GWOT V - Cougar
Dec. 30th, 2023 03:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drewkittyGWOT V - Cougar
The Cougar medium tank project was the result of a competition between three California military corporations - FMC California (aka FMCC, a spinoff from the company that manufactured the Bradley), Lockheed-Martin California Division (aka LMCD), and the new upstart Maker Space Tank Party (MSTP). FMCC, LMCD and MSTP each proposed several designs, some conservative and some radical. The final design was derived from the FMCC chassis and turret assembly, the LMCC main gun and targeting systems, and numerous innovations from MSTP.
California military decided that while it needed a heavy tank design desperately, it could neither afford one nor could the state afford the manufacturing capability required. Therefore California purchased a number of Leclerc tanks from the French and the United Arab Emirate.
Thousands of medium tanks in time was considered better than hundreds of heavy tanks too late.
The LMCC main gun system is based on a 120mm main gun shell with additional propellant options - a hybrid cased / caseless round. Like all Lockheed-Martin inventions, it works reasonably well most of the time. Crews often forego the additional propellant due to the difficulty of cleaning the barrel after it is used, required after as few as thirty shots. (Eventually if not cleaned, the barrel will blow up.)
The FMCC chassis was a reliable tread system with an overpowered turbine engine to a continuously variable transmission. The Cougar tread system only throws treads if too much power is applied to them. This is remarkably easy for a novice tank driver to do.
MSTP provided what third parties consider a 'unique' armor option. The honeycomb armor does not protect the mobility components of the tank at all, only the turret and crew compartment. MSTP's battlefield analysis claimed that just as most tanks have little to no top armor, most hits on the front slope (or glasis) are above the midpoint of the tread line. So only the top half of the front of the tank, and the front, top and sides of the turret system, are armored against tank and missile fire. The turret top can actually resist a hit from a dedicated top-attack weapon such as a Javelin - but the top of the engine pack immediately behind is almost completely unarmored. The lower half of the armor is proof only against small arms fire.
The combination of top-heavy armor with lighter overall weight and an overpowered turbine gives the Cougar similiarly 'unique' handling characteristics. An unskilled Cougar tank driver, or a tank driver trained on other chassis, is very likely to flip the Cougar sideways in a turn at any speed, as well as throwing one or even both treads.
The turret assembly, as is standard with modern tanks, is gyrostabilized and has computer correction for windage, elevation and weather. However, the turret (just below the armor line) has a secondary turret ring that spins around the primary turret, which mounts over 120 individual but lightly armored cameras. If (when!) some of the cameras are battle damaged, the secondary ring spins to bring undamaged cameras into the turret's forward arc.
Also mounted on the same turret ring are ball bearing explosive strip charges, which are fired to disrupt incoming anti tank missiles and can be used in desperation against close enemy infantry. Boxy and fragile smoke grenade projectors are mounted forward on the main turret giving it a "fireworks" type appearance.
Mounted in coaxial configuration with the 120mm main gun is a 25mm "chain gun." They cannot be fired at the same time with any accuracy. However this gives the Cougar an intermediate option for engaging soft-skinned vehicles or enemy infantry while leaving the main gun ready to engage enemy tanks.
The Cougar also mounts seven (7!) medium machine guns, each equipped with a pre-loaded belt fed ammunition pack that cannot be reloaded during an engagement. In exchange, these machine guns are mounted two to the front (under the control of the driver), two on a three dimensional servo swivel mount (controlled by the loader), two forward on the turret assembly controlled by the gunner (but not coaxial!) and the seventh on a spade grip for the commander. This seventh is typically pointed aft and up at a 45 degree angle as it otherwise blocks the commander's forward view.
In an effort to reduce mobility losses, the Cougar computer-controlled driving system limits the power that can be transferred to the treads and substantially reduces the turning radius at any speed. While the tank can be moved from any of the four crew positions, only the dedicated driver position can actually 'drive' the tank, if an override switch is operated by the driver that lights a warning light at the other three positions.
In urban warfare the Cougar is festooned with barbed wire and chain link mesh to set off anti-tank grenades and keep enemy infantry from climbing the tank.
MSTP (Maker Space Tank Party)'s numerous minor refinements were developed based on incessant play of numerous armor game simulators and "mods" of optional features. Some of these - such as the balloon guided top attack weapon - were so impractical as to be impossible to implement.
However, one of the simplest and most practical innovations was the "camera on a stick" - a periscope variation that would allow a Cougar to "peer" above or around an obstacle, much like the mast mounted radar of the Apache Longbow. Some are mounted on the chassis and some on the turret assembly. All are disposable and easily replaceable in the field.
