Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post

Blue Ghost · 01-10-2019, 12:03 PM

I tell this story every so often, but back between 1991 and 1993 I was down at FMC in Sunnyvale (they made the Bradley Fighting Vehicle) when they were presenting something called the Combat Command Vehicle Light (I can't remember the exact name). It was supposed to be a tank killer that could travel really fast (upwards of 85mph or some such), mounting I think a 100 mm gun. It had compartmental armor, if it flipped you could hand crank it upright with a crank that manually turned the turret, the magazines had component armor, and could operate with a crew of two because it was the first American tank to use an autoloader (I think the Soviets were big on autoloaders for their tanks).

But the Pentagon didn't buy it. Years later, over at the Amarillo Design Bureau website I learned that apparently the thing had survivability issues, in spite of a new armor design, and a model with reactive armor fitted to her turret.

I bring this up because from a Car Wars Tanks design standpoint the magazine … trying to recall from memory of looking down the autoloader mechanism … was maybe … three spaces big, more or less. It was like a revolver hand gun; the rounds spun in a rotary chamber like a handgun revolver, and two metal arms reached down to grab the next shell and load it into the chamber. I still recall one of the engineers calling the rounds "HEAP, HEAP, SABOT, SABOT, SABOT" as they cycled the magazine.

I guess in retrospect it was a good tank for the wrong era. I recently saw a History channel documentary on the Sherman, and apparently its nickname was "deathtrap" because it took several Shermans to take out a Panzer; flanking it to fire at its backside because the Sherman's gun couldn't penetrate the Panzer glacis. I think that was the final parallel analysis for FMC's tank buster--it couldn't shrug off a direct hit, or so it was believed, but the design was such that it was supposed to "absorb" hits instead of "resisting" them with heavy armor.

I'll have to do some research … maybe come up with a CW design for one. It was a real interesting two days for me. I'll never forget that.

01-10-2019, 12:03 PM	#6
Blue Ghost Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Spinward Marches	Re: Tank magazines I tell this story every so often, but back between 1991 and 1993 I was down at FMC in Sunnyvale (they made the Bradley Fighting Vehicle) when they were presenting something called the Combat Command Vehicle Light (I can't remember the exact name). It was supposed to be a tank killer that could travel really fast (upwards of 85mph or some such), mounting I think a 100 mm gun. It had compartmental armor, if it flipped you could hand crank it upright with a crank that manually turned the turret, the magazines had component armor, and could operate with a crew of two because it was the first American tank to use an autoloader (I think the Soviets were big on autoloaders for their tanks). But the Pentagon didn't buy it. Years later, over at the Amarillo Design Bureau website I learned that apparently the thing had survivability issues, in spite of a new armor design, and a model with reactive armor fitted to her turret. I bring this up because from a Car Wars Tanks design standpoint the magazine … trying to recall from memory of looking down the autoloader mechanism … was maybe … three spaces big, more or less. It was like a revolver hand gun; the rounds spun in a rotary chamber like a handgun revolver, and two metal arms reached down to grab the next shell and load it into the chamber. I still recall one of the engineers calling the rounds "HEAP, HEAP, SABOT, SABOT, SABOT" as they cycled the magazine. I guess in retrospect it was a good tank for the wrong era. I recently saw a History channel documentary on the Sherman, and apparently its nickname was "deathtrap" because it took several Shermans to take out a Panzer; flanking it to fire at its backside because the Sherman's gun couldn't penetrate the Panzer glacis. I think that was the final parallel analysis for FMC's tank buster--it couldn't shrug off a direct hit, or so it was believed, but the design was such that it was supposed to "absorb" hits instead of "resisting" them with heavy armor. I'll have to do some research … maybe come up with a CW design for one. It was a real interesting two days for me. I'll never forget that. Last edited by Blue Ghost; 01-10-2019 at 12:10 PM.