The Tanks of 2320: The American Union

Approaching nearly a decade of use, the M-216 Paxton is the classic example of a tank from a linage that has survived nearly 200 years of people declaring 'the death of the tank'. Certainly during the ecological collapse of the 2060s it did appear that Tanks were going to fall out of favor.

* Heavy armor could be countered by infantry portable weapons.
* The same main gun's same effects could be achieved with similarly man portable weapons
* The great weight of the tank made it difficult to transport in large numbers
* Poor situational awareness made the large vehicles a liability

However, infantry still found themselves with a need for ground vehicles that could carry heavier systems. Short-range air defense became increasingly helpful against drone swarms and advanced artillery pieces were increasingly mandatory for complex urban fights.

The Tank would survive by consuming these other battlefield roles. As railguns and guided munitions became more common place, the tank could take over the role of self-propelled artillery. With similar range and capabilities as artillery, there was no longer a need to maintain two separate vehicles when one would do.

These new more powerful guns also had the power and precision to hit aircraft. It didn't take long for tanks to start receiving radar systems for tracking aircraft, which soon translated into tracking bombs, missiles, drones, and artillery allowing the tank to defend itself against a range of threats coming from the air.

Now that the tank had both an artillery and anti-air role, it needed to include high speed data links so that it could work within a battlegroup at a strategic level. This increased the computing capacity that the tank had available, and allowed it to field radars that are useful for seeing through walls in urban environments.

The M-216 Paxton picks up here. A single Paxton can provide communications, fire support, anti-air protection, counter-battery fire, remote drone operation, and a range of supporting capabilities that would have required an entire battalion of vehicles 200 years ago.

This also makes the M-216 Paxton heavy. It can not ford rivers and is not easy to transport between planets. The American Union instead chooses to pre-position stockpiles of M-216s throughout the Human Sphere. New crews for these tanks can quickly be brought in should a conflict requiring heavy support flare up.

The Tanks of 2320: Atlantica

Atlantica's surface is mostly water with lots of rivers and soft ground making for poor terrain for tanks. The lack of any major peer competitor also meant there wasn't much of a need for heavy equipment like the M-216 Paxton. Instead, Atlantica would employ the AM-120 Ronald, a lightweight, amphibious, APC. An up-gunned version of this vehicle, the AM-120 Berger, would serve as the local defense forces 'Main Battle Tank'.

The primary usage of the AM-120 is fire-support, meaning it lacks many of the capabilities of the M-216. Instead it houses a relatively massive cannon meant to launch long range anti-ship projectiles to help threaten boats and other naval craft. It doesn't house the electronics, radar, and other systems needed to fill many other roles and largely wasn't expected to ever have to go up against other vehicles.

The Tanks of 2320: The Magnetic Assembly

The Magnetic Assembly has a wide range of ground vehicles available to it, though the closest approximation to tanks are the Spongecake and Poundcake drones.

The Poundcake can replicate most of the functionality of the M-216 Paxton. Early models of the Poundcake use a variety of unconventional propulsion methods such as a multi-spherical-wheel configuration which was complex and produced higher ground pressure than the conventional treads of the Paxton. Later models of the Poundcake would end up using independently traversable wheeled sections for movement which would make the Poundcake faster than the Paxton, though it would not carry as heavy a payload. Ultimately, this wouldn't factor into the attack on Atlantica, as the Poundcake was simply too heavy to be carried interstellar distances in any reasonable numbers.

This would leave the Spongecake as the only reasonable option for interstellar combat. The Poundcake has a lightweight frame, almost no armor, and eight wheels with configurable positioning designed for use in low gravity worlds. The Spongecake is also minimally armed, usually carrying a Radar system and a directed energy weapon or small scale cannons meant to provide a defense against airborne threats for accompanying soldiers.

The Paxton Vs The Spongecake

Though these two vehicles have yet to face each other in combat, the scenario has been extensively wargamed by ISOC and the Magnetic Assembly.

At long ranges, both vehicles are equipped with highly effective sensor systems. While the Paxton has an older radar, it is optimized for over the horizon searches and examining through ground clutter. The Spongecake has a Radar system mounted on a mast better suited for tracking flying targets, though the Radar is one of the most up to date produced. It could be a bit of a toss up as to who would get the first shot, but the engagement would seem to favor the Paxton. The standard high energy laser carried by the Spongecake could take minutes to hours to cut through the Paxton's armor, meaning the Spongecake's best method of attack would be to burn the Paxton's radar, optics, and radio which would require multiple successful laser strikes. The Paxton's main gun would only need to score a single hit on the Spongecake for catastrophic destruction of the target, and would likely be able to target the Spongecake while it is in the process of trying to blind the Paxton. It is possible that multiple Spongecakes working together could shield one another by shooting down the incoming round from the Paxton, though this is seen as risky at best.

At medium ranges, combat would favor the Paxton. Detection becomes easier, and the amount of time their projectile would be in flight dramatically decreases. It is generally assumed that within visual range, a Paxton should always be able to fire upon a Spongecake that is engaging it.

At short ranges, such as within the tight confines of a city it is generally expected that unless taken completely by surprise an encounter between the two vehicles would result in a mutual kill. At shorter ranges, the machine guns of the Paxton should be more than enough to destroy a Spongecake. This also puts the Paxton within range of the anti-armor drones carried by the latest models of the Magnetic Assembly's tank. While the Paxton should expect to be able to defend itself reasonably well against a swarm of small targets, the volume of small anti-armor drones at short range is expected to score enough hits to mission-kill through destruction of weapons, sensors, and other systems.

Even under favorable conditions, the Spongecake could not expect greater than a 1 to 1 kill ratio. With the limited numbers that could even be brought to Atlantica, it was determined that landing fresh troops on the planet simply wasn't feasable due to the overwhelming strength the American Union could bring on the ground and in orbit. Opponents of heavy armor point out that interstellar warfare is difficult, and the possibility of landing large numbers of soldiers on those distances is already minimal. On the other hand, proponents of heavy armor contend that the difficulty of interstellar war is only so high because of how easy it is to pre-stage heavily armored fighting vehicles anywhere combat may occur.