Airborne Tank Armament

I have a question for you guys, what do you think is the best armament for a large [30 tonne] airborne tank? [Please dont turn this into a weight debate]

The two ideas I'm looking at right now are an IFV killing rapid-fire 76mm gun armed with ATGM for anything harder. The other is an idea I stile from Doom that uses a 125mm ETC. While this would be an ideal solution I think the gun itself and the ETC add-ons would make it far to heavy to use in a weight specific vehicle and the recoil would be too much. Granted he is going for an S-tank design, but I still think the gun wouldn't even work there.

Unless this had no armour and as bare as a Romanian prison, 125mm ETC is too much, far too much. Considering that NS tanks are 'cutting-edge', you'd be hard pressed to find anything sensible with that armament under 60 tons.

I'd prefer a large-caliber gun for improved explosive throw weight in support of infantry. An M8 AGS was fitted w/a 120mm ETI gun.

First, too bad 30 tonnes is a tad more then heavy for an airborne tank.

Second, clip-fed automatic mortars are your friend. Slap a vasilek on it and maybe a mount for a decent ATGM, and you're good to go. Nothin like saturating an area with a pile of direct fire ~80mm mortar goodness.

I have an airborne rocket-assisted drop ADATS called M135 MacGavin. The crew has to paradrop by their own.

Also, 20 tons is the limit for rocket-assisted paradrop, and that without the crew inside it.

Do a Google for the 2S25 Sprut-D. 125mm smoothbore low-recoil cannon of win.

How is it "low recoil"?

Kinda reminds me of what happened when they strapped the gun of the M-26 onto an M-4 chassis... and then took the M-4's gun and stashed them onto a light tank chassis.

*Watches video*
Yep, as expected, the recoil nearly knocks the entire vehicle over (exageration) when fired from land, turret rocks to a noticeable extent, if only for an instant. (Made it look like it was being rammed by an invisable small car, not an exageration, the T-90 wieghed what? Only 39 tons?)

I also found that the hydro-pnumatic suspension is "REQUIRED", because "otherwise it wouldn't cope with the recoil nearly as well". So the cost is that and a huge-assed muzzle brake that needs to be camo'ed up with the rest of the barrel.

Most uncomfortable tank-destroyer since the M-36.
Though it does give a definate feel of "MOAR POWAH!", like that of holding a Desert Eagle in .50 AE... Which is what a TD essentially is, a handgun trying to be as lethal as a rifle ("small package, big oomph").
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So... anyone else here who played CS ever just say "Fuck it" and buy the DE instead of the primaries (with the intent of killing the first guy close enough to pick up their drop)? Or was that just me?

Kinda funneh what happens when you strap a full power gun onto something "not quite ready for the recoil".

The guys are the hull, the gun is the turret

Hence why ROF for T-90 is 10-15 RPM while the Sprut gets 7.

There's the CV90120:

http://www.defense-update.com/products/c/CV90120.htm
http://www.defense-update.com/products/c/CV90120.htm

But adding ETC would make any such design too heavy.

Yeah, the ETC equipment (Plasma-injector system or whatchmacallit) would bring up the mass a bit, and you'd need to raise mass anyways after that because otherwise the tripled impulse/recoil/lethality would easily knock it over like it just got hit be a train.

120mm ETI on an 18-ton vehicle has already been done IRL. If recoil gets to be an issue, use a RAVEN.

Even the best ETC guns don't come anywhere close to a 50% improvement, let alone 300%.

My plan was to go hull mounted for my 125mm ETC carrier... <.<

Well I'm planning to use a drag chute and drop these out of the back of a tactical lifter but I am prolly looking for for a weight of 25 tons now.

I like the idea of the 80 mortar and that CV90120 is fucking epic, but can a low recoil 120mm gun provide a threat against NS tanks?


And doom I did state you were using the S-tank configuration.

Short answer: No

Long answer: Explosive reactive armors are one of the reasons why ETC was developed in the first place, and low pressure guns are usually more useful for indirect fire support role, or for self-propelled mortars.

The beauty of something like the Vasilek is that you can spam a tank with small HEAT shells, and fuck with it's ERA. Automatic mortars are win for that reason. And it will surely fuck with most APS systems.

As much of a threat as a high-recoil gun. RAVENs can reduce recoil >50% (more w/a muzzle brake) with no effect on lethality.

Low recoil != Low chamber pressure
Generally, low-recoil guns have greater recoil travel and/or muzzle brakes, but there are other ways to reduce recoil, too.

I really wouldn't recommend a battle plan that requires the enemy to sit still and ignore you while you wear away his armor w/individually ineffective munitions. Airborne vehicles will lose in a stand-up fight against heavy armored forces. Their only hope of survival lies in ability to take advantage of fleeting moments of tactical opportunity, evasion, and relief ASAP.