Spec Card #12 – Ames Light Tank
I haven’t forgotten, I’m just living life a little close to the edge at the moment. Up to and including what I believe to be a summer flu which has knocked me on my ass. But I’m not dead. Not yet.
I’m getting back to 6-Commando at last. So to warm up, here’s one you might remember from certain flashbacks: the M479 “Ames” Light Tank. It’s one that’s no longer actually in service at the time the story takes place, having been superseded by the Ranger LAV and the Howler hovercraft. Still, it’s a design I like a lot – it draws a lot on the Y-15 Tank designed by Kow Yokoyama, about which very little has ever appeared in print.
Anyway, we’re coming back soon, and this is the proof! You guys are all saints for waiting on me this long!
M479 Ames Light Tank/Air-Transportable Armored Vehicle
AFFILIATION: United Nations Alliance
YEAR IN SERVICE: 1964 (Withdrawn 1994)
NATION OF ORIGIN: Canadian Confederation
DESIGNER: Nordyne Defense Dynamics Land Systems
MANUFACTURER: Nordyne Defense Dynamics Land Systems
UNIT COST: (est.) CA$6,955,000 (1997)
Prior to the introduction of ground-effect vehicles capable of interface operations, the UNA relied on the M479 “Ames” light tank series for rapid-deployment maritime armored support. Most notable for its incorporation of boron-aluminum armor, the Ames tank was extremely light, weighing less than 20 tons, and could be palletized for rapid deployment by drogue chute from low-flying aircraft, or by skycrane helicopters from the decks of light carriers. Though conceptualized as a major force multiplier, in practice the Ames tank series proved less than adequate and was at best an infantry support tank in most of the conflicts in which it saw service, as its light armor and short, medium-velocity 10-pdr howitzer proved inadequate against Communist armored forces. As a reconnaissance vehicle, however, it had significant success, and was forward-deployed with scout forces throughout the 1980s, until its final replacement by the Ranger 6X6 wheeled vehicle and the “Howler” hovercraft. The Ames tank was withdrawn from UNA service in 1994, but remains in service with a number of national armies. In particular, the Militias of several US states make use of upgraded Ames M479A6 tanks, but they are used solely for national defense and have not been deployed overseas since 1995.
I like these technical drawings but can you upload them in a higher resolution? Because reading them now is like seeing trough frosted glass.
Heh, yeah, I know – but the text is all reproduced in the post above for ease of reading.
First Welcome. back. I’ve been meaning to ask about this for a while anyways but the United States my take either never became a nationalist group of states or was there an early protectionist government which was in power for a long time cause them to not be the PowerHouse they are in our world.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t go into all the enormous ramifications of changing US history that far back, I was mostly interested in the possibility of a world in which the US is not a major actor, which has long been a kind of fantasy for political pundits of both sides (“Wouldn’t it be great if…” versus “Think of how awful it would be if…”) and trybto take what I considered a more rational and logical approach to the outcome. In the end the world is more or less on the same razor’s edge. In the Commandoverse of course the human element failed them whereas it worked in our favor in the real world, and their technology went somewhat askew, but they’re still the same flawed people making the same flawed decisions. I don’t believe in utopia, and certainly not the kind that claims that some simple step will transform the universe if only we would all go with the program.
Ahh, more mechanical goodies. I was actually missing those 🙂
I am always amazed with all the little details. I guess your line of work helps with that a lot though 🙂
Heh, yeah, a career in draftsmanship and CAD does help a bit!
Neutrino interferometric projector? Is that a random piece of technobabble or does Mr. Average have inkling how that might work? Because as far as my limited understanding of physics goes, detecting the little buggers is a bitch because/and they pass right through everything.
And now for something completely different. Welcome back. Keep up the good work.
