M1 "Black Queen" MBT, Any suggestions on improvements welcome.

M1 "BLACK QUEEN"

The first in the series of M1's, the Black Queen is designed for speed. I'm up for suggestions, here's the specs I've come up with and what's going on my store front once it's up for sale.

OVERVIEW
For all your tank needs, we aim to please.
Dynamic Weapon Systems is a fresh face in the military armaments industry. Providing tanks to all suppliers for cheap prices. Ask about discounts for low population, allies, and large orders.


PRODUCTS
Our current model MBT, the M1 "Black Queen", is equipped with a 120mm smooth bore cannon, capable of firing both sabot and HEAT rounds, as well as LAHAT-type rounds (GTR-4s).
Specifications below. Priced at 7M USD each. Crew of four (one driver, one commander, one gunner, one loader).
Main Armament- 120mm smooth bore L/55 (45 rounds, mixed)

Secondary Armament- 2 50 caliber heavy machine guns (one coaxial to main gun, one mounted on top of turret) HMG-50-2 (1000 rounds each)

Defensive Armament- 24 smoke grenades in 24 launchers (MPSGL-2, MPSGR-2)

Dimensions

Tank Length (w/o barrel forward): 8 meters (26.2467 ft.)

Tank Length (with barrel forward): 10 meters (32.8084 ft.)

Width: 3.5 meters (11.4829 ft.)

Height (w/o antenna): 2.286 meters (7.5 ft.)

Weight (Combat ready): 44.18 metric tonnes (48.7 tons)

Engine: 1250 hp, 2467 lb-ft. torque, runs off of diesel. OPC-Type 3 diesel,

Range (with diesel): 420 km (260.976 miles)
Miles per gallon: 0.84

Fuel Tank Capacity: 1892.1 liters (500 gallons)

Top Speed: 70 kph

Top Speed (Off Road): 55 kph (flat land, 48 kph average)

Average Cross Country Speed: 40-50 kph

Transmission: OPCT-2 (Allows for on the spot turning)

Suspension: Pneumatic springs, fluid based, fluid dampeners

Drive Sprocket: 8 Toothed, rear wheel

Road Wheels: Steel with rubber coating along diameter

Armor: Steel with ceramic bricks in it, and a Kevlar weave underneath it

Armor Front: 850mm

Effective Maximum Range (HEAT, Sabot):3500 meters (11,482.9 ft)

Effective Maximum Range (Semi guided rounds (GTR-4):8000 meters (26,246.7 ft)


History

The M1 is the first step of The Most Serene Republic of Oppressive Cyborgs into the worldwide military industry. A privately run corporation, DWS designed and built the prototypes of the M1 from Cyborgian industry. While certainly not the best tank on the market, the M1 represents a speedy little tank with excellent range. DWS hopes to expand upon the Black Queens, by offering different variants, and additional weapons systems. At the moment, only a handful of M1's have been produced, due to the low GDP of The Most Serene Republic of Oppressive Cyborgs, only around a 100 have been made. Quantities are limited, but as more sell, the number of tanks and variants will increase as rapidly as possible while still providing quality tanks at low prices.


Potential problems

The M1 is not designed to be able to survive chemical warfare and nuclear fallout. While most of it is easily maintained, the engine is not as well protected as the rest of the tank. While thinner only by 15 cm, this can still be problematic. It is fairly vulnerable to air attacks, but later editions should have small SAM's mounted on them, pending on the ability to acquire them in large enough numbers to be mounted on tanks. If a track is thrown, it can be very hard to get back on. Track and engine maintenance are difficult.

Good Points

It is very fast. It has a 120mm on it, meaning it can compare with other tanks. It has stowage boxes on the sides of the tank and back of the turret. It has decent fire control systems (Optical Arrays Mark V), thanks to a heavy computer systems industry. Black Queens have excellent computer systems for communicating with other Black Queens and compatible systems. This combination of speed, firepower, and computer systems has some of the best armor in the business. The plastic/ceramic armor is as good as (but not better) than ceramic armor/steel of equivalent thickness while being lighter. This makes for an excellent combination of speed and firepower, for a low price. Cameras in the front and rear allow for unparalleled views of the battlefield for the driver. Capable of a wide multitude of roles, these cameras can cut glare from explosions, act as night fighting equipment, and in full color, this is one of the best points of the tank. It also has conventional armored periscopes in case the cameras fail. Its exhaust is heavily muffled.

Metric please only, no mixing.

On the engine, Number of Cylinders and size of them in Liters.

