Manticore Main Battle Tank
| Manticore | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Main battle tank |
| Place of origin | Republic of Syara |
| Service history | |
| Used by | Army of the Syaran Republic |
| Wars | Refusal War Zemplen War |
| Production history | |
| Produced | 1964-1990 |
| No. built | ~4,000 produced |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 538 tons |
| Length | 9.225 m (30 ft 3.2 in) |
| Width | 3.415 m (11 ft 2.4 in) |
| Height | 2.172 m (7 ft 1.5 in) |
| Crew | 3 |
| Armor | Composite armor |
Main armament | 125mm smoothbore gun |
Secondary armament | 1 x 12.7mm AA gun 1 x 7.62mm coaxial machinegun |
| Engine | KML-8 5-cylinder diesel 13.6 litre 700 hp |
| Power/weight | 18.4 hp/t |
| Suspension | torsion bar |
Operational range | 500 km |
| Speed | 60 km/h (37 mph) |
The Manticore is a Syaran main battle tank first produced in the early 1960s by the Republic of Syara. While visuaully similar to the earlier Myrmeke the Manticore was a significant technological upgrade, featuring a 125mm main cannon, an autoloader which reduced the crew to three, composite armor, a new engine and transmission which combined to produce a heavily armed and armored tank despite weighing just 38 tons. The Manticore was, however, noticably more expensive than the Myrmeke and thus fewer were produced, and early models suffered from some mechanical issues. Despite these problems the Manticore remained a very powerful design, and Syaran military officials considered it the best tank in Tyran when it was first introduced.
Doctrinally the Manticore was intended to serve as the backbone of the armored divisions of the Army of the Syaran Republic. The Manticore served on both sides of the Syaran Civil War, and continued to be produced until 1990. During the 1990s the Manticore was steadily withdraw from active service, but the outbreak of the Zemplen War saw it pressed back into service. Although a nearly a 50 year old design, the Manticore received numerous upgrades and modernization packages and saw combat in nearly all major operations of the war. A total of 1,182 Manticores were destroyed or otherwise lost during the war. The Manticore was again retired from active service after the war, but remains in use by the Syaran Strategic Forces and Syaran National Forces.