LAST EDITED ON Aug-14-14 AT 05:50 PM (EDT)
Babylon Project Galactic Database
Text Data Extraction Search: Jane's Fighting Vehicles
Search Criteria: napoleon class tank
SEARCH COMPLETE: MARCH 22, 2410
NDWM Model 2292V4 Napoleon
Type: Urban light tank
Manufacturer: Neue Deutsche Waffen-und-Mechafabrik, Niogi
Mass: 7.5 tons
Length: 10.25 ft
Width: 5.5 ft
Height: 7.5 ft
Crew: 2
Armor: Light composite
Armor rating: 75 RU
Deflector shields: Yes
Deflector rating: 35 SBD
Power source, primary: SB-492 fusion reactor
Power source, secondary: Gas turbine
Drive system: 4x independent caterpillar track w/ articulation (see below)
Road march speed: 60 mph
Flank speed: 125 mph
Airmobile: Yes
Main armament: 1x120mm smoothbore gun
Secondary armament:
- 1x 6x20mm rotary blaster
- 1x 7.62mm coaxial blaster
History
In the late 23rd century, the Zardon Department of Justice's Armored Division, more popularly known as the Tank Police or Panzer Judges, had three connected problems. The first was that the tanks they had inherited from the Zardon Defense Force were too large, slow, and cumbersome to be of much use in the incredibly dense urban environment of the Mega-Cities, in particular Mega-City One. The second was that Mega-City One's criminal element had realized the first problem and developed tactics to exploit it. And the third was that the Tek Division's solution to the first two problems, the Lawbringer medium hover tank, was an overengineered boondoggle that didn't work and tended to get Judges killed in the process of not doing so.
By 2292, the situation had become so grim that the Chief Justice decided to shut the Armored Division down and reassign its personnel elsewhere. Before the order could be implemented, however, a block war broke out in the Mega-City's eastern zone. Desperate for any backup they could get, the street Judges in the district called on the Armored Division for help. The division's big, clumsy tanks fared no better there than they did anywhere else - but out of the wreckage left behind by their first clash with the rioters, one of the division's personnel invented a whole new way to wage urban warfare.
Leona Ozaki, the granddaughter of an émigré from Earth, was a rookie Panzer Judge at the time of the incident. After her tank was shot out from under her during the initial battle of the AD's intervention in the block war, she built from its remains a much smaller, nimbler vehicle - one that could maneuver in the close quarters of an Inner Block and still dish out enough punishment to make any but the best-equipped and -organized urban insurrectionists think twice about engaging it. In command of this vehicle, Ozaki and her partner/driver Al Southwell routed the leaders of the riot and brought the block war under control.
Within weeks, almost all of the AD's large-scale tanks had been scrapped by the division's own technical personnel and rebuilt into similar mini-tanks, and the effectiveness and reputation of the Panzer Judges skyrocketed. Impressed, the Chief Justice rescinded his order that the division be disbanded and turned a blind eye to the relentlessly non-standard equipment they were using. After all, the latter was not illegal, only irregular.
The first-generation Justice Department minitanks were hand-built replicas of Ozaki's original, which she nicknamed "Bonaparte" after the 19th-century Earth general Napoleon Bonaparte. Not until after the turn of the century would the Justice Department get around to issuing a proper equipment specification for what became known as the Napoleon-class Urban Light Tank, then soliciting bids for mass production. Neue Deutsche Waffen-und-Mechafabrik AG submitted the winning bid, and retroactively designated the new product the "M2292" after the year of the original Bonaparte's creation.
The Napoleon-class ULT has been in production ever since, for the Justice Department and for other police, military, and security organizations around the galaxy. It has seen many incremental improvements over the decades, but has always remained true to Judge Ozaki's original design maxim: "Simplify and add lightness."
Capabilities
The current version of the Napoleon, the M2292V4 or "Victor Four", is equipped with a 120mm smoothbore gun capable of firing a wide range of different ammunition types, ranging from conventional fin-stabilized discarding-sabot kinetic penetrators to gas-dispersal rounds and even riot control adhesive distributors. There are rumors that NDWM have even devised a photon torpedo for it, though no records of such a weapon ever being deployed can be found.
In addition, the vehicle is fitted with an assault-rifle-grade machine blaster that fires coaxial with the main gun and a rear-deck-mounted six-barrel rotary blaster. The latter weapon is used primarily for air defense, but can also be used against ground targets with skillful enough handling. Both can be configured with a concussion stun setting.
The Victor Four's fusion primary powerplant gives the vehicle exceptional endurance for an AFV, enabling long-range/long-term operations. The tank's ground speed is excellent for a tracked vehicle and its agility is unmatched in its class. Its four independent track units have articulated treads, which, in addition to their normal operating mode, can actually be used to "tiptoe", a much slower but nearly silent operating mode. The track units themselves are also articulated, enabling a skilled driver to extend them up to their own width sideways for greater stability, retract them partway into the hull to get through narrow spaces, and even use them to "walk" across gaps and other ground faults.
The vehicle is also designed to be airmobile; it is light enough to be transported by most military or police aerospace transports, and can be dropped by parachute or retro-rocket sled into most environments.
The tank's cabin is fully isolated against nuclear, biological, and chemical hazards, and its sensor suite provides excellent situational awareness to both crew members even when fully buttoned up. The Victor Four's search radar is optimized for aerial defense, but configurable for a wide range of different operating conditions. In keeping with its primary role in urban law enforcement, it also has excellent acoustic sensors, which can be set to detect and pinpoint the sounds of many common weapons.
The Napoleon Victor Four's armor is rated effective against small arms and light-to-medium anti-armor weapons; in conjunction with its deflector shield system, it is expected to be able to stand up against any enemy it cannot outmaneuver.
Limitations
Like all tracked vehicles, the Napoleon-class tank can be stymied by sufficiently rough or boggy terrain (although the articulated track system makes it surprisingly capable, if very slow, under all but the very worst surface conditions). It may be the most maneuverable conventional vehicle in its class, but it's still no spider tank or scout Destroid.
The Victor Four's relatively tall, narrow profile can make it an obvious target in a non-urban environment, and its high, front-mounted turret placement makes it unstable under some operating conditions.
While sturdy, its armor is not particularly heavy; a Napoleon should not be expected to survive a one-on-one engagement with a main battle tank or heavy Destroid. Its main weapon's reliance on ammunition limits its primary effectiveness in extended deployments, and its short barrel limits its muzzle velocity and accuracy at long range, though the latter is very rarely a problem in the tank's urban natural habitat.
Operators
In addition to the Zardon Department of Justice, the Napoleon-class minitank is used by urban police forces, security agencies, and planetary defense forces around the galaxy.
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