Mantyger Medium Tank
Mass: 50 tons
Tech Base: Inner Sphere
Motive Type: Tracked
Rules Level: Introductory
Era: Clan Invasion
Tech Rating/Era Availability: D/C-E-D-A
Production Year: 3052
Cost: 1,971,250 C-Bills
Battle Value: 928
Power Plant: Nissan 200 Fusion Engine
Cruise Speed: 43.2 km/h
Flanking Speed: 64.8 km/h
Armor: ArcShield Maxi II
Armament:
1 PPC
1 SRM-6
2 LRM-5s
1 Machine Gun
Manufacturer: New Earth Trading Company
Primary Factory: New Earth
Communications System: O/P R Janxiir
Targeting and Tracking System: TargiTrack 717
Overview:
With the recovery of lost technologies of the early 31st century, New Earth Trading Company had themselves something of a problem. For centuries they had used the Manticore Heavy Tank as their sales mainstay. Its combination of firepower, durability, and maneuverability had made it popular with armed forces that could not get their hands on a battlemech.
The recovery that brought the wondrous technologies of the Star League back to the Inner Sphere made the battlemech far easier to obtain. New manufacturers were springing up throughout the Inner Sphere, and fewer and fewer forces were forced to reduce their ambitions to traditional armored vehicles.
New Earth had no experience building mechs. They were a vehicle manufacturer. While they began to investigate modifying their operations to be able to produce mechs they elected to make one of their mainstays, the Manticore, more attractive to buyers.
New Earth realized that while the Manticore was a good tank, it had a bit of a flaw. It was in a no-mans-land of tonnage. It was too heavy to be able to be carried in smaller vehicle bays, and too light to go toe-to-toe with larger tanks.
They explored the idea of scaling the Manticore up and giving it a heavier punch. Before this could even get to the drawing board however, ComStar removed the restrictions that they had placed on the sale of the Alacorn MK VI Heavy Tank. That tank took over as NETC's heavy hitter, and the NETC board decided that they did not want to compete with their own design.
So, designers went in the other direction. They elected to scale the Manticore down, trying to fit it into a package that was smaller and less expensive. In early 3052 they debuted a new tank that they hoped would be a sales boon in the age of newfound tech.
Capabilities:
The new tank, dubbed Project 141 but referred to by the designers as the "Mantyger" would be a 50-ton vehicle capable of being transported in smaller vehicle bays. It would retain the Manticore's general weapons profile and speed. Designers hoped to retain most of the Manticore's durability.
The project succeeded quite well. The Mantyger was able to keep a nearly identical weapons load-out to its parent design. Removal of the single forward-facing medium laser was required, as was the division of the single 10-tube LRM racks into 5-tube racks. Engineers were able to add a single coaxial machine gun to help protect against infantry.
Likewise the drive train capabilities were retained. A lower mass meant that a smaller engine was able to keep the same over-land capabilities. The track width did need to be modified to be able to fit into the smaller dimensions of a light vehicle bay. Overall track length was likewise reduced.
Most astonishingly, the armor tonnage retained was identical. the same 11 tons of ArcShield armor fit on to the same chassis as the larger Manticore. Because of the smaller chassis however, it needed to be processed with different tooling to make it fit the smaller tank.
Deployment:
Ultimately the Mantyger project was not approved for production. A single hand-built prototype was constructed. It performed extremely well in trials.
Some argued too well. The Manticore was still one of NETC's best selling products. A significant faction within the NETC board was very much against introducing anything that would cannibalize sales of their existing best seller
In addition, while the Mantyger would have been very close to the Manticore in terms of performance, almost none of the parts from the original machine were cross-compatible. Only the PPC and SRM rack were retained from the original armament. The drive train for the new design was only 20 percent compatible with its parent. None of the armor panels were cross-compatible between the two.
These incompatibilities meant that entirely new production tooling would need to be created for the new tank. The NETC board rightly pointed out that while the new design would have been about 30% cheaper to produce, these savings would be offset by the initial fixed costs for building a new production line.
All was not lost, however. The NETC board did recognize the need for a powerful vehicle capable of being transported via smaller vehicle bays. Lessons learned from the Mantyger project were used in the design of the Myrmidon Medium Tank.
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Equipment Type Rating Mass
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Internal Structure: Standard 25 points 5.00
Engine: Fusion Engine 200 13.00
Cruise MP: 4
Flank MP: 6
Heat Sinks: Single Heat Sink 10 0.00
Control Equipment: 2.50
Lift Equipment: 0.00
Turret: 1.50
Armor: Standard Armor AV - 176 11.00
Armor
Factor
Front 43
Left/Right 35/35
Turret 35
Rear 28
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Equipment Location Heat Spaces Mass
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PPC T 10 1 7.00
2 LRM-5s T 4 2 4.00
SRM-6 T 4 1 3.00
Machine Gun T 0 1 0.50
@LRM-5 (24) BD - 0 1.00
@SRM-6 (15) BD - 0 1.00
@MG (1/2) (100) BD - 0 0.50
BattleForce Statistics
MV S (+0) M (+2) L (+4) E (+6) Wt. Ov Armor: 6 Points: 9
4t 3 3 2 0 2 0 Structure: 3
Special Abilities: TUR(3/3/2), IF 1