Another MSTP innovation was the addition of four side, two bottom and two rear hatches as well as a hatch from the driver's compartment to the main crew compartment, in addition to the two conventional turret top hatches. The Cougar is therefore the most "escapable" tank ever designed. It is possible for the entire crew to escape the tank from all six sides (front, port, starboard, aft, top and bottom).
Typically one of the two rear escape tunnels contains the crew's personal effects, which are discarded prior to tank versus tank combat if at all possible. Like the Merkava, these tunnels (on either side of the engine pack) could be used for sheltering wounded personnel or storing extra ammunition. The side hatches, being below the armor line, are impractical but not impossible to use as fighting hatches; a 'tube' for dropping smoke and fragmentation grenades is incorporated into all of the external hatch covers.
Another Cougar-specific innovation was the blade mounted server rack built into the rear behind the engine pack and powered from the engine alternators. This allows the use of COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) computing components as the 'brain' of the tank, driving the camera views, the targeting and the battlefield intelligence systems. This rack is only armored against small arms fire.
These innovations come at the expense of a survivability system now considered standard - "blow off" ammunition storage. If the ammunition in a Cougar detonates, there is no survivability for the crew. Another survivability standard - the built in fire extinguisher - is limited to the engine pack only and does not protect the ammunition or crew compartments.
There have been no combat engagements between Cougar and other tanks since its development and deployment.
The engine pack has proven highly reliable. Off road performance has been modest in automatic mode and either spectacular or spectacular in manual mode, depending on the skill of the driver.
Bulldozer and lowboy drivers appreciate the ability of the transmission to roll the wheels in neutral so that a trackless Cougar can be more easily loaded onto a trailer for return to depot.
In theory the Cougar could out-maneuver and out-flank other tanks while meeting them with parity of firepower. Survivability is an open ended question that cannot be resolved in any way but on the battlefield. The patchwork nature of the armor is an innovation that may or may not work in combat.
Cougar tanks are assigned a bewildering variety of names by their crews. There is a superstition that all Cougar tanks are queer, and it is considered rude to refer to the tank using a gender that matches the name. For example, "Bertha" and "Beth" are male tanks; "George" and "Roger" are female tanks. "Alex" and "Riley" and "River" are neither male nor female. No tank may ever be named "Pat" out of respect for the Governor.
Unlike many other tank chassis, the Cougar chassis is not used for other purposes. The tank is too new for variants to be proposed.
The Cougar medium tank project was the result of a competition between three California military corporations - FMC California (aka FMCC, a spinoff from the company that manufactured the Bradley), Lockheed-Martin California Division (aka LMCD), and the new upstart Maker Space Tank Party (MSTP). FMCC, LMCD and MSTP each proposed several designs, some conservative and some radical. The final design was derived from the FMCC chassis and turret assembly, the LMCC main gun and targeting systems, and numerous innovations from MSTP.
California military decided that while it needed a heavy tank design desperately, it could neither afford one nor could the state afford the manufacturing capability required. Therefore California purchased a number of Leclerc tanks from the French and the United Arab Emirate.
Thousands of medium tanks in time was considered better than hundreds of heavy tanks too late.
The LMCC main gun system is based on a 120mm main gun shell with additional propellant options - a hybrid cased / caseless round. Like all Lockheed-Martin inventions, it works reasonably well most of the time. Crews often forego the additional propellant due to the difficulty of cleaning the barrel after it is used, required after as few as thirty shots. (Eventually if not cleaned, the barrel will blow up.)
The FMCC chassis was a reliable tread system with an overpowered turbine engine to a continuously variable transmission. The Cougar tread system only throws treads if too much power is applied to them. This is remarkably easy for a novice tank driver to do.
MSTP provided what third parties consider a 'unique' armor option. The honeycomb armor does not protect the mobility components of the tank at all, only the turret and crew compartment. MSTP's battlefield analysis claimed that just as most tanks have little to no top armor, most hits on the front slope (or glasis) are above the midpoint of the tread line. So only the top half of the front of the tank, and the front, top and sides of the turret system, are armored against tank and missile fire. The turret top can actually resist a hit from a dedicated top-attack weapon such as a Javelin - but the top of the engine pack immediately behind is almost completely unarmored. The lower half of the armor is proof only against small arms fire.
The combination of top-heavy armor with lighter overall weight and an overpowered turbine gives the Cougar similiarly 'unique' handling characteristics. An unskilled Cougar tank driver, or a tank driver trained on other chassis, is very likely to flip the Cougar sideways in a turn at any speed, as well as throwing one or even both treads.