Range is way to long, 500-600km should be better, maybe 700 if you engine is really efficient.

Too Many Smoke Grenades, should only need 12-16. Also, theres a different type of grenade you should use other than smoke, but its name eludes me at the moment.

Seems a tad long to me, your at just over 13m, my much heavier M2 is only 10 meters long with the gun forward. This would be a turkey shoot going up against this its so big.

In the write up, this is by no means "little".

Max offroads WAY to high, drop it to about 50 kph.

I'll let someone else evaluate the armor, but i doubt its gonna top Chobham or Steel Encased DU. Also, i hope you like people sueing your government, because anyone who has to tear one of these apart to fix it is likely to get Lead poisioning.

Yeah the mxing of units makes somethings a little tricky to read, its generally better to give both sets.

On Your rnage according to your fuel capacity and stated consumption you would have about 670km of range.

A speedy little tank isn't going to weight 60 odd tons.

70kph is likely going to be your maximum speed full stop, the engine may be able to drive it fast but as on the Abrams you will want to limit it to 70kph to stop it shaking itself to bits.

length is iffy, its longer without the gun forward than the likes of abrams and challnger 2 are with their guns forward bya good 10ft or so, why?

On the armour: lead used to be used in soem cases for radiological portection but sicne you already have DU you don't need it for that also Du isn't radioactive. How are your composite encased ceramics lighter than modern armour. Even with the best ceramics around ou are still goign to want steel in there to encase the ceramics and plastics.

At the moment your design would be maybe just about competitive agisnt existing RL tanks once you get the dimensions and armour sorted out which, and i truely hate having to say this, makes your design essentially pointless and pretty much garanteed not to sell.

All in all its not terrible but it just doesn't show much spark. if it were me I would take your speedy little tank idea and actually try to design to fit that role. it might not be ideally fitting with modern comabt doctrine but it would at least be a little different and thus more likely to sell.

For starting a storefront on NS tanks, like assault rifles, are not the place the start as the market is flooded with them. I woudl strongly suggest looking at soemthign little bit more different/quirky/specialised.

Why are your LAHAT rounds shorter rnaged than any one elses? cosndiering that LAHAT is a name of one specfic missile system as opposed to a generic class

USPA: What you are thinking of are multi spectral smoke grenades that are still more or less uniformaly known simply as "smoke genades" that get fired from "smoke dischargers" or launchers.

Starting with USPA's comments...

You're thinking of VIRSS, and it's not needed. It's epic, but not mandatory. And you can never have too many smoke grenades.

I don't understand what you're saying, your M2 is 20m long and bigger is better for it but not this?

That said, this actually is too long. 7-8m (23-26 feet) hull without gun is where you're looking. Gun overhang will depend on a lot, but should not be too huge over that.

Now... on to the design in the OP...

Light weight is your friend.

Too short, if I do say so. Although a good visual comparative would help. You're slightly taller (by inches) then the T-90, and quite shorter then all RL tanks in your weight class.

Absurd. You have about 1893L of fuel. Your best RL diesels for such an application can get you about 2.2L/km, or 860km range on that fuel amount. But I think you have too much fuel by 693-493L.

Speeds are absurd. Anything at or over 75-80km/h is going to cause serious damage to your drivetrain and tracks. And that's just on road. Off-road speed will be limited by this as well, but further limited by your suspension. 50km/h is a good road speed for flag open terrain. You're only ever going to hit 70km/h in one of those flat, hard-packed open areas on NS like the Sumerian Plains.

Elaborate please. I can pretty much assure you that any "pneumatic spring" based suspension that exists for tanks that will take your weight, won't give you these speeds.

This is a horrible armour. To start, lead is soft, and is thus less capable then some high-end plastics as a face surface. And on top of that, it's heavier then those plastics. As to plastic encasing the armour, I doubt it can hold it as well as steel.

???

HEAT is only limited in range by the gun, as if it detonates on the enemy tank, it will do its job regardless of velocity, unlike the APDS.

LAHAT is a gun-launched anti-tank guided missile. Its range has nothing to do with the gun.

Your tracks will be magnitudes more noisy then your engine exhaust unless you're venting it right from the cylinders.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm going to tone it done, but some of my competition has ridiculously high speeds, among other things, assuming I get noticed. Trying to get a website started so that I can post pictures of the tank online. Until I get TurboCADD back online, I'm stuck with art, so it isn't a very good looking tank at this point.

M35A2 Cataphract

Converted everything into metric, but still kept old measurements cause they are impressive, and I do need good marketing to convince people to buy my tanks.

