X-55AZ

J.A. X-55AZ

The X-55AZ is a heavily upgraded version of the X-55 .

Development

Afther it was confirmed that the original X-55 was unrelieable to be effective and had it's production halted. In 2015 J.A. started looking into it's major problems and starting to fix it up to offer a better tank-destroyer. at a slight higher cost.

Characteristics

The X-55AZ upgrades include:

- The electrical engine was replaced with x4 6.5 Liter I6 Diesel engines. Producing 870 Horsepower then the electrical engine's 236 Horsepower. Thus improving it's speed and power greatly

- Additional armour blocks have been placed at the front, back and sides of the hull. The front armour blocks have been angled to provide more protection. Overall improving it's protection greatly. Also a 2 layer armour has been added to the turret, the first layer consists of composite armour blocks as the second layer consists of two angled steel plates.

- Replacement of the 100MM Cannon which had to be manually loaded, the cannon features now a Autoloader system.

- The addition of a coaxial 7.62 Machinegun to fend off infantry and lightly armoured vehicles and a 4 tube smoke-launcher system at the turret increases it's surviviability.

Advantages

The X-55AZ has better armour and mobillity then it's predecessor, bringing in some places over 180MM of effective thickness. It also kept it's lethality and has yet a addition of faster loading speeds and a slightly improved armour piercing shell (202MM Max. Penetration). It also brings out a new coaxial 7.62 then a seperate-manned 12.7MM AA gun. And at last the X-55AV has a smoke-laying system brought by 4 smoke launcher tubes around the turret.

Disatvantages

Due it's new autoloader system and compacting the shell layout in the hull, the X-55AZ has 24 shells to deliver then it's predecessor (40 Shells) before needing to rearm. It's autoloader mechanism also adds a longer reloading time once it shot through it's 8 shell magazine. Making it defenceless. The tank has also a external fuel barrel at the back linking it to the engines that makes it very vurnable to the smallest arms fire.

Production history

The X-55AZ is expected to be produced in 500 units. Upgrade kits are available to the X-55 users who wish to convert the original model to the AZ version.