L21 heavy armoured vehicle series

Versions include: MBT - Main battle tank AEV - Armoured engineering vehicle ABLV - Armoured bridge-laying vehicle ARV - Armoured recovery vehicle CT - Command tank

The L21 heavy armoured vehicle family comprises all the vehicles your armoured forces require to conduct rapid, powerful blows against your enemies. The L21 Kodiak main battle and command tanks (MBT and CT) are fast, well-armoured vehicles able to volley an extensive range of munitions at your enemies with their smoothbore 140mm, 52 calibre guns. The L21B Buffalo armoured bridge-laying vehicle (ABLV) carries three ten-metre (actually 10.2m) bridging segments into the battle area for your tanks to ford across the small rivers and other treacherous terrain. The L21E Elephant armoured engineering vehicle (AEV) possesses the tools needed to clear and prepare the way for your armoured forces and artillery batteries. The L21R Auroch armoured recovery vehicle (ARV) can recover and repair vehicles in the field, using its crane to replace engine blocks or even to perform limited turret maintenance. Whatever your requirements might be, this five member family is up to the task.

The L21 Kodiak MBT and CT are the products of many years of battlefield research. Survivability and operability were considered foremost in its design. Like the Israeli Merkava MBT, the engine was placed in front behind heavy armour to protect the tank crews from enemy fire. Placing the engine at the front also enabled the designers to place a large, long-barrelled gun on the Kodiak without greatly lengthening the overall length of the vehicle, thereby facilitating the storage of L21s on amphibious assault ships. The composite armour of the L21 family makes the best possible use of information stemming from research at the Royal Shipyards in low-weight armours. Layers of steel alloys, ballistic ceramics, and laminates protect the vehicle from kinetic energy (such as armour piercing fin stabilised discarding sabot (APFSDS)) and chemical energy (high explosive anti-tank) munitions. Additional layers of lightweight titanium alloys protect the turret, hull front, and underside (engine block, driver, ammunition), greatly increasing the survivability of the vehicles. Ballistic nylon fabrics provide spall protection for the crew, minimising the damage from those hits the enemy is able to land.

Survivability doesn’t end with armour, however. Six armoured optronic sensor blocks (OSB) provide the commander and crew 360-degree visual information about their vehicle’s immediate surroundings day or night in many weather conditions obtained by high resolution low-light television (LLTV) and imaging infra-red (IIR) arrays. The OSB ports are cleverly engineered to provide undistorted images despite the thickness of the protective lenses covering the sensors. The driver, gunner, and commander may access the OSB ports for single block or panoramic viewing and may highlight potential threats, targets, or other items of interest for the others to examine. Such information may be entered into the targeting system by the gunner or commander for immediate prosecution.

The commander has his own systems to provide him operational awareness. His station is equipped with its own four OSB ports, in addition to the optronic scope on the commander's machine gun. The 1.5-6 power machine gun scope permits high resolution video, low-light, or passive infra-red video feed to aim and fire the weapon remotely. In addition to those systems, the commander also may use the tank commander's independent sight (TCIS). The TCIS is not a single system, but a host of optronic sensors from a panoramic IIR array to a laser rangefinder/illuminator. The TCIS swivels throughout a 360-degree axis and may designate targets for the gunner to attack. The commander may also switch control of the TCIS over to the gunner should the loader need to lock the gun to reload.

Targets and threats designated by the tanks various sensors and crew are noted and classified by the Hedgehog threat management system (TMS). These objects as well as friendly forces are presented to the commander on a two-dimensional digital moving map display, the Tactical Awareness Display System (TADS). The commander may forward commands to the driver and gunner through the TADS to the other crews' own displays. Remarkable as the system already is, efforts are being made to improve it. The scientists at Lyme and Martens Industries (LMI) are working on adapting the TADS to display a limited three-dimensional display generated by the combined operation of three or more Hedgehog systems communicating with each other via a secure tactical datalink. LMI is also working on providing tank crews with helmet mounted sights to stream in threat and targeting information to them as swiftly as possible.

The microcomputers running the Hedgehog TMS also coordinate information streaming through from the L21's various threat sensors. Laser warning and radar warning receivers enable the L21 to detect threatening enemy helicopters and land vehicles and to respond to anti-tank missile launches by deploying countermeasures from its host of 70mm grenade launchers or for the L21 to launch a pre-emptive strike of its own. The L21 possesses sensors to detect hazardous NBC (nuclear, biological and chemical) environments as well. While not nearly as extensive as those within a specialised NBC reconnaissance vehicle, the systems do provide L21 crews with the necessary knowledge of their immediate environment to stay safe. An overpressure air conditioning system, which also makes the insides of the L21 series much more comfortable than it otherwise might be, protects the crew against extended exposure to such environments while EMP resistant electronics minimise the loss of capability caused by such environs.

