[3e] M577 APC

[Phaelen Bleux]

As seen in Aliens:

M577 APC (TL9)
The M577 APC is a light-weight, inexpensive vehicle used by the Colonial Marines. It fits conveniently in the vehicle bay of a UD4L Cheyenne dropship. Unfortunately, like many vehicles design to be light-weight and portable, the M577 suffers from being vulnerable to weapons more powerful than small arms; although it can handle infantry weapons and grenades, it is easily stopped with weapons designed to kill armored vehicles.
The M577 is operated by two crew: the driver and section commander. It can additionally carry 12 marines, and features a Tactical Operations Center for tactical command during marine deployment. From the TOC, the mission commander can monitor audio and video feed from the marines on individual terminals, and issue orders to his troopers. The M577 can store ammo and provisions for up to three days of deployment, although this makes the interior fairly cramped.
The layout of the interior places the driver on the left side of the vehicle, next to the forward turret. Behind him, on the left, is an additional seat, followed by the TOC (12 terminals and a single seat) and four more passenger seats to the rear. On the right, the turret is followed by two seats, and then a large loading door. Two more seats flank the door to the rear, followed by another bank of four seats at the rear.
The M577A3 is armed with a pair of 20 MeV particle beams in a full-rotation dorsal turret. This turret retracts behind the vehicle when stored aboard a UD4L. The M577 also features a roof-mounted automatic lkight mortar and a pair of 20mm gatling cannons mounted in the forward hull. Besides these vehicular weapons, the crew is also provisioned with a selection of small arms, including 7 canisters of CN-20 nerve gas, 4 M20 Claymore mines, 2 M41A pulse rifles, 2 M240 flame units, and 4 UA 571-C sentry guns.
The M577 burns 16 gallons of fuel per hours at routine usage. It can be powered with gasoline, diesel, alcohol, aviation gas or jet fuel.

M577A3
Subassemblies: Body +4, full-rotation Turret +2, 4 Off-Road wheels.
Powertrain: 286-kW all-wheeled drivetrain with 286-kW standard gas turbine, 400-gallon self-sealing fuel tank [Body], 1,440,000-kWs rechargeable batteries.
Fuel: 400 gallons diesel (Fire 6).
Occupancy: 3 NCS, 12 NPS.
Cargo: 11 cf.

Armor (Radiation PF 10):
All: 4/100 + 0/50 ablative
Body:F: 5/150 + 0/50
Body (interior): 0/+12 spall liner
Tires: 3/5

Weaponry:
80mm Mortar [Body:T] (32 rounds).
2x20mm Gatling/RE700 [Body:F] (1,700 rounds each).*
2xGatling Laser/20 MeV Charged Particle Beams (200 shots each).*
*Linked.

Equipment:
All: Basic IR cloaking (-5), basic stealth (-5). Body: Short-range radio with scrambler (100-mile), searchlight (2-mile), IR searchlight (2-mile), 20x LLTV (+4/+8), targeting radar, surface search (2-mile, Scan 13), thermograph (2-mile, Scan 13), inertial navigation system, military GPS, IFF, area jammer (+4), 8 decoy discharges with 8 chaff reloads and 8 flare reloads, 2 hardened microframe computers with 14 terminals, 14 datalink programs, 2 targeting programs, full fire suppression, advanced radar/laser detector, 15 crashwebs, 15-man NBC kit, improved access for all passenger stations, 45 man-days provisions, full-stabilization and casemate mount for 20mm Gatling. Turret: Full stabilization, universal mount.

Statistics:
Size: 28'x11'x7' Payload: 3.7 tons Lwt.: 15.95 tons
Volume: 1,235 cf. Maint.: 22 hours Price: $795,666

HT: 12. HPs: 1740 Body, 125 Turret, 297 each Wheel.

gSpeed: 94 gAccel: 4 gDecel: 20 gMR: 1.25 gSR: 5
Ground Pressure High. 1/6 Off-Road speed.

Design Notes:
Body is 950 cf with 30 degrees of frontal slope; wheels are 190 cf, Turret is 85 cf. Structure is Heavy, Standard and Sealed. It has Improved Brakes, Improved Suspension, Smartwheels and Puncture-Resistant tires. Armor is Standard Laminate plus Standard Ablative. The spall liner is Standard Nonrigid. Electronic controls. Empty weight is 24,940 lbs. Design gSpeed 76 mph. Loaded weight was reduced 4% to the "historical." To achieve the "historical" speed with the "historical" loaded weight, this vehicle would require a 435-kW engine.
The turret adds 2' to above listed height or length, depending on its deployment.
For simplicity, weaponry was chosen from options in Vehicles. The 20mm Gatling is a TL7 weapon, and so is reduced by 75% cost (p. UT10).

Variants:
The M577A1 mounts two light distrupters and two light missile launchers with 16 reloads.
The M557A2 mounts two 40 mW adjustable [rainbow] lasers.