The Battle Tank, Light I is a small multi-role tank developed primarily for mid-range combat.
| BTL I | |
|---|---|
| |
Design
| |
| Designer | Unicide |
| Role | Battle Tank |
Specifications
| |
| Weight | 27.7 tonnes |
| Armor | 325 / 175 / 300 mm effective |
| Primary Armament | x 1 50mm Cannon |
| Secondary Armament | x 1 7.62 Machine Gun |
| Powerplant | x1 5.0L Boxer 6 |
| Top Speed | 12 MPH |
Development[]
The BTL I was developed as a quick-and-dirty prototype for new armoring, construction, and control techniques. Design specifications called for a compact tank with a focus on protection mounting a 50mm cannon.
Characteristics[]
The tank's armor is surprisingly thick in the front and rear, able to shrug off rounds from up to a 100mm cannon with favorable angles. The side armor is sadly lacking, since the already-compact design left no room for effective angling. Spaced armor over the treads give it a measure of increased protection against APHE rounds.
The fire-control system was primitive, but effective at short ranges thanks to the main gun's flat trajectory. A machine-gun, firing bullets calibrated to theoretically fly the same as the main gun's shells, is used to test range. When the machine-gun hits the target, the cannon should also. The cannon is capable of penetrating 109mm of armor at point-blank range.
The tank is surprisingly slow for a light vehicle, with a max speed of only 12 mph. The heavy armor meant that it sometimes encountered issues climbing up slopes.