Chieftain Heavy Tank

 

    During the beginning of the 31st century, the Outworlds Alliance was under constant attacks from pirates and raiders and its primary line of defense was the so called Planetary Militia, equipped with a miscellaneous of combat vehicles and infantry which suffered constant losses. Besides a small production of Vedettes and Hunters which proved expensive and inadequate for a defensive role, the OA depended on imports to keep these units in good combat strength. 

    With the support from the United Outworlders Corporation (UOC) in Mitchella, the Outworlds Alliance initiated the development of a heavy combat vehicle meant to be the backbone of the Planetary Militia and also be used by the Mechanized Corps. The original requirement asked for a price tag of 1M c-bills (which was later exceed), heavy armor and a required top speed of only 54kph as it was meant to a defensive role. The armament should include one heavy autocannon (class 10 or 20), one secondary energy weapon not dependent of ammo and one LRM launcher for long range attacks. 

    The result was a heavy tracked combat vehicle of 60 tons named Chieftain. Instead of creating an entirely new tank, UOC developed it from the ubiquitous LRM/SRM carrier chassis by keeping the original engine (an 180 ICE) and transmission, adding more armor and a full transverse turret.

     The main armament is an Autocannon class 10 which deliveries less damage than a AC/20 but has a much longer range - something very important in a such slow vehicle. One Medium Laser acts as secondary weapon able to fire indefinitely. The third weapon is a LRM-5 launcher which gives a small but useful firepower at long distances. Finally, a front mounted Machine Gun with 100 rounds is provided as an anti-infantry weapon.

    The Chieftain was very appreciated by its crews as a reliable and well armored tank. With thirteen tons of standard armor, it was able to sustain much more damage than most of other heavy tanks of its time. Top speed and firepower was not great, but by far enough to deal with a wide range of threats.

Type/Model: Chieftain  Mass: 60 tons Equipment Crits Mass Int.Struct.: 30 pts Standard 0 6 Engine: 180 I.C.E. 0 14 Power Amplifiers:    0      0 Cruise MP: 3 Flank MP: 5 Jumping MP: 0 Heat Sinks: 3 Single 0 3 Cockpit & Controls:   0 3 Crew: 4 members   0 0 Turret Equipment   0               1.5 Armor Factor: 208 pts Standard 0 13 Critical Internal Armor Points Front 6 56 Left/Right 6/6 40/40 Rear 6 32 Turret 6 40     Weapons & Equipment Loc Heat Ammo Crits Mass 1 Machine Gun Front 0 100 2 1 1 Autocannon/10 Turret 3 20 2 14 1 Medium Laser Turret 3   1 1 1 LRM 5 Turret 2 24 2 3       TOTALS: 8   7 19 Calculated Factors: Total Cost: 1`117`600 C-Bills Battle Value 1: 471  Battle Value 2: 896  Cost/BV: 1247 C-Bill/BV

Record Sheet Chieftain