I'm a big WW2 buff when it comes to history so I gotto jump in. I once read
that one reason that assault guns were made was due to the difficulty in
manufacturing turret rings. I've only read this in one text (the name excapes
me) It even mentioned that they (Germans) would salvage the rings off of
damaged tanks to be sent to the rear for use in new tanks.
Now, if this is true, I can imagine colonies having the same manufacturing
restrictions. I know we're talking 2300AD here but for a DS scenario the
colonists could be forced to use Assault guns rather than full fledged tanks.
If anyone else has heard of this I'd appreciate the source.
> -----Original Message-----
> John Skelly wrote:
That's a new one on me. There is a limit to the effective size/recoil
your turret ring will transmit to the hull, but it's not particularly hard..
just requires planning ahead, and your upper limit of gun is fixed by the
diameter of your turret ring.
The point of the hull/casemate mount gun is you are freed from this
restriction. It is also cheaper and faster to do.
Remember, the turret ring itself is probably going to be part of your hull
roof, and I can't see you getting it out... the roller elements of
the bearing possibly, but they wouldn't be _that_ important.
That being said, the Germans did try hard to salvage disabled tanks for repair
and salvage.
> Now, if this is true, I can imagine colonies having the same
Problem is, AFV design is a very specialised art, the
size/mass/compactness requirements are like nothing else. You'd have a
steep learning curve.
> If anyone else has heard of this I'd appreciate the source.
Fraid not.
> John Skelly wrote:
I agree that the costs to build turreted vehicle must be expensive and that a
colony, specially primarly farming or mining, would not have the factories to
build the needed vehicles where as the SP guns would be far
> I agree that the costs to build turreted vehicle must be expensive and
Seriously, I'd have doubts about a colony world being able to produce
and armoured _anything_ larger than a basic APC (and then I'd be
doubtful)
Working from the point of view of _current_ technology :
Problems include:
Simply making the castings for, say the turret or parts of the hull, rolling
the armour plate (in the American civil war, neither side had the capacity to
roll more than one inch thicknesses of armour, and 4 one
inch plates does _not_ equal one four inch plate) This requires
specialised heavy industry that a colony simply wouldn't have
The tank transmission and engine are like nothing else on earth. It has to be
incredibly conpact and able to generate and transmit very high power levels.
This is a specialised art.
The tank's main gun is not just an oversized rifle. The sighting system,
elevation gear, gyrostabiliser, etc are all very specialised too. Think about
at least a thermal imager and laser sensor. Then when you get into DS level
tech you have to add ECM etc.
The suspension needs to be able to carry a 40 to 60 ton vehicle smoothly over
rough ground.
Basically they wouldnt' have the skills or the industrial capacity.
Overall, I would doubt the capacity of anything short of an industrialised
world to produce anything larger than a size 2 APC armed with machine guns.
They would have to be imported.