"David Drake - The Hammers Slammers Handbook" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

The M2 series of heavy tanks has been in continuous production withIcarus for over twenty years. It has
'reached the end of it's production run' several times in the last decade but - without a definite
replacementfinalised тАУ the M2 will be in use for many years to come and may still be in production for the
next decade. Certainly it will continue to be upgraded both by the original manufacturer and independent
suppliers.

The M2 "Ursa" was designed as a replacement for the earlier M1 of the same name. Since the
introduction of the M2, the M1 is sometimes referred to as theUrsa Minor and the M2 as theUrsa
Major. In the line they are both simply referred to as "Blowers".

The M1
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Fig. 5.IcarusIndustriesM1A6AFV , "Snow White".
Firing the20cm main weapon.
Model by Ground Zero Games, Painted by KevinDallimore ,
photography JohnTreadaway ,
copyrightSouthLondon Warlords)



This vehicle was a heavy tank of a previous generation. Slab sided and efficient looking, the M1 was
armoured with a steel-faced sapphire and composite sandwich. Over 1metre thick on the turret and
frontalarmour this offered protection against most current weapon systems up to an including10cm power
guns. Being one of the firstAFV's fitted with a15cmpowergun , the M1 was a 'heavy hitter' compared to
competitive vehicles of the time. Massing at over 130tonnes and with eight 1.3metre fans providing thrust
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into a steel, inward slanting plenum chamber, the M1 could travel at120kph . Defensive measures
included aflechette machine gun fitted to a small commander's turret, later replaced by a1cm auto
powergun . ADS strips covered the frontal and side arcs with static, ceramic 'stand off' plates on the rear
of the vehicle.



Variants included a turret-less tank destroyer version (the M11) mounting the same main weapon but in
a lower chassis with extra frontalarmour and the M4620cm Rocket Assisted Howitzer, which uses a
much lighter variant of the hull M1 hull. The M46 is in use with various standing armies and mercenary
units. Because of its modular construction, the M1 chassis is still very popular with maintenance crews
and the design flexibility enables it to beutilised in a number of different configurations. The M46 has only
four fans and lift is reduced commensurately but тАУ with a lighter turret тАУ the overall combat weight,
depending on model, is between 40 and 60tonnes so performance is only slightly degraded.