Smoothbore 140mm, 52 calibre gun

The gun is fed by a semi-automatic loading process from an eight-round, fire-proof armoured rotary magazine that permits the gunner to select the appropriate munitions to load into the breech. The 140mm L52 gun accepts a wide range of munitions, from anti-tank guided missiles such as the GWS.76L Kiwi as well as armour piercing fin-stabilised discarding sabot (APFSDS) loads and standard APHE (armour piercing high explosive), HEAT (high explosive anti-tank), HESH (high explosive squash head) munitions, and many others. The gun is fully stabilised and loading from the magazine simplifies firing while moving. The loader may temporarily lock the gun in place while the gunner and/or commander searches for targets with the TCIS. The gun will set to the gunner's target once the reloading process is completed. The semi-automatic loading process obviates the sometime troublesome (and occasionally dangerous) characteristics of autoloaders while speeding the loading process. The loading process is controlled by software run by a series of ruggedised microcomputers.

Other sensors

As noted above, the commander and gunner's sights are not the only sensors the L21 family of vehicles has. The driver is provided with low-light television and imaging infra-red sensors to make driving at night and in poor weather conditions much easier. The gunner is provided with similar tools to select and prosecute targets as well as a laser rangefinder that may be used to guide gun-launched ERGM or ATGW. The wealth of optronic information is collated and presented to the gunner via a high resolution LCD display. In later models, the gunner will have the information presented to him or her via a helmet mounted display.

Characteristics (Kodiak MBT/MBT-C)

Crew: 4 (MBT and MBT-C: driver, gunner, loader, commander) Dimensions: Length: 8.48m (hull only), 11.52m (gun forward); Width: 3.76m; Height: 2.54m (turret roof), 3m (overall); Ground clearance: 0.50m Ground pressure: 0.9 kg/cm^2 Power-to-weight ratio: 17.86 kW/t (24.35 hp/t) Mass: 72,400 kg (combat loading) Propulsion: 1250kW (1,705 shp) IMW LMM-52T multi-fuel-electric (MFE) four-stroke 12-cylinder 90-degree inline-V (i.e. liquid cooled) Transmission: 6-speed automatic, 1 reverse. Reservoirs: Fuel: 2,048 litres; Oil: 172 litres; Coolant: 208 litres. Speed: Land: burst: 72 km/h (road); standard maximum: 65 km/h; cruise: 50 km/h; cross-country (maximum): 55 km/h. Range (at cruise speed): 525 km. Protection (values in RHA vs KE/CE): Chobham-style composite of steel alloys, ballistic ceramics, ballistic polymers (nylon, etc.), with Kevlar spall-lining, bottom with titanium alloy plating covering key components (driver, engine, turret, ammunition) Turret: 1080-1160 (KE)/2100-2430 (CE) Turret top (with blow-out panels for stored ammunition): tbd Glacis: 770 (KE)/940 (CE) Lower front hull: 770 (KE)/940 (CE) Sides (w/o skirts, applique armour, etc.): 465 (KE)/570 (CE) Rear: 465 (KE)/600 (CE) Bottom: 320-440 (KE)/400-550 (CE) Restrictions: Obstacles: Trenches: 3m wide; Walls: 1m Grades (combat equipped): Forward: 65%; Side Slope: 38% Weapons: MBT and CT: 140mm 52-calibre smoothbore conventional gun (48 shells/ERGM/ATGW, 8 in selectable ready-to-fire, armoured, fire-resistant magazine), 7.62mm coax. MG, 12.7mm commander's MG (remote-capable) AEV: tbd ARV: tbd AVLB: tbd Electronics: tbd Countermeasures: 4 x 4 (turret) and 2 x 8 (hull) GLE.141 70mm grenade dispensers (smoke, fragmentation, other), rotating 4-cell GLE.200 70mm anti-missile grenade dispenser (on turret), GLQ.291 electro-static discharge system (turret) [b]Cost (Vehicle only):[/b] MBT (L21): $6.2 million MBT-C (L21C): $6.7 million ADV (L21A):(in development; expected price: $7.2 million AEV (L21E): $5.8 million ARV (L21R): $5.8 million AVLB (L21B): $5.8 million