Basic Information:Weight: 67 Tons.
Length: 9.05 Meters.
Width: 3.70 Meters.
Height: 2.55 Meters.
Crew: 3. (Commander, Driver, Gunner.)
Power & Propulsion: Powerplant: Variable-Geometry Turboshaft Hybrid, Li-Ion/Supercapacitor Array.
Transmission: Infinitely-Variable Mechanical/Hydraulic - Synchronous Generator.
Propulsion: Two 980 Hp. Permanent Magnet Electric Motors, Cryo-Refrigerated.
Suspension: Triple-Redundant Magnetorheological, Infinitely Adjustable.
Brakes: Electrorheological Clutch-Type, Electro-Hydraulic Regenerative.
Steering: Skid-Type Electro-Hydraulic Regenerative, Double-Pin Steel/Rubber Tracks.
Speed, Forward: 78 km/h.
Speed, Reverse: 78 km/h.
Power/Weight Ratio: 29 HP/Ton.
Range, Battery: 200 km.
Range, Hybrid: 550 km.
Construction:50mm B4C Spaceframe, Carbon Nanofoam/Aramid/Cementious Foam Skin, 20mm.
B4C/TiB2/DU/Farehyde Fiber/Metal Laminate Armor Suite, 120mm.
Non Explosive Reactive Armor, Hexagonal, Field-Replaceable, 20mm.
Nickel/Titanium (Nitinol) Perforated Track Skirts, Full Length, 50mm.
CF/S2 Resinous Coating, Anti-RCS/Anti-Thermal Self-Healing, 10mm.
Electronics Suite:Tetsudo Hard-Kill/Soft-Kill Active Protection System.
Battlefield Information Collection & Distribution. (BICDS)
Mobile Air/Ground Subscriber Network (MAGSNET)
Crew Compartment Management System. (CCMS)
Powertrain Controls Management System. (PCMS)
Electronic Driver Information System. (EDIS)
Intravehicular Information System. (IVIS)
Integrated Fire Control System. (IFCS)
Armaments:Primary:
120/L50ETCI-Myrmidon Cannon, 120x890mm, 50 Calibers w/ Linear Compensator.Rate of Fire: 6 Rounds-Per Minute.
Max Elevation/Depression: 30°/10°
Traverse: 40°/Sec.
Secondary:
30x165mm Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-30-2 Gast Cannon, Dual Barrel, ORWS-Mounted.Rate of Fire: 3,000 Rounds-Per-Minute.
Max Elevation/Depression: 90°/40°
Traverse: 160°/Second.
Ammunition:*User-Selectable 600 Rd. Magazines. (1 Per Ammo Type, Per Mission, Dual Feed)*
- High Explosive Fragmenting Incendiary Tracer, (HEFI-T) 30x165mm.
- Depleted Uranium Fin-Stabilized Sabot, Armor Piercing, 30x165mm.
*User-configurable loadout based on mission profile, up to 48 rds.*
120x890mm APFSDS-USP.
120x890mm STAFF.
120x890mm LAHAT.
120x890mm MPAT.
120x890mm APAM.
BACKGROUND & DESCRIPTION:The Chimera Main Battle Tank evolved from combat experience gained in the Marquesan/Crontor war of 2012. In force-on-force combat situations between two technologically advanced militaries, the advantage often goes to the force best able to project its power deep into the conflict region. It was with this in mind that the Marquesan government commissioned Myrmidon Tactical Design to create a tank that balances overwhelming firepower, extremely long range and unprecedented survivability with the very latest in cutting-edge military technology and hardware. From this requirement was born Chimera; a Main Battle Tank that places the survival and comfort of its three-operator crew foremost, but brings to bear devastating firepower and at combat effective ranges previously unthinkable in a tank of its class. While expensive to manufacture, Chimera is inexpensive and easy to maintain. Its layout is both comfortable and efficient, allowing its crews to travel hundreds of kilometers and for weeks on end in comfort and safety with great speed. In combat, Chimera's agility and ability are second-to-none, with class-leading firepower and a better than 97% hit ratio in real-world testing. With few real analogues and even fewer true competitors, Chimera stands alone among Main Battle Tanks everywhere.