Armors way to thick, try to think of it, a M1 Abrams has about 1 foot of Steel Encased DU Armor, and it ways 64 tons, you have 7 feet, 7 times the thickness, drop it to about 600-900mm. 7 feet is bunker thickness, not tank.

Again, Max offroad is way to high, drop it to about 50-55 Kph for max, with average at about 48 kph

Still seems to long and wide, drop the length by about 2m each, and the width by about .3 to .5m and i think that would be good, because at this size and the stated weight, seems like your trying to fit a pair of Lazyboys, a 70inch flatscreen, and a kitchen in it.

The M1 Abrams is 9.77m long with the gun forward, about 8 without it. M1 is also 3.66m wide.

Drop the gun range, it'll vary with the shell anyhow.

I'll drop the speeds if you all think it is too fast, and the width. It is meant to be fit and carried in a plane. Length, now that, can't be given up. It's got a huge freaking gun on it with long rounds. Probably be best to keep it like that. After all, plastics/Kevlar cross weave with ceramics and a Du layer in it is lighter than ceramics/steel/Du mix.

The thing is 20 tons heavier than the M1, as well as several meters longer. You simply cannot hold that size and keep the weight. You have the same armament as the M1A1/A2 Abrams, Leopard 2A5, and many others.


7 feet of that armor is likely to weigh 88 tons by itself, drop it to 600-900mm.

As it stands, size wise, there isnt many aircraft outside of a An-124, An-225, C-5 and a C-17 that can carry this IRL, just by its size. If you want to keep the size, up the weight by about 4-10 tons.

Long post time again with many quotes...

Where are you getting 48km/h? The best modern tanks can do 50km/h, but don't. It still causes damage.

The Leopard 2 is 3.8m wide. The LeClerc is 3.7m. The Chally 2, 3.5m. The Arjun, 3.85m.

No, you should reduce it. The longer the body, the longer the track contact patch, the more likely you are to throw a track while turning. I can assure you your long rounds are not as long as my long rounds, and I fit them nicely in a normal size. You don't need that kind of length due to rounds. Length with gun will depend on gun length, and after 7m your gun will flop around too much to be used while moving anyway. Your 120mm L/45 is 5.4m long, so it's fairly medium sized. That's 6.43m of length behind the gun you have, so your gun is mounted right on the front deck. A more conventional design will work far better, have the gun further back as well. If it's a literal Abrams clone in appearance, then your tank should share the same dimensions length wise. 7.98m long hull, 9.83m with gun forward. There is really no need for the absurd lengths.

No it isn't. It's far weaker in protection too. That DU, for one, is heavy stuff, so it being there is going to jack the weight up unless the vehicle density goes up too.

Density is important. The larger the internal volume of the vehicle armoured, the larger the surface area to be armoured, and thus the more armour needed to maintain a given thickness. Literally, your tank's weight will grow exponentially to your size. The best protected tanks available in NS actually reduce internal armoured volume, thus increasing density of the tank, and subsequently increasing protection per surface area.

Plastics are the way of the future. Ever heard of the Tupperware tank? It can easily be flown in a C-5. It really is being aimed at as being an air transportable tank. i am thinking about removing the Du layer, actually. If you all think I should chuck, I would.
It's not really a clone of the Abrams. It doesn't look like one. I moved the turret back last night. "L/45" is a typo. It should have been "L/55." Once I get a site up and running, I'll have pictures of it here. It's kinda of a mix between a T-90, an M1A1, and a Leopard II. I'm still editing it, though, so the final result could look like anything.

Sumer:I was thinking on hardpacked dirt, my bad, average would be closer to 35kph or so if your lucky.

Plastics are just that, the "Future", but today is not the "Future".

Chuck the plastics. They'll not be able to grant you anywhere near the protection that you think that they will. Sumer has had this argument out before, and won it (not that it stopped the idiot from ignoring the multitude of cross-referenced sources that Sumer used, but yeah...).

Plastics will not work the way that you think that they will in Modern Tech. Best case would be middle PMT for that to work the way that you want it to.

If the "Tupperware tank" is a tank, I'm an amoeba. The only plastic AFVs I have seen yet are the size, weight, shape, and slightly less protected then, an M113. And it's not a tank, it's a lightly armoured box acting as a battle taxi.

But hey, if you've got proof of a tank with plastic armour, by all means bring it forward.

It's in prototype stages. Some of these tanks for sale have ridiculous qualities. I need something to make it interesting, with a limited budget, and my only main industry being computer information, trout farming, and the cheese exporting industry. I think I will drop the Du layer.