The turret assembly, as is standard with modern tanks, is gyrostabilized and has computer correction for windage, elevation and weather. However, the turret (just below the armor line) has a secondary turret ring that spins around the primary turret, which mounts over 120 individual but lightly armored cameras. If (when!) some of the cameras are battle damaged, the secondary ring spins to bring undamaged cameras into the turret's forward arc.
Also mounted on the same turret ring are ball bearing explosive strip charges, which are fired to disrupt incoming anti tank missiles and can be used in desperation against close enemy infantry. Boxy and fragile smoke grenade projectors are mounted forward on the main turret giving it a "fireworks" type appearance.
Mounted in coaxial configuration with the 120mm main gun is a 25mm "chain gun." They cannot be fired at the same time with any accuracy. However this gives the Cougar an intermediate option for engaging soft-skinned vehicles or enemy infantry while leaving the main gun ready to engage enemy tanks.
The Cougar also mounts seven (7!) medium machine guns, each equipped with a pre-loaded belt fed ammunition pack that cannot be reloaded during an engagement. In exchange, these machine guns are mounted two to the front (under the control of the driver), two on a three dimensional servo swivel mount (controlled by the loader), two forward on the turret assembly controlled by the gunner (but not coaxial!) and the seventh on a spade grip for the commander. This seventh is typically pointed aft and up at a 45 degree angle as it otherwise blocks the commander's forward view.
In an effort to reduce mobility losses, the Cougar computer-controlled driving system limits the power that can be transferred to the treads and substantially reduces the turning radius at any speed. While the tank can be moved from any of the four crew positions, only the dedicated driver position can actually 'drive' the tank, if an override switch is operated by the driver that lights a warning light at the other three positions.
In urban warfare the Cougar is festooned with barbed wire and chain link mesh to set off anti-tank grenades and keep enemy infantry from climbing the tank.
MSTP (Maker Space Tank Party)'s numerous minor refinements were developed based on incessant play of numerous armor game simulators and "mods" of optional features. Some of these - such as the balloon guided top attack weapon - were so impractical as to be impossible to implement.
However, one of the simplest and most practical innovations was the "camera on a stick" - a periscope variation that would allow a Cougar to "peer" above or around an obstacle, much like the mast mounted radar of the Apache Longbow. Some are mounted on the chassis and some on the turret assembly. All are disposable and easily replaceable in the field.
Another MSTP innovation was the addition of four side, two bottom and two rear hatches as well as a hatch from the driver's compartment to the main crew compartment, in addition to the two conventional turret top hatches. The Cougar is therefore the most "escapable" tank ever designed. It is possible for the entire crew to escape the tank from all six sides (front, port, starboard, aft, top and bottom).
Typically one of the two rear escape tunnels contains the crew's personal effects, which are discarded prior to tank versus tank combat if at all possible. Like the Merkava, these tunnels (on either side of the engine pack) could be used for sheltering wounded personnel or storing extra ammunition. The side hatches, being below the armor line, are impractical but not impossible to use as fighting hatches; a 'tube' for dropping smoke and fragmentation grenades is incorporated into all of the external hatch covers.
Another Cougar-specific innovation was the blade mounted server rack built into the rear behind the engine pack and powered from the engine alternators. This allows the use of COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) computing components as the 'brain' of the tank, driving the camera views, the targeting and the battlefield intelligence systems. This rack is only armored against small arms fire.
These innovations come at the expense of a survivability system now considered standard - "blow off" ammunition storage. If the ammunition in a Cougar detonates, there is no survivability for the crew. Another survivability standard - the built in fire extinguisher - is limited to the engine pack only and does not protect the ammunition or crew compartments.
There have been no combat engagements between Cougar and other tanks since its development and deployment.
The engine pack has proven highly reliable. Off road performance has been modest in automatic mode and either spectacular or spectacular in manual mode, depending on the skill of the driver.
Bulldozer and lowboy drivers appreciate the ability of the transmission to roll the wheels in neutral so that a trackless Cougar can be more easily loaded onto a trailer for return to depot.
In theory the Cougar could out-maneuver and out-flank other tanks while meeting them with parity of firepower. Survivability is an open ended question that cannot be resolved in any way but on the battlefield. The patchwork nature of the armor is an innovation that may or may not work in combat.
Cougar tanks are assigned a bewildering variety of names by their crews. There is a superstition that all Cougar tanks are queer, and it is considered rude to refer to the tank using a gender that matches the name. For example, "Bertha" and "Beth" are male tanks; "George" and "Roger" are female tanks. "Alex" and "Riley" and "River" are neither male nor female. No tank may ever be named "Pat" out of respect for the Governor.
Unlike many other tank chassis, the Cougar chassis is not used for other purposes. The tank is too new for variants to be proposed.