DESIGN:The Chimera Main Battle Tank was designed to be the foremost, class-leading main battle tank in active combat service and the most advanced such system ever fielded. In such a vehicle, interior space is always at a premium, but the three-member crew of a Chimera is provided with the absolute maximum in comfort and safety in which to perform their mission. Entrance to the tank is from a clamshell hatch in the rear between the two electric motors driving the track sprockets. The left side of the tank houses a chemical toilet, storage lockers for first aid supplies, up to two weeks of rations, 200 liters of water, a small kitchenette including a hotplate, microwave oven, refrigerator and ice dispenser pioneer tools and a weapons locker. A central passageway runs the full length of the crew area and the right side of the tank contains three hemispherical "alcoves" in which the crew sits. The three-operator crew, a driver, tank commander and gunner all sit in independently suspended, vibration damped, heated, ventilated and padded titanium armor seats with head-and-neck restraints and full backs, maximizing protection and comfort. The entire cabin interior is lined in acoustic deadening foams, closed-cell gel membranes, viscoelastic padding, anti-microbial cotton filler and butyl rubber matting to silence the crew cabin for maximum comfort. All interior surfaces have a final coat of interior paint in a cool, off-white acoustic-dampening paint to attenuate any loud noises. Because of this effort, Chimera is said to be the quietest and easiest tank to operate. Each alcove has a 360° armored cupola with flushed-in armored glass to allow the crew to see outside of the tank while remaining protected, recessed, "ambient" LED lighting, speakers for communications or entertainment, 110vac grounded, EMP shielded, power conditioned and fault protected outlets for recharging of personal devices, climate control intakes and vents and temperature-controlled water lines. Each crew station is complete with a multifunction glass panel interactive touch display that can be used with gloves on and joystick, touchpad and keyboard controls that are independently configurable and enable the crew to accomplish complex tasks easily and maximize interconnectivity.
The crew cabin's climate control system employs an extensive air scrubber system that precisely regulates cabin air temperature with both heater and refrigeration units, forced air ultrasonic humidification and peltier heat pump dehumidification units, produces additional oxygen through a cold plasma ozone generator, employs a negative ionic air purifier, controls odor with an activated charcoal system, utilizes a 0.03 micron CBRN filter and a final wet air scrubber system to produce cleanroom-grade atmosphere under armor, a system considered the best in the world and the most advanced air scrubber array ever fielded in a vehicle. The tank's climate control system utilizes one way, positive-pressure exhausts and recirculates compartment air completely every thirty seconds. In the event of a compartment breach or an opened hatch, the system automatically switches to an "overdrive" mode that maintains the positive-pressure environment. Integral to the vehicle is a thermoionic process desalinization/membrane nanofiltration/reverse osmosis water disinfection/treatment system with 200 liters of drinkable filtered water stored in a compartment forward of the crew area above Chimera's turbine engine, powered by waste heat from the turbine. This water purification system intakes water from a special concealed opening on the bottom of the vehicle and is capable of taking brackish or CBRN-contaminated groundwater, seawater and wastewater beyond the potable standard, regulating PH balance and producing absolutely pure distilled water for crew use.
The lower hull is a constant-curvature V shape to deflect blast energy away from the crew compartment and out of the armored area, while the only hatch is the ingress/egress hatch centered on the rear of the tank. Chimera's hatchless design minimizes vulnerability to top attack munitions, while also reducing the vehicle's radar return and protecting the crew from airborne contaminants. The space-efficient layout of the tank maximizes crew space and ammunition storage, with two armored and separated 24-round magazines for 120x890mm ammunition allowing 48 ready-to-fire to be stored and brought up to the autoloading cannon from two drum magazines in the turret bustle. A single 1,200-rd. vertical stack power-conveyor magazine in the space on the outside of the 155mm magazines in the bustle directly feeds the secondary cannon's remote weapons station with 30x165 ammunition.
POWERTRAIN:Chimera MBT is powered by a hybrid powerplant. A small, efficient variable-geometry high bypass boosted twin-spool turboshaft engine with full high-resolution FADEC control spins a synchronous drive, permanent magnet high-output generator through an infinitely variable hydraulic/mechanical transmission. Fuel for the turbine is housed in an interstitial space between the crew compartment's floor and the V-shaped blast hull in an array of fuel cells. The array is comprised of two banks of twelve 36-gallon, conformal self-sealing tanks with triple redundant feed systems, computer-controlled to ensure constant supply even in the event of a catastrophic hit to the tank's lower body. The tanks themselves are triple lined in farehyde with self-sealing foam and independent halide fire suppression systems, vastly decreasing the chance of a fuel fire or total loss. Chimera's Power Array sits in the space above the fuel tanks and comprises the floor of the crew area. The Power Array is a network of twelve 2.5kWh lithium ion battery packs and eight 75kW supercapacitors, storing enough power to propel the vehicle at full speed 200km on battery power alone of 550km on hybrid power, using the turbine engine to maintain charge level. The engine and generator both sit forward of the crew compartment in an armored, shielded and isolated compartment with separate filtered and diffused intake and exhaust ports to minimize thermal and visual signature.
