Crusader III. of Legio Precursi Divisio VIII, Soreyan Holy Army
[b]Key Data
Crew: 3 [Gunner, Commander, Driver]
Dimensions
Length: 11.9m [Gun forward]
Height : 2.6m
Width: 3.6m [no skirts]
Weight: 71 tonnes
Ground Clearance: 57cm
Performance
Maximum (Governed) Speed: 60km/h
Cross Country Speed: 46 km/h
Speed, 10% Slope: 32m/h
Speed, 60% slope: 14 km/h
Acceleration: 0km/h-30km/h in 7 seconds
Range: 610km
Manoeuvrability
Vertical Obstacle Crossing: 120cm
Trench: 270cm
Suspension: hydropneumatic
Armament
Main Armament: 130mm XA10 ETC smoothbore gun [40 rounds]
Co-axail: 30mm S1AT autocannon [600 rounds]
Commander's Weapon: 14.5mm T85 HMG [1000 rounds]
Power
Propulsion: Diesel-electric opposing piston hyperbar, 1800HP
Transmission: Hydropneumatic automatic transmission, 6 gears [one reverse]
Power-to-Weight Ratio: 25.35hp/ton
Batteries: 12 x high density Li+ polymer
Armour and Protection
Armour: Titanium-composite blend, Divine II. NERA
Anti-spalling: Kevlar lining
NBC Protection: Overpressure system
Missile Countermeasures: Omni III
Price: $11 million NSD
DPR: $11 billion NSD
Background and conceptualization
The Crusader III was developed by Soreyan Military Generals after it was determined that the Crusader II., designed in the late 1980’s, was simply not efficient enough at slaughtering the heathen Korhoni during the Korhonian insurrection. The Soreyan Military Command became increasingly worried that this inefficiency at murdering a loosely organized third-world military left the Soreyan Holy Army vulnerable on the world stage. Thus a team of designers was hastily collected from across the nation to begin design of the latest child to the Crusader MBT family.
Right from the outset the designers had three things in mind when producing the Crusader III.:
The tank needed to be capable of killing a range of popular OPFOR vehicles, with weapon systems from Lyras, Sumer, the Macabees and Ekraysia making the shortlist. To do this, the tank would require a main gun never before seen in the Soreyan military. Furthermore the latest in fire control systems were a prerequisite.
The tank needed to be adaptable to a number of roles, able to go from tank superiority in one minute to infantry support the next. The tank would therefore need a bigger engine and drive system than any of its predecessors.
The tank required a reasonable lifespan in open combat. Lengthy tests using cutting-edge simulation suites aided the design team in the conception of an entirely new ERA, NERA, and APS suite for the tank.
The Crusader III. Is regarded by the Soreyan command as one of the highest-quality Main battle tanks on the market today, a title earned by the vehicle’s cutting-edge electronics, arms and armor suite. The international response, however, is yet to be garnered effectively. Only time will tell if the Crusader III. Packs the punch its designers promised.
Main armament
Even before they had left the drawing board Soreyan engineers were aware that the 120mm smoothbore gun mounted onto the Crusader II. Was inadequate in a modern day warfare setting- the gun simply did not produce the power required to penetrate and damage state-of-the-art MBT armour suites. Interim solutions, such as the lengthening of the vehicle’s gun (Inspired by the Leopard II’s L55 gun) or simply a larger 152mm were deemed cost-ineffective and it was judged that even if these quick fixes worked in the short term, more money would be spent down the line bringing the vehicle back up to scratch in a costly upgrade. With this in mind the design team turned to ETC technology.
The XA10 is a 130mm smoothbore ETC cannon which uses the Flashboard large area emitter (FLARE) ignition system. The development of the gun was a significant step forward for the Crusader III team, who had been waiting on the cannon’s development for eighteen months before they could advance to the next phase of production.
The gun’s caliber was chosen as a compromise between the three team members working on the gun after a week of heated debate. One was convinced that with the massive increase in muzzle velocity, a 120mm shell would be more than enough to penetrate most of what they would be facing, and if not, there would be plenty of shells remaining to take out the foe. A second engineer disagreed, claiming that a 140mm shell would have a far higher chance of scoring a one-shot kill against any adversary they would likely face, and the reduction in shell capacity would more than make up for it. The third was gradually able to bring both sides to the 130mm compromise, raising lethality while not too drastically decreasing the shell capacity in case of any onboard emergency that reduced the vehicle’s accuracy.
Of the 45 rounds stored within the vehicle, twenty are kept within the hull. The remaining twenty-five are stored within the lengthy turret bustle, and can be inserted into the autoloader, which fires at a rate of fourteen rounds per minute, in ‘magazines’ of five. This feature, however, is only really used in situations when the vehicle is firing at a stationary target of the same type for an extended period of time- and therefore rarely. The XA10 features a chromium-lined barrel, decreasing barrel wear and increasing the life of the piece.
Additional Armament
Two other weapons are loaded onto a baseline Crusader III. Mounted co-axailly is an S1AT 30mm autocannon, designed for light vehicle and APC/IFV neutralization. Alternatively, a 40mm Automatic grenade launcher can be inserted into this hardpoint for a heavier fire support platform. Similarly for the pintle-mounted 14.5mm T85 HMG, a gun designed to mow down enemy infantry and light aircraft, can be replaced by a MANPADS system or even a 50mm recoilless rifle.
