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UT12M8 Fess

The UT12M8 Fess is the pinnacle of Khertland tank technology. It is a further evolution of the technology utilized on the Nombril main battle tank. However, the UT12 Fess also introduces novel composite armor technologies. The tank was developed to address the limitations of the Nombril main battle tank. The principal goal of the new design was to better protect the vehicle's various sensors from not just electronic warfare but from direct fire against small arms. Additionally, the army wanted to incorporate the new faster autoloader capable of 18 rounds per minute. The faster autoloader needed a larger turret and thus a larger tank; making it the largest tank to ever enter service in Khertland.

The development of the UT12 Fess originates in early August with the failed EHT5M9 Candidum heavy tank prototype. The core feature of the Candidum was a massive 183mm electrothermal chemical main gun designed to penetrate twice as much as existing tank guns. In this regard, the design was highly successful. But this came with great expense both in the financial sense and the performance aspect of the design. The tank had comparatively thin turret armor with substantial weak spots in order to accommodate the gun. The side armor was also extremely weak while the rear and roof armor was non-existent due to weight concerns of the large gun. The engine needed to power such a large heavy tank took up even more space and suffered from unacceptably poor fuel economy. The deciding factor for its cancellation was the gun's low velocity and thus difficulty in hitting moving targets at range. The projectile fired while powerful had poor sloped armor performance. For a tank twice as expensive as existing main battle tanks, the Candidum was deemed ineffective and failed to meet key requirements. Six fully operational prototypes were built along with a wooden mock-up and a early prototype turret. The six Candidum prototypes was briefly sent to the 3rd Heavy Division for field testing.

With the failure of the Candidum, the army decided to start afresh with the UT12 main battle tank initially as a technology demonstrator before eventually as a prospective replacement of the Nombril when early testing showed promising results. The UT12 shares many superficial similarities with the EHT5 Candidum with a scaled down version of the turret. The similarities also extend down to the turret ring and turret basket size. The tanks also had comparable length making the UT12 quite long albeit a lower profile than the Candidum. As such, the core of the UT12 Fess are quite similar to the Candidum. In previous tanks such as the Escutcheon series and Nombril, the turret basket were kept as narrow as possible to allow for side composite armor on the hull. However, the Escutcheon IV's turret armor was thinner than the hull which was deemed to be an issue as the turret was far more likely to be hit statistically. This was addressed on the UT10 Nombril but a lot of its electronic components and sensors were more exposed at the rear in order to make room for thicker composite. This vulnerability was sought to be addressed on the UT12 Fess by placing the electronic components in the enlarged turret basket where it can be more effectively insulated from electronic warfare attacks too without being exposed. Additionally, the freed up space in the bustle will allow for a faster autoloader firing a higher pressure APFSDS projectile out of a substantially longer gun.

The turret armor on the Fess however was left wanting much like Candidum that preceded it. A composite armor scheme of rolled homogeneous armor and high hardness steel armor backed by ceramic plates helped improve the armor effectiveness by 25-50% without increasing the thickness or volume required. The use of ceramic armor was also used on the hull which likewise combined a thin layer outer layer of RHA with layers of spaced HHA elements backed by ceramics. The side hull armor protecting the fighting compartment mainly features spaced HHA which gets thinner towards the engine compartment but is compensated by a ceramic back plate. The biggest leap in armor technology is with the side turret armor. The side turret armor had always been the thinnest part and thus hard to utilize existing composite array which are voluminous. So the side turret armor on all Khertland tanks since the Escutcheon IV simply used thick layers of FHA and HHA. At oblique angles of up to 45 degrees, the turret side could stop most kinetic penetrators but was vulnerable to HEAT warheads beyond 14 degrees frontal arc. The Khertland Army Procurement Office researched a new NERA array which could provide complete protection from CE warheads up to a 45 degree frontal arc while still only being fairly thin. It did however reduce the immunity zone against kinetic projectiles to 40 degrees frontal arc which was deemed a acceptable trade-off. The turret rear and roof also received splinter protection. The hull floor meanwhile received thicker armor for improved mine protection over the Nombril.

Software improvements were also introduced with advanced satellite navigation combined with automatic routing to help guide tank crews around natural obstacles such as bodies of water. The tank also features a new digital controlled automatic transmission and traction control for greater off road capabilities. The system automatically adjusts these parameters based on information from a forward looking terrain scanner. Additionally, a advanced collision avoidance system help warn the driver of incoming objects, civilian vehicles, and blind spots. Like the Nombril Vanguard, the Fess includes a number of soft kill systems such as smoke dischargers, laser warning receivers, drone and IED jammers, and AESA radar for detecting incoming projectiles and missiles.

Basic specifications:
Cost: 26,871
Blocks: 696
Weight: 102,043
Volume: 995 cubic meter
Length: 24m
Width: 9m
Height: 6m (turret roof), 8m (total)
Speed: 25 m/s

Gun:
Caliber: 304mm (152mm lorewise)
Barrel Length: L/71
Projectile: Sabot head-solid-solid-base bleeder-9.82x casing
Rate of Fire: 18 rpm
Kinetic damage: 6846
Armor piercing: 65.4
Penetration: At least 1 layer of 4m HA beam

Armor:
Hull Front: 1m metal + 8m HA + ERA
Hull Side: 2-3m HA + ERA
Hull Rear: 1m Metal
Turret Front: 3m Metal + Applique panel + 3-4m HA + 1-2 ERA
Turret Side: 1m HA equivalent
Turret Rear: Metal plates

EMP Resistance:
Hull: Immune to 40500 damage or below
Turret: Immune to 24750 damage or below

Ratings:
Total firepower: 21.11
APS: 21.11
Armor: 38.5% (10351 materials)