Propulsion of the Chimera MBT is provided by a pair of neodymium permanent-magnet solid state electric motors, wound with high-temperature superconducting Amperium wiring and an internal cryo-refrigerator. These motors develop 980 horsepower apiece at up to 3,600 RPM, driving the tank's rear sprockets directly. In addition to smooth, powerful and efficient power delivery, this hybrid powerplant is notable for its very low fuel consumption and silent operation under battery power, unique among main battle tanks. In situations where acoustic signature is of vital importance, the engine can be switched completely off and the vehicle can remain stationary for up to two days without charging or up to three hours in motion at its top speed of 78 km/h. Trials have shown a powerplant lifespan of 800,000 kilometers without major maintenance thanks to the high quality of construction and powerplant monitoring.
Steering is electronically-controlled and accomplished through a skid-type electro-hydraulic regenerative, infinitely variable system with in-board electrorheological clutch-type brakes using Urea coated nanoparticles of Barium Titanium Oxalate suspended in silicone oil, charged with variable electric current for precise and instantaneous braking while inherently absorbing driveline harmonics and vibrations, resulting in smooth and quiet power delivery. These clutch-type progressive lockup brakes are arranged in tandem to alloy steel sprockets with replaceable hardened long-wear steel gear-tooth rings attached to lighter hats and idlers. Rubber-tired double aluminium alloy road wheels drive steel double-pin type tracks with detachable nitrile rubber pads or single piece nitrile rubber continuous band tracks with bonded steel reinforcement dependent on anticipated terrain conditions. High-wear components such as bearings are superfinished and DLC-coated chromium and molybdenum microcarbide steel. Chimera's suspension relies on a redundant system of three single tube infinitely-adjustable magnetorheological dampers per road wheel, utilizing dimorphic nanowire suspension fluids, actuated by computer control in real time.
PROTECTION:Chimera MBT is built from the beginning with survival of the harshest combat conditions in mind. Starting with nanocrystalline boron carbide 50mm solid barstock, pulsed-current sintered from finely-regulated powder, the spaceframe takes shape on a five-axis rotating jig using robotic plasma arc welders to ensure complete bonding and an incredibly rigid frame. The internal skin of the tank encases both sides of the frame and all the vehicle's shielded and armored wiring and cabling woven in with the frame in the interstitial space, which is then filled with a lightweight cementious foam for maximum insulation and vibration transmission resistance. Each side of the frame is covered in a carbon nanofoam blanket sandwiched with a four-ply aramid weave of Kevlar KM2, Dyneema, Nomex and Technora called Farehyde. For hard protection from the threats of the modern battlefield, the entire tank is covered in 120mm of alternating 5mm thick layers. Depleted Uranium, Farehyde and a mixture of titanium diboride ceramic and boron carbide sintered together into a composite called Ultra repeat 8 times, layered on the tank in alternating hexagonal and wedge-shaped computer modeled panels with a very low degree of internal seam lineup. Each Fiber/Metal Laminate (FML) section undergoes final lamination before installation on the tank under extreme heat, pressure and hyperacoustic agitation to bond the layers together.
A second layer of protection comes in the form of field-replaceable 120mm wide, 20mm thick hexagonal NxRA, or Non-Explosive Reactive Armor panels. These NxRA modules consist of parallel perforated thin titanium alloy plates sandwiching a flexible sheet of non-explosive energetic material, made up of sodium nitrate oxidizer microspheres, FE203 (Crystallized hematite) catalyst and silicone binder fuel. This filler reacts to impact by generating a huge amount of gas that accelerates and bulges the NxRA plates, exerting a sheering force that disrupts and defeats penetrators and shaped charge jets, protecting the armor beneath it without triggering adjacent modules. Flexible armor track skirts are made from 50mm thick perforated Nickel-Titanium (Nitinol) panels which provide a high degree of protection to the track from explosively-formed penetrator (EFP) munitions and up to 30mm cannon fire in addition to drastically reducing the tank's dust, acoustic and radar signature from the moving tracks.
