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Design Overview
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                 Combat Vehicle Technical Readout

Name/Model:         Sand Blaster SLDF
Designer:           Dr. B, Banzai
Source(s):          Custom Mordel.Net Units
Technology:         Inner Sphere
Technology Rating:  E
Tonnage:            80
Role:               Missile Boat
Configuration:      Combat Vehicle
Era/Year:           Star League / 2780
Rules (Current):    Standard
Rules (Era):        Standard
Rules (Year):       Standard
Total Cost:         12,150,000 C-Bills
Battle Value:       1,466

Movement Type:        Tracked
Power Plant:          240 XL
Cruising Speed:       32.4 kph  
Maximum Speed:        54 kph    
Armor:                Aldis Heavy Ferro-Fibrous Ferro-Fibrous with CASE
Armament:             
    1 Gauss Rifle
    2 LB 10-X ACs
    1 Anti-Missile System
Manufacturer:         Unknown
    Primary Factory:  Unknown
Communications:       Initrode Widecom
Targeting & Tracking: RCA Instatrac Mark VI

================================================================================================
Overview:
    The SLDF lost tremendous amounts of men and materiel in
    battling Amaris, neither of which could be easily replaced Cut off
    from the Terran Hegemony, Kerensky’s armies had to turn to other
    sources to recoup those losses While replacing trained soldiers was
    a problem that haunted Kerensky throughout the war, he could at
    least turn to manufacturers in the Star League member-states to
    supply the weapon systems needed to win the war
    Unfortunately, the SLDF had neither the deep pockets it once
    claimed nor the time to fully evaluate new prototypes Under
    Kerensky’s orders, the SLDF bought wholesale from just about
    any manufacturer that could produce a working product For
    BattleMechs and aerospace fighters, Kerensky’s logisticians relied
    heavily upon manufacturers used by the five Great Houses, but
    when it came to tanks and other support units, “anything goes” was
    very much the concept of operations

Capabilities:
    Drago, Ltd was one of many smaller manufacturers of civilian
    vehicles, construction equipment and other machinery to which
    the SLDF turned Companies like Drago that had never produced
    combat vehicles were provided design specifications and detailed
    plans by SLDF engineers that they could work from With so many
    different companies involved, the SLDF would never be able to
    standardize logistics for these new purchases Logisticians could
    only hope that by ordering additional spares at the outset and
    routing entire production runs to a single division they could avoid
    the worst of the inevitable supply problems
    The “Weapon Carrier, Tracked” was perhaps the most notable
    of these simplified vehicles produced during the Amaris Civil War It
    hearkened back to a series of simple armored vehicles used during
    the Age of War and the Reunification War (and revived again during
    the Succession Wars), but was built using modern technologies
    Specifications called for a sixty-ton tracked vehicle with thirty-four
    metric tons of free mass to mount weapons and equipment, and further that it be powered by a
    180-rated fusion engine to provide
    a more than fifty kph sustained top speed Six and a half tons of
    ferro-fibrous armor gave these tanks above-average protection—
    far greater than their forebears ever sported
    Most of these base chassis would be delivered without weapons
    to a different company for fitting of armaments and final assembly—
    often directly to the weapon manufacturers The SLDF purchased
    more than a dozen different configurations of these tanks, though
    by far the most popular was a model that mounted a pair of LB 10-X
    autocannons fed by a four-ton magazine, supported by a trio of LRM 5
    launchers drawing from a two-ton shared magazine These weapons
    were mounted to the fore in a simple casemate structure, which of
    course limited the vehicle’s utility, but also significantly shortened
    construction times and especially cut down on mechanical problems
    Each of the weapons possessed a limited traverse, though targets
    outside their firing arc could be engaged by simply traversing the
    whole vehicle—rarely a problem at any but point blank ranges

Deployment:
    The SLDF bought these weapon carriers, as well as other
    “obsolete” armored vehicles like the Turhan and the T-12 Tiger
    tanks, en masse from dozens of different manufacturers across the
    Inner Sphere, assigning them to every operational armored brigade
    as they fought their way into the Terran Hegemony Unfortunately,
    given the wide variance in quality of manufacturing, a large
    percentage of these tanks required some significant maintenance
    before they could be put into service (a fact almost universally
    shared by mass-produced tanks of this class)
    Typically, Weapon Carriers, Tracked served in second-line roles,
    providing ranged fire support or sitting in ambush, and almost
    always in large numbers SLDF and Republican units alike quickly
    realized that, while individual weapon carriers could be easily
    defeated, en masse they could quickly eviscerate an opposing
    force Unfortunately, their heavy use meant many were lost in
    combat, while just as many were lost to mechanical problems
    (and cannibalized for parts to keep others in service) While
    many manufacturers kept producing the weapon carriers into
    the Succession Wars, the eventual loss of technology forced those
    surviving manufacturers to revert to more primitive standards—
    such as those still built by Quikscell today

Variants:
    The SLDF ordered the production of numerous other models
    One that proved a relative failure mounted a trio of Ultra AC/5s,
    backed up by a single LRM 5; though it could generate a significant
    amount of fire, its lack of a “knock-out” weapon meant these were
    among the first tanks to be cannibalized for parts A far more
    successful model became the ultimate in ambush tanks, feared by
    MechWarriors and tank crews alike, mounting a pair of the heaviest
    autocannons produced, backed up by a single LRM 5

================================================================================================
Equipment                                                             Mass                      
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internal Structure:                          Standard                  8.00                     
Engine:                                       240 XL                   9.00                     
    Cruising MP:                                3                                               
    Flanking MP:                                5                                               
Heat Sinks (Single):                            10                     0.00                     
Control Equipment:                                                     4.00                     
Lift Equipment:                                                        0.00                     
Power Amplifier:                                                       0.00                     
Turret:                                                                4.00                     
Armor Factor:                                  215                    12.00                     
    Type:                                 Ferro-Fibrous                                         

                                              Armor                                             
                                              Value                                             
    Front:                                      55                                              
    R/L Side:                                   43                                              
    Rear:                                       31                                              
    Turret:                                     43                                              

================================================================================================
Weapons and Ammo                                            Location              Tonnage       
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anti-Missile System                                           Front                0.50         
Gauss Rifle                                                  Turret                15.00        
2 LB 10-X ACs                                                Turret                22.00        
Anti-Missile System (Ammo 12)                                 Body                 1.00         
CASE                                                          Body                 0.50         
Gauss Rifle (Ammo 16)                                         Body                 2.00         
LB 10-X AC (Ammo 20) [Cluster]                                Body                 2.00         

================================================================================================
Alpha Strike Statistics                                                    
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Point Value (PV): 32
TP: CV,  SZ: 4,  TMM: 1,  MV: 6"t
Damage: (S) 3 / (M) 3 / (L) 3
Armor (A): 7,  Structure (S): 4
Specials: AMS, CASE, FLK1/1/1, SRCH, TUR(3/3/3, FLK1/1/1)
 
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Code Release 2.24.13.1 (2024-09-02T12:52:21-04:00)