Richard.”
“You won’t. The back room boys ran hundreds of scenarios and came to the conclusion that we didn’t need the added strain on resources to come up with our own tanks. The ones the Imperials are using only have a limited value, and are very dependent on terrain. Open savanna, steppes or fields is about the only place they can use them except as semi mobile artillery. Marshy or boggy ground, jungle or mountains and their weight works against them. Also, most bridges were never meant to carry something with the weight of a tank, and the same goes for deep or swift running rivers.”
“True, but they make great mobile artillery batteries.” Penn shook his head.
“Only for line of sight with energy cannons. If they are static, between the fly-eyes and drones, the artillery can stop them and destroy them even if they are on the move.” He reached over and touched a control of the console they were standing next to. “Watch.”
The giant screen lit up to show several hundred Imperial MTB’s moving across some open farmland. Hovering over them was a thin cloud of fly-eyes and small drones and before they’d moved more than a hundred yards across the open ground, the ground in front of them blossomed upward in hundred foot high fountains of dirt and debris.
“Once spotted by the Marines, and their position sent back by the fly-eyes and drones, the artillery or MRL dropped a barrage of cratering rounds ahead of the tank formation.”
“Youch!” General Marks barked as dozens of deep craters appeared ahead of the tanks, some as much as sixty feet deep. Predictably, several tanks fell in before their drivers could halt the massive tanks. With the number of craters in front and around them, they were trapped. The moment they came to a halt, the artillery boys dropped armor piecing rounds on their heads, and within moments, all but a few were smoking wrecks.
“On top of that, they came up with MANPAT, or M-PATS, man-portable antitank-defense-systems. Even with limited anti-gravity capability and some shielding, imperial tanks are vulnerable in several places. It didn’t take long to figure out where to hit them.” Penn smiled as he watched the simulation, seeing the next generation man portable anti-tank missiles go into action.”
“But what about their POLS, point of origin location system? That will pinpoint the launch location of the missiles in a split second. After that, they’ll rain hell down on their heads. They have fly-eyes as well.”
“True, our troops found that out the hard way during the invasion. The little wrinkle with these is, you don’t fire them at the enemy. Each comes with a swarm of tiny fly-eyes, which seek out a tank, or bunker and relay its position back to the missile. You can be up to twenty miles away, and fire it in the opposite direction. The missile takes off, circles around staying low, flying nap-of-the-earth and then… Well let me show you.” Penn keyed up another video, and General Marks watched the new generation of anti tank and bunker busting munitions in action.
The first thing he noted was that the missile was traveling incredibly fast and very close to the ground. The first missile streaked into the rear of the tank and took out the power plant, effectively killing the tank. The second also streaked in, except at the last second, it shot skyward to the vanishing point before returning and slamming into and through the thin, vulnerable roof hatch. The moment it did, the tank seemed to disintegrate outward in an expanding ball of shattered metal and ceramic.
“With the built in computer, you can pick the exact spot where you want to hit the beasties, including, as you saw, up and straight down onto the top of the turret. It’s traveling so fast that not even their air defense can stop it.”
“Given time they can figure out a way.”
“True, but we aren’t going to give them time. The research boys are already working on the next generation of
“You won’t. The back room boys ran hundreds of scenarios and came to the conclusion that we didn’t need the added strain on resources to come up with our own tanks. The ones the Imperials are using only have a limited value, and are very dependent on terrain. Open savanna, steppes or fields is about the only place they can use them except as semi mobile artillery. Marshy or boggy ground, jungle or mountains and their weight works against them. Also, most bridges were never meant to carry something with the weight of a tank, and the same goes for deep or swift running rivers.”
“True, but they make great mobile artillery batteries.” Penn shook his head.
“Only for line of sight with energy cannons. If they are static, between the fly-eyes and drones, the artillery can stop them and destroy them even if they are on the move.” He reached over and touched a control of the console they were standing next to. “Watch.”
The giant screen lit up to show several hundred Imperial MTB’s moving across some open farmland. Hovering over them was a thin cloud of fly-eyes and small drones and before they’d moved more than a hundred yards across the open ground, the ground in front of them blossomed upward in hundred foot high fountains of dirt and debris.
“Once spotted by the Marines, and their position sent back by the fly-eyes and drones, the artillery or MRL dropped a barrage of cratering rounds ahead of the tank formation.”
“Youch!” General Marks barked as dozens of deep craters appeared ahead of the tanks, some as much as sixty feet deep. Predictably, several tanks fell in before their drivers could halt the massive tanks. With the number of craters in front and around them, they were trapped. The moment they came to a halt, the artillery boys dropped armor piecing rounds on their heads, and within moments, all but a few were smoking wrecks.
“On top of that, they came up with MANPAT, or M-PATS, man-portable antitank-defense-systems. Even with limited anti-gravity capability and some shielding, imperial tanks are vulnerable in several places. It didn’t take long to figure out where to hit them.” Penn smiled as he watched the simulation, seeing the next generation man portable anti-tank missiles go into action.”
“But what about their POLS, point of origin location system? That will pinpoint the launch location of the missiles in a split second. After that, they’ll rain hell down on their heads. They have fly-eyes as well.”
“True, our troops found that out the hard way during the invasion. The little wrinkle with these is, you don’t fire them at the enemy. Each comes with a swarm of tiny fly-eyes, which seek out a tank, or bunker and relay its position back to the missile. You can be up to twenty miles away, and fire it in the opposite direction. The missile takes off, circles around staying low, flying nap-of-the-earth and then… Well let me show you.” Penn keyed up another video, and General Marks watched the new generation of anti tank and bunker busting munitions in action.
The first thing he noted was that the missile was traveling incredibly fast and very close to the ground. The first missile streaked into the rear of the tank and took out the power plant, effectively killing the tank. The second also streaked in, except at the last second, it shot skyward to the vanishing point before returning and slamming into and through the thin, vulnerable roof hatch. The moment it did, the tank seemed to disintegrate outward in an expanding ball of shattered metal and ceramic.
“With the built in computer, you can pick the exact spot where you want to hit the beasties, including, as you saw, up and straight down onto the top of the turret. It’s traveling so fast that not even their air defense can stop it.”
“Given time they can figure out a way.”
“True, but we aren’t going to give them time. The research boys are already working on the next generation of
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