The final layer of protection for Chimera is a 10mm thick, self healing resinous coating. Incorporating carbon nanotubes, S2 glass/epoxy plastic resin matrices and nanoceramic granules, the matte-finish camouflage coating absorbs and attenuates radar energy, dramatically lowers rate of return and deadens the tank's exterior to acoustic vibration and heat transfer from interior and exterior sources. When struck, the self-healing coating begins the process of eroding long rod penetrators and resists delamination from small arms fire, providing a stealthy and resilient package that maximizes survivability.
ARMAMENT, PRIMARY:The primary armament of the Chimera Main Battle Tank is a high pressure, high velocity 120mm Electro-Thermal Chemical Ignition (ETCI) smoothbore cannon, 50 calibers in length. Designed to withstand the extreme pressures of a new generation of high-power 120x890mm ammunition developed exclusively for the 120/L50ETCI-Myrmidon cannon but reverse-compatible with 120mm Rheinmetall ammunition as well, this new weapon is a deadly new addition to the battlefield with unprecedented capability and utility for a new generation of Main Battle Tank.
The long barrel, 50-caliber gun receiver, action and autoloader are housed in an unmanned, low-profile turret, actuated by solid state, all electric servos that precisely stabilize the weapon and provide for millimeter-accurate traverse and elevation. The gun can operate in line-of-sight, (LOS) non-line-of-sight, (NLOS) and beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) modes, allowing the tank to decrease its exposure while increasing its hit percentage, detecting and destroying enemies outside the range of their sensors and ability to return fire. Ignition of the gun's second-generation solid propellants is by electrothermal-chemical pulsed power (ETCI) operation, injecting superheated plasma into the chamber with variable input between 39-110 kJ, allowing the tank's computer to automatically optimize the ignition process for each individual round with selectable chamber pressures, temperature compensation, acceleration loadings and the ballistic profile of each and every shot.
Recoil is mitigated with a hybrid impulse mitigation mechanism consisting of a mid-barrel pneumatic sleeve recuperator and electrorheologically-controlled concentric retarder coupled to a monotube, helically-sprung hydropneumatic shock absorber. In combination, this system is extremely compact, allowing for compact installation inside the turret bustle and allowing more room for ammunition inside the turret. The 120/L50ETCI-Myrmidon cannon uses a linear compensator in place of a traditional muzzle brake, directing muzzle blast forward of the tank, reducing dust signature especially when firing from defilade and defeating muzzle climb to allow quicker followup shooting and hit/miss identification. The linear compensator also protects infantry in the open around the tank from the firing pressure blast of the gun.
Chimera MBT's cannon automatically uses a laser-collimator dynamic muzzle reference system to enable the firing control to adjust for any warp or bend in the barrel, which it does with the system check every time the tank is started. The barrel is a three-piece system, with a liquid-cooled farehyde sleeve using isopropyl glycol to drive integral heat exchangers around an insulating layer of polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and S2 fiberglass surrounding a titanium diboride ceramic midwall that houses a replaceable chromium sleeve, superfinished and coated full-length in diamond-like carbon. The overall barrel design is light, very strong and provides a low thermal signature, even when heated from repeated firings. Over 40% lighter than conventional-design 120mm guns, the gun is capable of a very high traverse rate of 40°/sec and responds excellently to stabilization from the turret. A maximum of 30° of elevation of the gun and mantlet is possible, and the gun is capable of firing while the tank is in motion, due to its fully-stabilized operation, isolated from the effects of pitch, roll, yaw and jolt in the tank's maneuvers by digital servos actuating the gun laying drives.
At a typical electrical input of 101 kJ from the plasma injection system the gun accelerates a 8.4 kg projectile with a muzzle energy of 26 MJ and muzzle velocity of 2,500 m/s at sea level (Mach 7.55) at a propellant temperature of approximately 50°C. Using advanced penetrators the cannon is capable of defeating a maximum of 2200 mm in rolled homogeneous armor equivalent (RHAe) at a range of 4,000 meters. Chimera's central computer actuates all aspects of the gun's fire, from ammunition selection and loading to servo control and stabilization, fire control and situational awareness, allowing Chimera to detect, engage and defeat multiple targets rapidly at maximum battle ranges and outside the effective range of lethal counter-fires.
