Vehicle Name: Araneam MBT
Faction: Patrian Military.
Height: 5.5m / 18'
Width: 7m / 23'
Length: 15m / 49'
Physical Appearance:
Weight: 90,000kg / 198,400 lb
Power Systems: Twin Micro-Fusion Grav Train, Negotis Heavy Industries (NHI)
Type: Main Battle Tank.
Abilities: Each track is equiped with independently actuated hydraulics, allowing a wide degree of angular tilt and lift to overcome difficult terrain. The vehicle is equiped with air-tight seals for deployment to worlds with hostile environments, as well as to counter chemical or biological weapons. This also gives the vehicle a water fording depth of 10 metres / 32'. Atmospheric filters are also aided by the same style of life-support system found on the Petrae Shuttle.
Speed: 30kph / 18mph.
Defensive Systems: 370mm thick composite armor, including high-hardness steel, tungsten, and plastic filler with ceramic component. The armor's composition is designed to defeat HESH and armor-penetrating rounds, either through sheer impact/detonation resistance (against HESH rounds) and spacing between layers to allow the impact force of a penetrating round to be lost into the empty spaces.
The Araneam's surface sports a thick coat of thermal-defeating material to help counter energy weapon impacts, and beneath the first layer of armor plate are a series of conductive conduits, that help bleed off additional energy by dissipating it through as much of the hull as possible, to prevent scorching and melting.
The Araneam mounts a single, smaller version of their common point-defense laser on the turret, however it's field of fire is limited mostly to missiles and projectiles coming from a higher arch (ie: air-to-surface launched missiles or rockets).
Multiple 92mm mortars filled with sensor-baffling smoke cannisters.
Crew: 1 driver, 1 crew commander, 1 gunner, 1 pintle gunner/secondary gunner.
Levels: Driver's pit (ahead and just below the turret), turret compartent for crew commander and both gunners.
Equipment:
Radar, LIDAR, Active ECM, Passive ECM, laser comms system, broad-band radio comms, Multi-spectrum imaging suite, laser designation, Auto-scrubbing/recycling air supply, able to sustain the crew 80+ hours.Electric winch. Welding unit. Cargo Hold: Bustle bins, mounting hardpoints and straps.
Weapon Systems:
50kw 'turbo laser' mounted in an anti-air pintle on the secondary gunner's cupola (hatch). Gives the Araneam some anti-air ability, but mostly employed to engage heavily armoured infantry or soft-skinned vehicles within 700m of the vehicle.
.50 machine gun, mounted in a standard pintle on the crew commander's cupola, used to engage light skinned vehicles and infantry within 1,000 meters of the vehicle. The barrel is self-cooling, to prevent overheating/warping at sustained rates of fire. Usually loaded with armour-penetrating shells.
350kw sustained-beam laser cannon. Effective range of 12km / 7.5 miles, maximum range of 23km / 14 miles. Capable of maintaining a single beam of energy for upwards of 9 seconds, which can be 'walked' along multiple targets or focused entirely on one position. The main gun has a fixed degree of elevation in the turret, however the hydraulic lifts of the tracks can raise the front end of the tank to allow a higher arch of fire. However, this exposes the tank's comparatively lightly armored belly.
Maximum Effective Range: 12 - 23km / 7.5 - 14 miles.
Rate Of Fire: 3 x 9 second shots per minute.
Payload: Unlimited so long as the on-board dual power plants last.
History: The Araneam is the result of a weapons technology exchange with the Earth government. Inspired by the smaller, twin-cannon'd Crusader battle tank, the Araneam is specially designed to operate in hostile environments and rough terrain. It also incorporates computer technology from other allied races and governments.
It is the Patrian's response to a need for 'conventional' military forces in the post-machine fleet war environment. Caught with their proverbial pants down, the Patrians had next to nothing resembling a ground based military, asides light power-armoured marines.
The Patrians have developed intricate grav-shute technolgy that allows a low-orbital insertion of heavy equipment, utilizing disposable drop platforms, much like the Earth equivalent of parachute-deployed hardware being dropped from a low-flying plane. This can allow for rapid, albeit risky, deployment of Araneams, rather then requiring drop ships that can make for far larger, and costly, targets. This helps off-set the vehicle's slow maximum speed, as it can be quickly deployed close to the front line.
