Tintreach

Main Battle Tank

The Lightning A1 is (Cenaesian: Tintreach) is the Main battle tank of the Imperial Commonwealth Army of Pillowlandia. The system and its derivatives are fifth-generation tanks built by Caisleán Armories and the platform is intended to serve into the early 2100s with upgrades to address evolving threats. Protection features such as its advanced composite armor, active protection system, and highly networked combat information system allow a high degree of protection at a lower weight than peer platforms. This is especially true in it's composite armor, which is said to give equal protection of rolled homogeneous armor at only 43% of the weight.
The tank derives its name from high speeds attained during testing, which were considerably higher than the requirements submitted by the Pillowlandian ICA and Duckzchwhitz for the design. This high speed is marginally less in the A1E variant, due to the inferior armor design. The A1U and A1U2 are urban derivatives designed for higher survivability in urban settings. This is achieved by the integration of additional armor to guard more vulnerable sections such as the treads. A majority of Tintreach tanks in service are compliant with the A1U standard, with most others still compliant to the A1 standard and a handful compliant to the A1U2 standard.

Design

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The Tintreach was developed largely by Duckzchwhitz need for a highly advanced and modern tank, with the Pillowlandian ICA partnering to defuse costs, increase commonality between the two states armored forces, and replace the aging Patriot tank which had been in service since the early 1980s and had seen multiple upgrades. With emphasis on protection and weight being a secondary concern initial proposals relied on cheap but older composite armor designs.
These initial designs easily exceeded the needs for a heavy protection, and were capable of withstanding multiple 120 mm APFSDS and HEAT shells. Despite this, the speed was exceptionally low and the prototypes exceeded 150 tons. With the initial designs being rejected for weight, and unsatisfactory armament Caisleán Armories entered a bid in the second round of submissions. This submission used more expensive, nearly 10x so, sixth generation composite armor. The bid was initially accepted and production of twelve prototypes was approved.

Armor

Utilizing various techniques the armor of the Tintreach is effectively equivalent to several times its actual thickness of Rolled homogeneous armour. The sloping of the turret provides increased protection due to the nature of ballistics, sloping makes armor effectively more thick than it is, and includes spaced sections between the two primary layers of the composite armor. The composite itself is rumored to be a titanium-aluminum alloy with several other classified synthetic materials.
Further the tank is fitted with modular non energetic reactive armor which aims to weaken or defeat incoming enemy shells prior to impacting the primary armor of the hull. The modular system and primary armor are composed of a hard face and soft face combined for maximum effectiveness. The hard face is presented towards the enemy, and is built to resist and defeat incoming projectiles. The soft face is on the inside face and is designed to absorb excess force along with any spall. Despite this the modular armor is a more traditional fourth generation composite and is seen as an optional armoring, and is not fitted normally due to increases in weight.

Targeting

The crew consists of four: commander, driver, gunner, and loader. Both the gunner and commander have combined thermal/infrared sights for seeking out hostile vehicles, infantry, and aircraft. However, the integrated onboard targeting computer compiles information from the gun, distance, atmospheric conditions, and various other factors which are combined to provide a reticle which the gunner only has to maintain on target to ensure a hit. The targeting computer also integrates data, at the commanders preference, from the greater battlenet. This allows for updated information regarding conditions outside the tank further than the onboard sensors are capable of reading.
In case of complete failure of the targeting computer, the gunner maintains an independent telescopic scope to manually aim both the primary and secondary armaments. THe turret and gun can both be hand cranked in case of a hydraulic system failure. This redundancy theoretically allows the tank to be completely powered down and establish an ambush while blending into the ambient environment. However, such a situation would result in the tank being vulnerable to attack given its active protection system would be unpowered.

Armaments

The 130mm Type 48 L55 smoothbore cannon produced by Rheinmetall was developed using electro-thermal chemical methods of ammunition ignition. The more consistent burning of propellant, along with the denser propellant used. As a result the propellant is much more powerful than comparable amounts of normal propellants. This increased power allows the munition to have a much higher muzzle velocity of roughly 25 Megajoules at ranges of 8,000 meters.
The 25 MJ energy allows the type 48 gun to penetrate modern armors with ease. When using APFSDS it is capable of penetrating the equivalent of nearly 1300mm in RHA.

Variants

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A1U- is an upgrade to the base armor system, includes slat armor application to the engine exhaust and intake. The armored skirt around the treads was improved with a second layer which offers more protection of the treads, is highly modular, and protects the rear road wheels.
A1U2-By using more modular sections of NERA armor on the main tread skirt the tank is more capable of withstanding incoming attack. Further, the increased ease of replacing panels lowers down time and gives more granular control of what parts are removed for replacing treads upon the tank.
Further, the advanced design of the Tintreach has resulted in export to nearly every state in Cenaesia. As a result, many have implemented minor modifications to better suit local environments and procedures, in spite of a published standardized manual. Such widespread adoption, however, allows for the highly advanced design and its features to used my nations which would otherwise be incapable of supporting it and defusing the costs for all parties.

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Power Generation

CA AFE 1800 Multi-fuel Turbine

Weapons & Armament

130mm Tyle 48 L55 smoothbore Cannon
.50 caliber coaxial HMG
.50 caliber turret mounted HMG

Armor and defense

Commpressed Carbon composite armor
Mk8 Active Protection System

Nickname

Blur

Owning Organization

Pillowlandia

Price

12000000

Length

7.7 meters (chassis)
9.9 meters (turret)

Weight

50 tons

Speed

90 km/h Roadspeed
72 km/r Offroad

Complement / Crew

4:

• Commander
• Loader
• Gunner
• Driver