The autoloading RAILS system is based around a dual feed bustle linear ramming-action, which uses a fully articulated robotic transfer unit behind the recoil path of the cannon that extracts, reorients and loads selected ammunition at any elevation or azimuth. It is unique among autoloaders because it does not require the barrel to return to the index position for reloading. It feeds from dual drum magazines located in the turret bustle, each holding 24 ready-to-fire rounds in a high-density, double-row closed loop linkless chain of blast resistant and fire-retardant canisters. No rounds are stored in the hull to free space and gasses generated during firing are automatically vented outside the turret to avoid contamination of the crew compartment. A back-up flex drive mechanism is incorporated for manual reloads of the gun and is controlled from inside the turret basket by any of the crew. Two loading ports are provided on the turret roof with ramp doors on the bustle allowing unattended resupply or offload to/from a transloader vehicle. An automated roller conveyor brings rounds directly into each magazine operating at a reload rate of 6 rounds per minute.
ARMAMENT, SECONDARY:Local target supression and vehicle self-protection is provided by a trainable Overhead Remote Weapon Stations (ORWS) mounted on the turret roof. The unit incorporates a high elevation powered traverse, elevation and depression platform for suppression of low level air threats and infantry in defilade and multi-story buildings. The ORWS is self-contained with a gyro-stabilized electro-optical sight with continuous digital zoom and video auto-tracker, and 1.54 micron eye-safe laser rangefinder in a ruggedized fragment-protected box mounted coaxially with the armament tandem to a 50w HID weapon light that can be switched on and off remotely by the gunner. The weapon interfaces to the vehicle electronics suite over a MilCAN serial interface and can be controlled by any crew member under armor from their station in the fighting compartment. In present configuration, the ORWS is equipped with a Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-30-2 Dual-Barrel Gast Cannon chambered in 30x165mm cannon rounds, providing devastating secondary fire capable of making independent kills on even moderately-armored modern tanks on its own with 18.5 times the total muzzle energy of a .50 BMG round at combat ranges up to a mile, supplied with ammunition by a dual-magazine, user-selectable powered feed system, housing a total of 1,200 rounds under armor.
AMMUNITION DETAILS:155mm Armor-Piercing Segmented Long-Rod Penetrator, Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot. (APFSDS-USP)The standard tank-killing armament is a 120x890mm sub-caliber sabot round weighing 32kg complete including its GEN II propellant charge. The round is housed in a combustible casing surrounding a graphite fiber sabot and a high-density 37mm heat-treated tungsten alloy long-rod penetrator. The projectile has a ballistic steel tip and six bladed zirconium-toughened alumina fins bonded by injection molded polymer to the body to reduce in-flight ablation. The sub-caliber kinetic penetrator is an elongated monolithic cylindrical rod with sintered zirconium circumferential reinforcement bands swaged in place along axially-spaced channels, which interlock to increase collective strength. The bands stiffen and strengthen the penetrator, making it more effective at perforating the densest armors at oblique angles and overcoming sheering forces from explosive-reactive armor. The zirconium bands ignite pyrophorically during plastic deformation, providing an after-armor incendiary blast effect against the interior of the target. When fired, this round delivers up to 32 megajoules at 2,500 meters per second and can defeat up to 2,200mm of RHAe at 4,000 meters or 1,800mm of RHAe at 6,000 meters, with a CEP of 1 meter at maximum ranges. Testing has demonstrated the ability of the APFSDS-USP round to perforate any class of armor including steel-encased depleted uranium (DU) mesh, semi-infinite and finite-plate rolled homogenous armor (RHA) steels, spaced armor arrays and ceramics. In layman's terms, this 37mm wide rod, once fired, can cover nearly three miles in just under two seconds and at that distance penetrate more than seven feet of steel with the force of being hit with 32 tons at 100 mph.
120mm Smart, Target Activated, Fire and Forget (STAFF) Guided EFP Cartridge.This round is a top-attack munition that defeats armor in defilade, whether static or mobile, and slow/low-flying aerodynes using a radar-cued non-axis symmetric explosively formed penetrator (EFP) especially effective against explosive reactive armor (ERA). The projectile is launched like any other tank round and follows a ballistic path to the target before it is roll-controlled through the use of fluidic-controlled jet nozzles located in the rear fin assembly to align the warhead for firing of the lethal penetrator. The STAFF round uses a semi-active laser seeker for cooperative and up to 45° off-boresight targeting, and a millimeter wave (MMW) seeker to autonomously acquire and track static or mobile targets at beyond the line-of-sight. STAFF is often employed using "off-set designation" where third-party friendly designators paint a target by laser to minimize exposure for the firing tank, and warning to the enemy tank or helicopter that they are being attacked.
