Valkyrie 3

Valkyrie 3
A Valkyrie 3 demonstrated at a testing range in Atlantia
Type	Main Battle Tank
Place of origin	Atlantia
Service history
In service	2020-Present
Used by	Atlantia
Production history
Designer	EVG
Designed	2002-2017
Manufacturer	EVG
Produced	2019-Present
No. built	312
Variants	2
Specifications (Main Battle Tank)
Weight	65 tons
Length	Hull length: 7.68 m Gun forward: 9.98 m
Width	3.8 m
Height	2.9 m
Crew	3 (commander, driver, gunner)
Armor	Lorraine-class composite armour with gold-titanium alloy and tungsten carbide reinforcement
Main armament	130 mm L50 Rhinemetal XAG-1 smoothbore gun (45 rounds)
Secondary armament	1 × 20 mm MK-20 autocannon with 1000 rounds 2 × 7.62 mm (.308 in) MG-6 machine guns with 12,000 rounds (1 pintle-mounted, 1 coaxial)
Engine	MTU MB 873 Ka-501b liquid-cooled V12 twin-turbo diesel engine 1700 hp at 2,600 rpm
Suspension	Titanium-reinforced hydropneumatic suspension
Operational range	600km
Speed	75 km/h on road 59 km/h offroad

The Valkyrie 3 is an Atlantian main battle tank designed and manufactured by Europäische Verteidigungsgruppe (EVG, English: European Defence Group). It is the direct successor and evolution of the Valkyrie 2 main battle tank and features enhancements and different designs in every key aspect. The tank is designed for large manoeuvre warfare and long range tank engagements with its more powerful armament and armour, increased speed and more complex digital combat systems. Developed from 2002 to 2019, the tank entered service in 2020 and so far, 312 units have been delivered to the Atlantian Army.

History

Development

Since the introduction of the Valkyrie 2, EVG was once again tasked by the Atlantian military to prepare a new, next generation tank design in preparation for future warfare. To accomplish this, EVG studied the designs of allied and adversarial tanks; taking note of their key characteristics and features. They noted that contemporary Concordian tank design was manly focused on destroying enemy vehicles from longer range than their USCS rivals, which preferred shorter range engagements, with "brawling" as a common tactic. They also identified several failings in Concordian tanks that would prove disadvantageous to them against comparable USCS armoured vehicles. The most notable was the speed and mobility characteristics of Concordian tanks. The Valkyrie 2 and AMBT-443, which were the best tanks in service with Concord member states, were slower by a large margin compared to other nations' tanks. Hence, greater speed was a requirement for a new main battle tank, along with stronger armour and greater weapons range on the tank's main armament to keep with traditional Concordian doctrine and maximise their advantage in battle over the flat European plains.

The current MBT in service at the time, the Valkyrie 2, featured a 55 calibre 120 mm smoothbore, capable of engaging enemy tanks at ranges of 5 kilometers. While this was determined as sufficient for a future tank, however, penetration at those kinds of ranges was severely lacking. The muzzle energy upon firing compared to kinetic energy upon impact at those ranges demonstrated ineffectiveness at penetrating the latest in Unfallion tank designs. Thus, it was determined that a 130 mm gun would be required to ensure lethality at extreme ranges and improve penetration characteristics. Studies conducted on armour also showed a weakness in the Valkyrie 2; its depleted uranium armour was hard to maintain and resulted in possible adverse health effects on crews. In addition, possibilities of improving the armour was also explored. This led to the replacement of depleted uranium armour entirely with the replacement of a cheaper and easier to handle gold-titanium alloy, and tungsten carbide to better resist energy rounds, giving it overall superior armour protection compared to its predecessor. In addition, the Rhineland-class composite was replaced with a newer and more resistant Lorraine-class composite, said to contain more complex composite matrixes that provide more protection for a minimum weight penalty.

The first few prototypes of the new Valkyrie 3 were code named the "Rhino", referencing its superior armour protection systems and were tested between 2009 to 2015. The Rhino was equipped with a standard 120 mm smoothbore, but featured the heavy armour that would later be included on the Valkyrie 3. In testing, the armour was easily capable of defeating any known Unfallion tank gun or anti-tank missile at point blank range and also prevented penetration from a 130 mm gun, that would also be later included into the final tank design. A few problems however sprung up during testing; the tank proved slower than expected and its occupants complained of a far less smoother ride compared to the Valkyrie 2. To correct this, the engine was upgraded with 200 more horsepower and an adaptive hydropneumatic suspension allowed for greater comfort. It also allowed the tank to tilt and kneel on its axis, an added benefit envisioned for defensive operations.

The Rhino prototypes successfully completed their testing around 2016 and were then adapted to contain the new 130 mm gun produced by Rhinemetal. Gunnery performance testing with this gun in combination with the tank proved very impressive. The tank gun was successfully able to defeat the armour of USCS tanks at ranges well over 4.5 kilometres. The crews however found an issue with loading the massive 130 mm shells as the proved too heavy to be easily handled and the rate of fire of the tank dropped below the unacceptable margin of 6 rounds per minute. To remedy this, the human loader was entirely replaced by an autoloader also supplied by Rhinemetal. While several issues were discovered at first, including accidental round destruction and frequent jams, the design was worked out to achieve extremely high reliability rates. The final prototype testing had been completed in 2018, and production of the first batch of 100 tanks was ordered in 2019.