X-U Super heavy tank
| X-U Super heavy tank | |
|---|---|
 X-U Super heavy tank | |
| Type | Super-heavy tank |
| Place of origin |  Empire of Quenmin |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1943-1944 |
| Wars | |
| Production history | |
| No. built | 150 (45 incomplete models) |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 150+ tons |
| Length | 9.50 m |
| Width | 4.2 m |
| Height | 2.5 m |
| Crew | 7 |
| Armor | maximum of 200 mm |
Main armament | 120 mm gun |
Secondary armament | 47mm gun 3x 7.7 mm Type 97 machine gun |
| Engine | Four V-12 gasoline engines 550hp x4 |
| Suspension | coil springs |
| Speed | 25 km/h |
The X-U Super heavy tank was a design for a Quenminese super heavy tank that was to be used in all theatres of war during the Second Europan War. It was designed to be a breakthrough assault tank and a defensive tank. It replaced the XT-TD Heavy tank destroyer as the main breakthrough tank for the Quenminese Army. At 150 tons, it was the heaviest indigenous Quenminese tank that ever existed. Majority saw action during the Asianna and the Pacific Campaign, in the Bethausian Campaign and in the 1944 Winter Invasion of Quenmin, where the last of the tanks were destroyed.
The tank was very heavy at 150 tons, armed with a 120mm gun, had a thickness of 200mm, and was powered by V12 diesel engines. Designed personally by Quenminese Marshal Count Thạch Hung Sõn Chiến, it was immediately developed and Chiến had ordered all Quenminese factories in Bethausia to cease production of the XT Heavy tanks and to construct his dream of a tank. It was clandestinely approved by Prime Minister Lý Học Thao Viên and Emperor Hiep Mang to avoid investigation by Quenminese Minister of Armaments Phan Ðức Quảng, who had cancelled Chiến's two other super heavy tank projects, the X-O Super heavy tank and the 250 ton X-I Super heavy tank. The X-U was the result of the Quenminese Army being unable to purchase Mauschen tanks due to its expensive cost (the cost ratio to make 2 X-U tanks is 1 Mauschen).
To avoid overengineering, the design was simplified such that the ammunition had a simple storage, the crew compartment was reduced which reduced crew comfort, and the engine had a basic four engine layout in the rear. A total of 150 were built but the production had stopped when the assembling factories were bombed during the Bethausian campaign and all were destroyed in Bethausia due to Allied air attacks and tank-on-tank encounters, where it faced the seemingly inferior Centurion tank.
Overall, it was classified as a last-ditch defence project by the Allies. At the same time, it was redundant, given that Bethausia's terrain had little room to maneuver and that materials that could have been used to make more tanks were wasted. The harsh lessons of X-U Super heavy tank ensured that no tank that was as heavy as the X-U or the Imperial Mauschen would never again be built.