120mm Laser-Homing, Anti Tank Gun-Fired Missile. (LAHAT)A full-bore gun launched missile that produces long range accuracy to a stand-off distance of 13,000 meters, a distance far beyond the range of direct fire weapons. The missile features bi-static direct and indirect semi-active laser targeting, a wide-angle laser seeker for off-boresight targeting, lock-on-after-launch capability and a embedded active protection system. To maximize surprise against a target the missile flies at low height levels where it can be masked by terrain and performs a ‘pop-up’ maneuver (top attack) before impact. The missile weighs 14 kg excluding its composite sabot for launch from a gun tube, and is handled, loaded and fired like any other tank round. The missile is soft launched from the muzzle and uses a solid fuel sustainer motor for acceleration up to 700 m/s and four steering fins to track fixed and mobile targets. LAHAT attacks its targets using a triplex High Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) warhead. The round flies a top attack high impact profile against thinly-armored turret roof armor. This consists a reduced diameter precursor charge that pre-detonates and penetrates up to 400 mm in rolled homogenous armor equivalent (RHAe) and 300 mm in explosive reactive armor (ERA), followed by tandem full-diameter charges with the capability to penetrate up to 800 mm in RHAe behind ERA. The LAHAT round has a low launch signature and the missile’s trajectory can be set to match either armored fighting vehicles and ships out at sea (pop up, top attack) or a helicopter or aerodyne (high angle, direct attack) engagement. To minimize target awareness LAHAT uses its lock-on-after-launch capability, target designation being required only for the final phase of the flight. This also allows a tank to launch from defilade against a target in defilade using off-set or off-board designation for maximum protection from observation/detection and counterfire.
120mm Multi-Purpose Anti-Tank. (MPAT)A sub-caliber, discarding sabot round featuring a multi-mode programmable base detonating fuse and blast fragmenting target penetrating warhead. Using a selectable airburst, point or time delay fuse MPAT is effective against soft targets and low-flying aerial threats. Fused as a direct-fire hardened penetrator MPAT can penetrate double-reinforced concrete walls and masonry, earth and timber bunkers, or reduce rock and earthen obstacles when fused with a time delay detonation.
120mm Anti-Personnel/Anti-Materiel. (APAM)This round compliments MPAT and neutralizes the threat of anti-armor teams, infantry in defilade and dismounted troops by scattering six submunitions above a target to produce a lethal-fragmentation kill zone 50 meters long and 20 meters wide. It can also be fired as a unitary high explosive round with no submunitions scattered to defeat urban terrain and obstacles including bunkers of sand and timber construction or earthworks, and destroy light materiel targets including armored personnel carriers.
ELECTRONICS:A Chimera MBT houses one of the most advanced and interconnected vehicle electronics suites ever fielded. Centered around a network of three redundant watercooled compact supercomputers, Chimera's processing and resolution capability is totally unmatched among combat ground vehicles. Each supercomputer is a cluster of 64 hexacore processors each with two terabytes of onboard memory and six terabytes of data storage. Watercooling is driven from the purified crew compartment storage and returned to the inlet side of the water purification system once used. Each "black box" computer is an extensively hardened, armored and redundant unit engineered to withstand shock, vibration, submersion. temperature extremes, flammable atmospheres, electromagnetic pulse, radiation, electrical surges, gunfire and battle damage. Processors are based on non-volatile 35nm architecture and memory is on magneto-resistive chips, complemented by dedicated signal processing, a dual-cell broadband engine, high-resolution multimedia, physics and vector graphics processors. Network topography is a triple-redundant MilCAN databus carried on shielded and armored fiberoptic cable. Every aspect of Chimera's operation is recorded for detailed simulation and playback during after-action reviews.
