BT331 Federation Tank by ThinkTanker

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

The famous BT331 armoured vehicle (although technically an armoured car, common current definition regards all wheeled and tracked armoured vehicles as "tanks"), is represented in this replica. Based on two Smith and Westor nuke generators, feeding two shield generators, both sets fully linked, it is a fast and well protected tank. The inclusion of the airlock (on the left hand side) also means it can work in hostile environments. The armament on the Type A was a 102mm Nuke cannon linked with a laser beam gun system. This proved problematic in combat which led to it being replaced on the Type B with 2 122mm nuke slug cannons. Without the lazer cannon, all power could be used for movement and defense, which proved useful. However the last version of the early turret, the Type C kept a 122mm cannon and added back the laser cannon, which was useful against certain well shielded targets. The guns can fire either a nuke warhead (although only 4 are commonly carried), Berkelian Darts (of which 30 are normally carried), and HE rounds (commonly 30 also carried).
Used extensively by the Federation, they were a major part of the great counter-attack throughout the Beta Hydra system during the War of Almai Independence, replacing earlier BT700 vehicles.
Some of these vehicles are built in the outer rim independent states, and some were even captured by Alien forces, and some reports indicate some were even converted for Alien crew and used against the Almai and Federation forces.
When the new turret was designed, it proved expensive to upgrade all current existing vehicles, so as a stopgap a turret extension was designed and added to the earlier turrets. This upgrade allowed more ammunition and a longer range communication focus to be carried.
The type d featured a new three 142mm multi firing cannons which can be loaded with nuke warheads, HE, proximity AA, and Berkelium AT dart rounds. The 142mm cannons are an improvement over the 122mm and have almost twice the range of the 102mm guns. No laser guns are carried on this version which directs all nuclear power to the twin linked shields and for movement.
The tank is commonly known as the Beech which is a reference to the tree like growths on Nike III where the tank was first tested.