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August 11, 2007
Battlemechs vs. Tanks?
By tanks we don't mean tanks like the Behemoth or the Cizin. This debate is about mechs versus the tanks of today -- the Leopard II, the M1A1, etc. The Elitist actually does a good job of laying out who would win in a tank v. mech battle. In the end, it all comes down to accuracy. There are no copperhead guided munitions, fire on the move technologies or the like in the Mechwarrior universe. Instead, mechs fumble around at close range, vainly hoping for a hit on one another. Modern tanks, on the other hand, are much more accurate than battlemechs. They can hit oving targets from several kilometers away. Even humble infantry fighting vehicles boast anti-tank missiles which could core an Atlas or Battlemaster before these mechs could even pose a threat. . .
Now in the "real" world, mechs might be more feasible, given the fact that they'd have these same accuracy improvements that tanks enjoy.
Anyway, here's an excerpt from the blogpost:
"RangeThe Atlas weapons maximum ranges are 1000m for LRM-20, 300m for Medium Lasers and Autocannon 20, and 250 for SRM-6. The M1A2 120mm cannon with APFSDS rounds has an effective range of 3500m, and an effective range of 3000m with HEAT rounds. The M1A2 FCS (fire control system) range is 4000m and the absolute range (the M1A2 has successfully hit targets approximately 4000m away during the Gulf Wars). This means the M1A2 has approximately 4 times the range of the longest range weapon the Atlas has.
Weapons and Armor
The combat units in question have radically different armor concepts which makes them difficult to compare. The M1A2 uses a composite armor with ceramic inset to make it resistant to kinetic energy penetrators and high heat rounds (depleted uranium rounds are pyrophoric and heat up when they contact the atmosphere). The composite also includes a depleted uranium high density layer for added protection against kinetic penetrators. The M1A2 armor is designed such that it holds together when hit by weapons. Battlemech armor is different. It is discarding armor and is designed to absorb weapon damage by breaking away. Because of this, low powered weapons are useless against an M1A2 while a high enough powered weapon could go right through the armor. Against a Battlemech, the power of the weapon simply determines how many little chunks of armor are going to get destroyed, so even the 50 cal machine gun on an M1A2 would break off armor chunks.
The armor is also distributed differently: an M1A2 has armor fitted on to a chassis about the size of an Atlas cockpit. The Atlas, however, has its armor distributed over a 60ft tall chassis with an area comparable to an office building. What's worse, the cockpit has almost no armor at all and can be easily destroyed with even machine guns (it would take a Battlemech machine gun 5 shots to destroy the cockpit armor and 8 shots to destroy every bit of the cockpit). One shot to the cockpit with a 120mm cannon round and the Atlas would be destroyed. The M1A2 frontal armor can withstand mutiple hits from 120mm and 125mm cannon rounds, and the turret is more heavily armored than the frontal armor.
The LRM-20 does less damage per missile than a 20mm Autocannon 2, using 20 weak missiles to do its damage rather than a few powerful ones. These weapons can't hope to hurt an M1A2. The autocannon 20 is a 203mm cannon. While its range is short, the damage it does is questionable since it uses high explosive rounds which perform quite poorly against composite armor as compared to kinetic rounds. It's tough to tell if the autocannon 20 can destroy an M1A2 or whether it will run out of ammo first. It's also questionable how effective medium lasers would be as the composite armor has excellent heat resistance. The M1A2, on the other hand, would probably do damage somewhere between the Autocannon 20 and the Autocannon 10, as it is a 120mm cannon and the Autocannon 20 is supposed to be around 203mm and the autocannon 10 is around 100mm. It is also to be noted that the Autocannon 20 is the most powerful standard weapon in the Battletech universe. This is a little deceptive, though, as these Autocannon seem to not be high velocity weapons, considering their very limited range. The 120mm cannon fires depleted uranium penetrators over 4000 feet per second. This is a little offset by the fact that the 120mm cannon only fires about 4 rounds per minute (once every 15 seconds), but at least those rounds will do massive damage and will hit their target. That means that, while it's questionable how much damage an Atlas can do against an M1A2, the M1A2 will certainly be able to do massive damage back and even destroy the Atlas with only 1 shot if it hits the cockpit. It would be interesting to see if the M1A2 could destroy the Atlas simply by shooting a 50 cal maching gun at its cockpit.
Speed
If an Atlas and an M1A2 started off at 4000m apart, it would take the Atlas (going at its max speed of 15m per second) 200 seconds to get within missile range of the M1A2. During those 200 seconds, the M1A2 would be able to hit it about 13 times before it can even got close enough to shoot back. If the previous weapon comparisons are approximately accurate, that would be over 130 armor plates worth of damage and would be enough to destroy even the center armor and chasis of the Atlas. If the M1A2 chose to run, the Atlas would never be able to close in to firing range.
Accuracy
A Battlemech has deplorable accuracy. They are the size of a barn and yet seem to have trouble even hitting each other. Getting a "headshot" (shooting the cockpit) is like winning the lottery and an M1A2 is about the size of a Battlemech cockpit. The M1A2 can shoot another tank at a distance of over a mile even while both tanks are moving. That means the M1A2 will be consistently hitting and the Atlas will be getting lucky shots or just missing.
The scenario:
Based on the previous comparison, it's safe to conclude an M1A2 would simply shoot one APFSDS round into the cockpit of the Atlas at 4000m destroying it and killing the pilot. That means that a Battlemech with its cool design, futuristic technology, massive array of weapons, and high output fusion reactor would get mauled by a simple 1980s tank with 1990s improvements firing a conventional 120mm cannon. Battlemechs really aren't the future of warfare, sorry to all Battlemech lovers."
Posted by Discoshaman at August 11, 2007 08:31 PM