Chimera's C5I matrix interconnects the vehicle's integral sensor suite s with fused global positioning/inertial navigation systems along with digital compass inputs and data from the Mobile Air/Ground Subscriber Network (MAGSNET) to provide a comprehensive picture of the battlespace. The complete situational-awareness picture is displayed to the crew on their displays and relayed to friendly forces on an encrypted, jam-resistant low detectable datalink via three networked liquid plasma broadband antennae, allowing allied assets to share information across the battlespace and communicate via an ECM-resistant, anti-gam, anti-spoof, frequency agile, LPD/LPI network secured by encryption and compression algorithms, unrelayed, up to 50 km and further via an embedded low profile SATCOM antenna used as an emergency backup. Information from onboard sensors is matched to topographical database information provided through MAGSNET and the battlespace picture is displayed in a moving map, iconic format with user-selectable route planning and waypoints including steer-to navigation and integrates factors like, supply train availability, obstacle detection and collision/threat warning/fire control cues, fuel state, battle damage, ammunition supply and crew health to prioritize waypoints and displayed data.
Chimera''s sensor suite incorporates 360° awareness with high-resolution daylight 50 megapixel/300 frame-per-second CCD imagers with passive night vision, 0.9-1.7 micron near infrared/short wave infrared image intensifiers, thermal, acoustic, magnetic, laser, lider, doppler and multiphased/multiband and millimeter wave radar. Included in the sensor suite is a boom-elevated sensor array with a panoramic CCD camera that can take a live-feed, distortion free 50 megapixel image 12 meters above the turret roof for use in hull-down or defilade situations. All lenses are laser protected and have fine mesh screens to protect them from mud, dirt, debris, rocks and shrapnel. When necessary, Chimera can flood the near field in 360° with light from eight 70w HID floodlights recessed into the hull with armored fold-over covers when not in use, or can activate just the two front-facing lights for use as headlights.
The Chimera MBT's driver has complete control of the vehicle's powertrain, suspension and climate control. A high level of automation and optimization is conducted millisecond-to-millisecond without user input, maximizing vehicle efficiency and crew comfort over any terrain and while completing any task, freeing the driver to concentrate on the task of navigating the tank using moving map, realtime augmented reality overlay including iconic waypoint and sensor data, threat perception, rangefinder distances and navigation data, all controlled through an integrated, redundant drive-by light/drive by wire system.
The vehicle commander's station provides realtime diagnostics for every aspect of the tank's operation, including a detailed moving map with integrated iconic overlays and full-suite communications relays, including text instructions and blueforce tracking data. Signature management, fire and explosion suppression, fuel and charge levels and maintenance concerns are prioritized and displayed on the commander's screen by the central computer, while any sensor or combination of sensors can be shown as a unified, high-resolution, zoomable image on the commander's screen with extremely low noise and very high speed due to the massive processing capability of the vehicle's computers.
Chimera's gunner operates the vehicle's Fire Control system, which can track and simultaneously lock and prioritize up to forty stationary or mobile targets and engage up to ten targets at one time. IFCS, or Integrated Fire Control System provides automatic target recognition, interrogate friend-or-foe (IFF) queuing threat prioritization and automatic gun laying and firing, requiring the gunner to only set an aiming reticle on the target to activate the system with an optional 60x continuous digital dynamic zoom and image stabilization. A full-solution ballistic computer calculates gun offsets using data from a battery of inputs such as target distance, azimuth and elevation, angular position and closure/departure velocity, cant angle, barrel deflection and wear, pitch, roll and chassis jolt, ambient temperature, humidity, air pressure and wind velocity, ammunition selection, propellant temperature and gun chamber pressure. Precision gun laying drives, smart barrel actuators, triple laser rangefinders and eye safe, all weather Coherent Doppler/Lidar (CDL) work together to optimize the performance of Chimera's primary and secondary armaments, achieving better than a 97% hit ratio in real-world testing. The CDL system is mounted on an armored barbette above the turret mantle that is slaved and bore sighted to the main gun; with it, a three-dimensional volumetric "snapshot" is produced, using energy back scattering to measure obstacles and targets. The high speed and low power of each pulse renders it near impossible to detect or jam and operates at frequencies capable of penetrating fog, oil smoke and other environmental effects on the battlefield without loss of resolution. Target acquisition utilizes a tandem triple-redundant laser rangefinder, each beam providing an 80mJ, eyesafe 635nm wavelength beam at 20 pulses per second with less than .3 mrad divergence, all of which are compatible with MILES 2000 gear for realistic force-on-force training scenarios . The input of the three rangefinders is averaged for accuracy and is sensor-fused with CDL for a fully day/night capable system that can be used to a maximum of 40km in staring mode, even while using infrared/visible light sensor fusion to see through obscurants. Using CDL to positively identify a target and the rangefinders to determine distance, the fire control system to compute ballistics and electric drives to precisely lay the main gun, a Chimera MBT presents a whole new level of deadly and precise mobile gunnery to the battlefield.
