. Maybe this time you could do something that didn't involve potentially fishing large pieces of steel out of the water first?
(PLAN VOTE on testing next. Flotation will be handled off screen, so don't vote for it.)
(This update brought to you by Bandit Radio)
Thryssen left the KTW-3 unchanged in the competition, of course.
Ghermain Brother's Automobile and Commorate Casting both sent in a second prototype unit in apiece, to the same standards as the first. No significant changes were planned for either company from the new requirements- the Np-1 possesed individual hatches and a means to disconnect the turret roof to detach it, while the Ukw-1 had a driver's hatch and a pair of side swing-open hatches on the flanks of the turret to disembark from.
Interestingly enough, another group came out of the woodwork- Armind's, a delivery and carriage company who'd moved into motorcars recently. Their entry was a fairly traditional semi-turretless design, with the main armament in a open-topped gun shield on a pintle. Said armament was an 8,8cm naval anti-aircraft and anti-boat rifle for some reason, while the hull had six assorted heavy machine guns. They claimed unparalleled protection, and in arriving she made a whopping sixteen kilometers per hour. Their means of water crossing was a snorkel and sealing the tank shut, however in case of emergency their escape plan was to use doors built in the armor to allow everyone inside to escape. It only came in at thirty six tons too, somehow.
Before you get back into testing, again, Folgers took the time to send you a message. The regular army had standardized on the W-5/W-6 combination for their five new tank regiments, and he'd have to go be a company commander for one soon, so he'd be leaving inside the week to get on with that. After that, you wouldn't have him for testing.
Speaking of, you had your current run of prototypes here, and it was about time to get down to that whole testing thing. Maybe this time you could do something that didn't involve potentially fishing large pieces of steel out of the water first?
(PLAN VOTE on testing next. Flotation will be handled off screen, so don't vote for it.)
(This update brought to you by Bandit Radio)
- Location
- Somewhere
How is something with an *open-top turret mount* going to seal itself to go full Tauchpanzer? Is this a Wirbelwind-style "open turret"?
Last edited:
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
Well, you get inside the tank, then it goes underwater. Then when the tank gets out of the water, you get out.
Himmelhand
Giant Sinkhole 2020
- Location
- Midwestern US
What I'm hearing is that this is actually a disproportionately large deck gun on a very small submarine.
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
I mean, yes. This is the gun the submarines use for their deck gun, generally two of them.
CthuluWasRight
Fresh Meat for the SV Grinder
- Location
- Canada
In that case, is there a hatch from the crew compartment to the turret? How quickly and safely could the gunners exit the vehicle and crew the gun under fire?
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
It's not a turret, per say. It's a gun on a pintle mount, with a shield. The majority is open air, so getting out is literally a hop, skip, and a jump off the side of the tank.