Further items that can be affixed to the Crusader III. Include box-launched ATGM’s and SAM’s. Any number of these systems can be attached to the turret side, although the official Soreyan doctorine only permits those that have been properly blessed for use with the vehicle. Other states free of Soreyan religious control are of course free to circumvent these restrictions.
Active Protection System
The Crusader III.’s APS, dubbed ‘Omni III’, was designed from the ground up to protect the tank and its occupants in any imaginable theatre.
Incoming missiles are detected via Omni’s flat-panel radar, located on each side of the hull and turret. Omni then uses IR jammer panels located across the tank to cut off a missile’s IR guidance, and piggybacks onto the missile’s signal, veering it wildly off course and away from the tank. Omni III. Is programmed to send missiles upward, away from any possible blue forces, as often as possible.
In addition to this soft-kill suite a hard-kill suite is also standard issue. When Omni fails to hijack incoming missiles the second stage of the APS system finishes the job- sealed grenades detonate when the enemy munition comes within a certain distance of the vehicle, sending 3kg of shrapnel into the missile and destroying it. There are eight of these Grenade launchers on the tank (on each corner of the chassis and turret), each boasting six grenades. A total of 48 grenades are available, and can swivel to face any direction, up to a 90° angle.
Complementing these two systems is a host of peripheral warning systems. For example, Omni’s radar panels will detect when the vehicle is being painted by a TACBE or similar hardware, and an option will pop up on the commander’s console to automatically spin the turret to face the operator.
Networking, Sensory and Fire Control System
The Networking and Sensory systems built into the Crusader III. Are currently a stripped-down version of those that will be activated once the Soreyan Future Soldier program is completed. However, apart from these battlenet subroutines the rest of the systems are 100% activated.
The fire control system, simply dubbed Iris II., is remarkable in that it is an almost entirely visual system. The camera array affixed above the main gun of the Crusader III. Feeds directly into the commander’s console, and has thermal, low visibility, and motion filters. Below the lens sits a sophisticated laser array, which not only acts as a rangefinder but also as a TACBE for possible air support. On top of the turret is a further sensor array, detecting air humidity, windage, and the elevation of the ground before it (Via sonar). All of these measurements, along with those from the rangefinder, are fed into the gunner’s computer, with the relevant data processing itself into a reliable firing solution, and auto-adjusting barrel elevation and placement for the perfectly calculated shot. Future battlenet systems will allow for Iris II. To detect and prioritise enemy targets across the theatre, sharing this information with other vehicles, aircraft and infantry to build up a complex picture of the battlefield. For variants of the Crusader III. Featuring a remote-operated pintle weapon, it will be possible for the pintle gun to engage enemy forces remotely while the main gun is in use elsewhere.
Armour
The development of the Crusader III.’s armour suite was the second-longest design stage in the entire process. It comes in two main components- hull and turret baseline armour, and hull/turret-mounted NERA.
The primary exterior armour of the vehicle is a titanium-based layered affair. Two sheets of titanium chobam sandwhich perforated DU mesh and a thin layer of rubber, with a layer of Silicon Carbide tiles on top of the outermost titanium layer. On top of the ceramics another layer of titanium is pressed down, completing the basic suite. This composite armour is applied all over the hull and turret. However, it is Soreyan doctrine to feature additional armour on the vehicle, and this comes in the form of Divine II. NERA. A layer of IHRA steel is placed closest to the vehicle- the other side, a fiberglass/resin steltexolite. Sandwiched between these two layers is a thick sheet of rubber, packed tightly on each side by diesel-soaked, fire retardant, rapidly expanding foam.
On the turret, these Divine II. Plates have been slanted in a way that deflects incoming shells not only upward, but sideways away from the turret. These NERA plates can be placed on the turret roof, hull glacis, and in smaller bricks on the far back sides of the turret. Slat armour can also be fitted to the rear of the bustle and all across the hull, particularly the rear engine, to help nullify RPG attacks, a serious cause of Soreyan tank casualties during the Korhonian insurrection.
Propulsion and mobility
The engine fitted to the Crusader III is not a conventional one. Many tanks in the Crusader’s class featured V engines, a far less complicated and eccentric design. However, early prototypes were far too cramped, and the opposing piston was chosen as the standard issue. The trade-off for this is twelve large Li batteries, which during testing severely burnt two tankers when their battery acid leaked during rough terrain testing. This flaw was quickly fixed.
The Crusader III. Is a rear-engine tank, thus its drive sprocket is located at the rear of the vehicle. The vehicle sports six roadwheels utilising hydro-pneumatic suspension, the first time a tracked vehicle in the Soreyan Holy Army has deviated from the tried and tested torsion bar.
Crew amenities
The Crusader III. Features only the most Spartan of amenities, a product of the rabidly religious Soreyan society. A box of emergency flares, two days’ worth of dried food, and a first aid kit, along with two PDW’s, are kept in a lockbox near the top hatch, to be broken only in an emergency. A hot-water tap and small sink also exist to allow tankers to rehydrate their dry meals. For off-duty time an mp3 player and speakers have been fitted, but have been locked only to play a select number of pre-approved hymns. These were intended to keep the troops feeling motivated and fresh during time off- data gathered since the first roll-out of Crusader III. Tanks shows that the MP3 “Closer to God, closer to Victory” mp3 playlist has been listened to approximately twice.