SELF-PROTECTION:During its development, Chimera MBT’s engineering team developed a highly advanced Active Protection System called Tetsudo. Tetsudo acts as both a soft-kill and hard-kill protection system: its modules can both disrupt the attack via infrared countermeasures and laser dazzlers or defeat the attack directly by utilizing directed energy to destroy the target. Designed as a series of overlapping modules, the system is controlled by Chimera’s onboard computer network and actuated by a sensor suite that automatically searches for incoming attacks at all times by heuristic processing and then once a possible threat has been identified, directs all sensors in range to “stare” at the threat, maximizing accuracy. Tetsudo is capable of dealing with a variety of threats, from buried mines or improvised explosive devices to shaped charge explosively-formed penetrators, kinetic energy penetrators, mortar rounds, rocket propelled grenades or anti-tank missiles, the highly versatile system giving Chimera great flexibility in responding to threats before a direct hit to the tank is imminent.
Tetsudo’s arrangement creates a full-dome, 360 degree hemispherical envelope of protection, allowing Chimera to respond to and defeat multiple simultaneous threats. As Tetsudo is a fully DE (Directed Energy) system, it has no moving parts, is agnostic to the vehicle's or turret attitude and its modular design is field-replaceable, lowering its cost. Average response time of the system in real-world tests was less than 500 microseconds, which enables Tetsudo to respond to very close-range threats under ten meters from the vehicle at first detection. Additionally, the use of energy rather than projectiles minimizes fratricide and collateral damage risk and also far increases the number of threats it can counter, with a theoretically limitless threshold for response, as long as Chimera’s Power Array holds a charge.
For mine detection, a hyperspectral imager on the front of Chimera’s hull uses a focal plane array visible light and long-wave infrared imager to recognize subtle color differences against a background to indicate disturbed soil. Distributed across Chimera’s hull and turret are all-bearing, staring type infrared/laser warning receivers and electro-optical trackers designed to detect and classify laser rangefinders and designators, infrared search lights, missile launch signatures and even muzzle flashes. An omnidirectional dicone antenna detects millimeter wave radar signals from attacking missiles and acoustic sensors detect, classify and localize small arms, mortar, artillery and rocket launch signatures. Conformal Doppler x-band thin radar array panels on Chimera’s turret classify and track threat signatures within 500 meters of the hull and tracks missile velocity and direction within ±1millirad. An integral electronic counter-countermeasure suite uses digital signal processing to prevent noise jamming or spoofing from affecting Tetsudo’s performance.
Tetsudo’s Soft-Kill suite incorporates a radio frequency jammer that defeats radio command detonation signals for improvised explosives or mines. Electronic countermeasures (ECM) operate continuously and can jam VHF, UHF, Cellular, WiFi and Bluetooth signals out to a range of 30m while specifically ignoring allied MADL/MAGSNET transmissions. The Soft-Kill Suite also incorporates six diode-pumped solid state AL-20 1GW (one gigawatt) laser dazzlers, and six AID-66 diode-based infrared laser countermeasures, used to “blind”electro-optical or laser guidance sensors through intense over-radiation, effective at distances up to five kilometers against both guided missiles and launching platforms, such as hostile aircraft or tanks.
The Hard-Kill suite uses liquid-cooled five kilowatt multicore ribbon high energy fiber lasers to produce pulse-coded directed energy, inducing low order burning and deflagration reactions in explosives or fragmentation in kinetic kill munitions at a standoff distance. A disrupted munition may still strike the vehicle with fragments or concussion, but it will not do so with its full force and is extremely unlikely to damage the tank. Mines or buried explosives can be prosecuted by this system at depths of up to 1m. A series of 20 distributed laser heads connected by multi band fiber bundles and single polarization flexible optical fiber arrays are embedded into the hull and generate both short-wave/long-wave pumped laser and long-wave laser pumped energy to destroy multiple threats from multiple directions at extremely high velocities simultaneously, as close as 10 meters and as far away as 100 meters.