AAV-10 Heavy Tank

AAV-10 Heavy Tank
General characteristics
Crew	4
Length	17 metres
Width	4.5 metres
Height	3.6 m
Weight	125 t
Armour and armament
Armour	3450mm High Impact Ceramic Plating
Main armament	160mm AT-04 Cannon
Secondary armament	1x Co-axial .60 cal HMG-07 Gatling Gun, 1 Cupola mounted .60 cal HMG-06 Chaingun
Mobility
Power plant	Turbo Diesel 2200bhp
Suspension	Tortion Bar
Road speed	35 km/h
Power/weight	24.54 hp/h
Range	510 km

The AAV-10 Heavy Tank is the most powerful land vehicle employed by the Rethast. Unlike it's light counterpart, it is groundbased and moves using a tread system. The main cannon is also significantly more powerful and turret mounted, allowing a larger firing area. It is, however, far slower and is unable to move through difficult terrain as the LAV-12 can. It is made for 4 crewman, one pilot, one to operate the cannon, one to operate the co-axial Gatling and a single machinegunner for the Cuploa Chaingun, usually the tank's commander.

Armament

Weaponry

The AAV-10 is equipped with a single turret mounted AT-04 Anti armour cannon. This weapon gives the tank a powerful punch and is quick to reload. It is still light enough to allow decent mobility of the tank, but is very powerful against all targets. The gun is made from high-strength electro-slag refining (ESR) Cordike with a chromium alloy lining and, is insulated by a thermal sleeve. It is fitted with a muzzle reference system, fume extraction and is gyro-stabilised to allow more accurate aiming.

In addition to the main cannon, the Tank is equipped with a Co-Axial Gatling to allow infantry to be more easily killed than by the shells, which tend to be less accurate. Also, a Cupola mounted Chaingun allows 360° infantry killing range and also provides the only anti air protection the tank has.

Shells

The AT-04 is loaded with either HE Shrapnel Fragmentation shells for anti infantry purposes and HEC6 or HAPS shells for anti vehicular purposes. The ShrapnelFragmentation shells explode upon contact, scattering shrapnel in a wide radius, the largest recorded being 25 feet. Infantry not killed by the High Explosive blast are almost certainly killed by the clouds of shrapnel thrown up by the shell. The HE shell is also useful against lighter vehicles, whose armour cannot provide good enough protection against the explosive round. Open topped vehicles are particularly vulnerable, as there is less to protect the occupants and inside mechanisms from shrapnel.

The HEC6 (High Explosive C6) shell is similar to the HESF shell, but is packed with far more explosive. HEC6 rounds contain a warhead filled with plastic explosive and a delayed fuse. On impact the plastic explosive in the shell spreads out to form a disk on the surface of the armour. The fuse then detonates the explosive, creating a shock wave which travels through the armour, causing flakes of metal to spall off the armour's inside surface. The resulting fragments injure or kill the crew, damage equipment, and/or ignite ammunition and fuel. Unlike HAPS ammunition, HESH shells are not explicitly designed to penetrate the armour of main battle tanks, although performance depends on the thickness of the target's armour plating.

Finally, HAPS (Heavy Armour Penetrating Shell) are used for actually penetrating a vehicle. If an enemy vehicle is found to have thick armour which cannot be affected in a satisfactory manner with HEC6 shells, then HAPS shells are used instead. HAPS rounds are made of an explosive shaped charge that uses the Neumann effect (a development of the Munroe effect) to create a very high-velocity jet of metal in a state of superplasticity that can punch through solid armor.

The jet moves at hypersonic speeds (up to 25 times the speed of sound) in solid material and therefore erodes exclusively in the contact area of jet and armor material. Spacing is critical, as the jet disintegrates and disperses after a relatively short distance, usually well under 2 metres. The jet material is formed by a cone of metal foil lining, usually copper or the Rethast material Cordike.

The key to the effectiveness of a HAPS round is the diameter of the warhead. As the penetration continues through the armor, the width of the hole decreases leading to a characteristic "fist to finger" penetration, where the size of the eventual "finger" is based on the size of the original "fist". In general, HAPS rounds can expect to penetrate armor of 150% to 250% of their width.