Leopard-class Cruiser Tank
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Name/Type: Leopard-class Cruiser Tank
Designer/Manufacturer: Contegorian Confederation / Gestalt Colonies
Combat Role: Armored Personnel Carrier
Crew: 3 (Commander, Gunner, Driver)
Length: 14 Meters
Propulsion: Repulsorlift
Speed: 300 Kph
Shield Rating: None.
Hull Rating: 160 RU
Weapons: 1 Modular Gun (standard issue is E-WEB), 2 CSPL-12 Projectile Launchers.
Cargo Capacity: 32 Troopers, 4 Mark IV Sentinels or other equivalent.
Cost: 24,600 Credits
Special: Active Camouflage, Non-energetic Reactive Armor.
The Leopard-class Cruiser Tank is a joint project between the Gestalt Colonies and the Contegorian Confederation which aimed to produce a fast, armored personnel carrier with which to swiftly carry personnel through hot spots. In this respect, the designation is an intentional misnomer to throw off enemy intelligence forces and others about its true role. The gentle sloping lines of the craft combined with its turret enhance the support this notion. While in actuality, the Leopard would make a poor combatant in most vehicular battles.
The rear of this armored fighting vehicle houses its troops on four benches; two along the sides of the craft, and two back-to-back in the centre. For quick exits and entries, there are eight doors out of the hold; six on the sides, two in the rear. Each one of these doors features closeable blaster slits so that the troopers can fire many of their weapons from the safety of their vehicle. A feature which many troops have approved of.
The pre-dominantly durasteel armor of the Leopard is thick enough to protect its occupants of most personal weapons attacks, shrapnel, and flechettes. In addition, like the recent Ares Tank, the Leopard is completely enclosed environment; unaffected by outside atmosphere. In order to increase its effectiveness against projectile weapons, the armor was sloped on the front and sides. Thus, more of the kinetic energy from a projectile weapon is directed on the y-axis when a weapon hits it. Because the primary danger to the Leopard comes from explosive weapons, Confederation engineers equipped the carrier with reactive armor. Previously, electric reactive armor was used to great effect on Confederate warships. However, the demands of ground warfare are considerably different than those of space. When a weapon hits electric reactive armor, it is prematurely detonated. On a ground vehicle, the occupants would still suffer from heat and some blast damage, and more dire, friendly soft units nearby would suffer from the premature detonation. Thus, Non-energetic Reactive armor was devised. It operates similarly to electric reactive armour, but without the electrical charging. Two durasteel plates sandwich an inert liner, usually synthetic rubber. When struck by a shaped charge's metal jet, some of the impact energy is dissipated into the inert liner layer, and the resulting high pressure causes a localized bending or bulging of the plates in the area of the impact. As the plates bulge, the point of jet impact shifts with the plate bulging, increasing the effective thickness of the armour. Because this armor does not prematurely detonate the weapon, it is safer for nearby infantry. Because of this innovation, the unshielded Leopard is capable of withstanding some, but not all, direct hits from missiles, shells, and similar weapons.
Because it was primarily designed as a transport vehicle, the Leopard is fairly lightly armed for its size. In most cases, the Leopard merely provides covering fire while its troops load/unload or in fire support missions. The primary weapon is a modular gun mounting mantle, designed to accept any number of weapons found across the galaxy. Coming straight from the factories, the carrier is equipped with an E-WEB blaster, effective against infantry and lighter vehicles. Other weapons that have been used include a 25 mm Autocannon, a sonic cannon, and even a missile launcher. Alongside the modular gun barrel are a pair of drum-like canisters. These are the venerable CSPL-12 Projectile Launchers. Each one has four rounds of ammo, which can include cyroban, gases, and smoke.
In order to effectively use these weapons, the Leopard is equipped with the same sensor package and drones as the Ares-class Heavy Tank, including infra-red, magnetic spectrums,full-spectrum transcievers, Novaless Soni-Optics Target Imager, and the Mark IV droids. To counter enemy spotting, the Leopard takes a que from the Creshaldyne Industries camou armor in widespread use among the Confederate infantry. Embedded in the outer layer of durasteel are miniature photoreactive fibers that allow the armor to absorb light and change color to match its surroundings. This allows the Leopard to blend in seamlessly in either urban or jungle environments in a matter of seconds. In order to ease construction and maintenance of the vehicle, it was designed to be able to accommodate any number of pre-existing components from other vehicles, both civilian and military. Like the Ares, the Leopard requires the vehicle’s operators to pass the rank-cylinder tests before any part of the vehicle can be operated.
The Leopard will likely become the most common armored vehicle within the Confederation, because not only will the military be issued the craft, but it will become a police vehicle, notably with SWAT teams. The Confederation will not be the only user, and the Confederation will be selling the vehicles to the Gestalt Colonies for policing and defence duties. Within the Confederation, Mechanized Infantry are being given top priority for this craft. The Audacian 56th will be the first to receive the new units.