Dieseltech Tank
Dieseltech tanks (known in the vernacular simply as 'tanks') are large armored fighting vehicles equipped with heavy weapory, like their 'standard' tank ancestors. The distinction between a standard and dieseltech tank is the implementation of dieseltech to improve the overall performance of the vehicle. Common enhancements in this regard include mechanical computers to fill a wide variety of roles (i.e. navigation, gunnery control, or even a degree of automation) and RadNet connectivity to facilitate combined arms operations, and adaptations for deployment from airships or skystations.
While an armored fighting vehicle like a tank has greater cargo, armor, and weapon carriage capacity than a suit of auto-armor , it is less adept at safely negotiating certain terrain features unique to the Manifold Sky setting. For example, advances in anti-armor weaponry - especially skystation-based weaponry - have rendered traversing narrow commissure road interchanges more difficult for large figting vehicles. Lighter, more nimble vehicles with smaller footprints (i.e. motorcycles) have become more prevalent in these environments. Nevertheless, these issues have merely served to limit the size of armored vehicles rather than eliminating their utility entirely. Tanks still find widespread use in relatively 'normal' regions of the Medial, Eastern, Caudal and Dorsal Tesseracts, especially in urbanized environments where humanoid activites have tamed the terrain.
Weapons & Armament
A tank can serve as a platform for multiple crew-served weapons, including machine guns, cannons, artillery, missiles, rockets, and more exotic weaponry.
Unlike auto-armor, dieseltech tanks very rarely make use of crew-served melee weapons in combat. Using melee weapons either requires one or more actuated limbs or a bumper mount, and these are often not as fast, dexterous, or sturdy in combat as actuators found on auto-armor. Such attachments (i.e. (i.e. an arm-mounted JH-AA "Lance" Heavy Jackhammer) are much more often used as combat engineering tools, seeing use as weaponry only in extenuating circumstances.
Armor and defense
Tanks have the strongest armor of any class of vehicle in the Manifold. While an MROB comes close to a tank in terms of overall durability, the former vehicle's durability derives more from sheer mass and volume rather than actual armor cladding. As of the year 10,000 AR, Miko Slaus-Braun of the Ghostleaf Foundation and other scientists have been experimenting with armor plates suffused with tiny channels for the injection of self-hardening resins, allowing armor to harden in response to impacts or even 'heal' from damage over time.
Communication Tools & Systems
Dieseltech tanks often feature integrated radio equipment, with the addition of dieseltech computer technology allowing for automatic encryption and decryption of battlefied communications. Tanks with this feature often have a dedicated radio technician on the crew to both operate the communications system and, in the event of capture, make sure that the computer's programming gaskets - which contain cipher keys - are not recovered by the enemy.
Sensors
As of 10,000 AR tank sensors are mostly limited to optical and radio-based equipment. The most advanced tanks from the Commonwealth of C feature sensor suites similar to those of the DEL-1 "Concertina" Support Auto-Armor, including night vision. In combined arms operations, tank operators can rely on telemetry from airborne spotters to further augment their battlefield awareness.
Additional & auxiliary systems
Tanks are sometimes fitted with equipment designed to deal with specific obstacles or environments. For example, because Voxelian tacticians are aware that their adversaries in Craterhold are fond of mines and traps, they often equip their tanks with special thresher assemblies to trigger them prematurely. Similarly, because their home territory is creased with deep chasms, tanks employed by the Free Faces League sometimes haul collapsible bridge segments. The Rostran Archipelago Confederacy sometimes employs amphibious tanks with dedicated life support systems and sonar recievers, though, being a nautical power, they field few tanks in general.
Hangars & docked vessels
As of 10,000 AR, Rostrax Aerostat & Aerodyne is experimenting with small, tethered, remote-controlled weather balloons meant to be deployed from the backs of tanks. Aside from their usual package of sensory equipment, such as wind speed and temperature gauges, these balloons are also equipped with amplified microphones. These microphones would allow the deploying tank crew to listen for enemy movements and triangulate their positions from a greater distance afield; Rostrans are already famed for their acute senses.
Used by
Complement / Crew
3-5
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