Another hypothetical piece of military hardware

[Manji]

Evaluate this:

A total redefenition of the word "tank"... the behemoth is 260 feet (79 meters) long, 100 feet (30 meters) wide, and five stories (40 feet (12 meters)) tall.

The armor will be 2 foot thick Chobham or DU.

The primary armament will be a triple turret of 16" guns, identical to the turrets of the USS Iowa.

It will be equipped with its own SAM batteries and AAA.

The power will be nuclear-electric.

Each of the two tracks will be 15 feet (4.5 meters) wide.

Well?

[Pablo Sanchez]

Evaluate this:

A total redefenition of the word "tank"... the behemoth is 260 feet (79 meters) long, 100 feet (30 meters) wide, and five stories (40 feet (12 meters)) tall.

The armor will be 2 foot thick Chobham or DU.

The primary armament will be a triple turret of 16" guns, identical to the turrets of the USS Iowa.

It will be equipped with its own SAM batteries and AAA.

The power will be nuclear-electric.

Each of the two tracks will be 15 feet (4.5 meters) wide.

Well?

Assuming that you can make an engine powerful enough to move the vehicle, it will have a very, very, very low top speed. It requires a fleet of trucks for gasoline supplies. It would be unable to maneuver, cross rivers, and would bog down in virtually any terrain. It is not transportable by rail or any other means, and is too slow to move from the factory to the battlefield in time to participate in the war.

This is an awful, awful idea, possibly the worst idea for a tank that I have ever heard. You're better off just building a bunker, because it'd be cheaper and about as mobile.

[Master of Ossus]

One of the problems with very large tanks is that they tend to be both very expensive for what you get and very susceptible to terrain problems. Also, if even a few pieces of hardware are damaged then the entire tank has to be shut down.

The engine for your tank would need to be enormously powerful, which would also limit the tank's range, and the Iowa turret has a spectacular recoil. It is actually almost always better to simply create a group of smaller tanks with weapons designed to do considerable damage to a single target than to mount an artillery piece on a tank's chassis, even if it is very large.

I think it would be better to just get a 16'' howitzer. There is really no reason to armor such a weapon on land, as its range is much greater than almost any other weapon, and it would be much less expensive and more mobile. Of course, really big guns like this one are not very useful on land, but I think it would be better to split these weapons up into their constituent parts. That way, a single weapon cannot disable the entire system, and they are able to move independently to areas where each particular weapon can be used to its fullest effect.

In short, the AFV you are proposing, while being very large, would not be cost effective and would be prone to problems.

[RayCav of ASVS]

Do you actually love making up these worthless monstrocities, or are you just smoking something? Because if it's the latter, I want some of that shit too

[Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi]

You can't just scale something up without problems. Something that big would be hard to transport, expensive, and wasteful on fuel. Anyway, that idea would make a popular SUV.

[Azeron]

I think LOSTR weapons will make this kind of tank absolutely worthless. Maybe with some sort of gelled armour.....

[Admiral Piett]

Evaluate this:

A total redefenition of the word "tank"... the behemoth is 260 feet (79 meters) long, 100 feet (30 meters) wide, and five stories (40 feet (12 meters)) tall.

The armor will be 2 foot thick Chobham or DU.

The primary armament will be a triple turret of 16" guns, identical to the turrets of the USS Iowa.

It will be equipped with its own SAM batteries and AAA.

The power will be nuclear-electric.

Each of the two tracks will be 15 feet (4.5 meters) wide.

Well?

How can you transfer this monstruosity from the factory to the battlefield?
You will need a specialized ship just to carry one of this monster tanks.
Assuming that the factory is built next to a dedicated harbour that can handle it.And that there is a specialized harbour where the tank must go.
Also cooling down the reactor will be very difficult and you will be limited to low power.

[Sea Skimmer]

The 16 inch turret and mounting alone are going to be about 1000 tons, the end result will be a 4000 ton tank that sinks into any surface other then bedrock covered in a foot of steel…

Assuming it could move, artillery fire will strip away its air defenses in five minutes. Then its a simple matter of bringing up a truck-mounted silkworm to destroy it. The Infrared version would easily home on the thing, and the 1000-pound shaped charge would blast clear through the armor.


Just thinking, why bother with a ship for deployment? Dozens could be transported by the proposed mile long transport airship

[Raxmei]

Why are so many people obsessed with 16" guns?

[Cpt_Frank]

Hey, manji, why not construct a new assault rifle?

lenght 10 meters, height 1,5 meters weight 800 kg empty, 5 tons with standartd 450 shot magazine, calibre 50 mm fired at a rate of 3000 shots per minute.

Follows your design philosophy.

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

Hey, manji, why not construct a new assault rifle?

lenght 10 meters, height 1,5 meters weight 800 kg empty, 5 tons with standartd 450 shot magazine, calibre 50 mm fired at a rate of 3000 shots per minute.

Follows your design philosophy.

Nope, it has to be 16" calibre

[Wicked Pilot]

Evaluate this...

...Well?

Seriouisily, please let this be your last "evaluate this overly complex and absolutely impractical weapon platform that is suppost to be superior to its counterparts because it is 100 times bigger" thread.

[XaLEv]

No hellbores?

[Mr. B]

This is the most worthless piece of shit I have seen yet.

[Admiral Piett]

The 16 inch turret and mounting alone are going to be about 1000 tons, the end result will be a 4000 ton tank that sinks into any surface other then bedrock covered in a foot of steel…

Actually this is not the problem.Assuming a weight of 5000 tons and a track surface on the ground of 630 m2 (4.5 x 70 x 2) the tank exercises a pressure on the ground of 0.79 Kg pr cm2,which is exactly the same pressure exercised by the average MBT.
The problems are others.Turning it for example.Cooling down the reactor with only the surronding air available.Transfer it from a place to the other.
And many more.