I think it’s his revenge for the whole “laser fusion” thingy a few comics back 😀
XD
Neutrino Interferometry works by sending out a weak particle field and measuring the interactions that occur in tau-leptons within the field as they pass through matter. The interaction very subtly alters their fermionic masses and the detector uses them to compute the tomography of the surrounding space. This has the advantage of allowing more accurate detection through otherwise opaque features that would block radar or LIDAR probes, but it’s a much more complex piece of equipment and has been known to generate false positives in the hands of inexperienced operators and has a limited detectable range vecause the field dispersed rapidly. No viable stealth technology has yet been discovered that can spoof it, but it can theoretically be blinded with an antineutrino field that causes the detector particles to annihilate on contact, causing a detector washout.
For it, I did ask. Of technobabble a bigger load, I got. Didn’t I?
If that ain’t technobabble then there’s no such thing. 😀
Oh please. Work this into the comic’s dialog somehow. Just Do it. Do. It!
What is this, Star Trek?
Phasers locked on target, Captain. 🙂
Kill, Spock! KILL!
That’s some quality technobabble right there. 😀
Actually it is one way that a neutrino interferometer COULD work. It’s just not something that could mount on a tank – the amount of mass change in a tau-lepton decay is super, super tiny and very hard to detect.
For most of gunsighting needs second generation FLIR is actually suficient.
Multispectral sight with microwave radar would be even better, rather than such overblown thing like neutrino interferometer.
Also, why there is hull mounted machinegun? Rather anachronistic, even for a vehicle from 1960s.
The technology of the Commandoverse is a bit retrograde in some areas. Even though they have access to some cool stuff like lasers, railguns, neutrino interferometers and gel computers, they also armor their vehicles with thick plates of ceramics, have only just mastered the atomic bomb, and drive their tanks around like mobile pillboxes in only-just-barely mobile warfare. So thinks like appliqué turret armor are definitely anachronisms, you’re quite right. It’s just the way they think – it’s not a way of warfare that’s informed by mobile combat in World War II, Vietnam, the Falklands, or the Gulf Wars, because they never had wars of a comparable type. They skipped over that and went straight from World War I to global atomic war, by way of a lot of brushfire and guerrilla wars, so their way of doing things is a bit screwed up.
The reason why mechanised combat was not a thing pre World War II was mainly be the fact that an automobile was still new invention, older generals were not technologically inclined and the most important thing, metalurgy and engine developement was not yet there. 1930s is actually the time when mass mechanised warfare can take reliably place. Or 1919, when the Entante would went with the Fullers plan, which basically would be first use of mechanised combined arms doctrine. World War vehicles were prone to malfunction due to the unspecialised and underdeveloped industry. Technology was not up to the task then, still it was capable, hovewer less efficient. Even without World War I, automobile would replace horse, process which slowly was gaining speed. World War I just sped thing up.
That is why your predictions are “off”. I would advise sticking to much more common technology, despite your work clearly being science fiction. You actually took one of these “roads not taken”, not 1960s Star Trek. More conventional course will make your work actually much more believeable and engaging, introducing that way on easier suspension of disbelief.
Thankfully such intricate workings are not put inside of the comic per se, so it is not so much distracting.
P.S. The reason why gunsights went with IIR technology was that it is passive. Previous nightsighting equipement was based on active IR searchlights, which were easy to spot by the opposing side scopes. The same thing with neutrino interferometer would happen.
Good points. I will say though that the nice thing about being a comic artist is that after a certain point you no longer have to justify how your world works – it just does. 😉
I’m sure that’s an unsatisfying response but it’s all I got.
Thanks to the fact that you did not put that details into the comic itself, but into the “information sheets”, nothing is lost. Text can be much more easily changed.
By the way, I f you would need help with technicalities, give me a ping.
Looks unnecessarily big and heavy. Scorpion has pretty much the same parameters with half the weight.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FV101_Scorpion
The Ames tank is a better match for the Sheridan tank, though a bit heavier – most of the weight is in the armor and the main gun, in which the Ames tank would outclass the Scorpion. The Scorpion would better match the Nordyne-Alvis “Ranger” wheeled combat vehicle, actually.
Get well soon, Mathieu! 🙂
Take as much time as you need to feel better – we’ll still be here 🙂
Nice little tank.