What's old is neu: Relighting the Fringe with old guns and new wars

[ANS Kamas P81]

Good luck digging it out of all the worldbuilding spam I've left in this thread...

[Daryk]

It's not spam! :)

[ANS Kamas P81]

Well it was certainly fun to do, at least.  I like Inaba more than Mriya, if I were to pick between the two planets - Inaba's got that Luddite background they're still mired in, and I like that mix of old world low and high tech.  Wood stove furnaces and holovideo players, ox plowing a field as a hovercar skims past.  That sort of thing. 

That and bunny girl corporate tech rep.  That goes a long way.

[ANS Kamas P81]

A thread ker-bump to keep it from falling off the main page.

Perun has a pretty in-depth video on rocket artillery systems, and it's a good watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkAM2nMIJxw

I was originally going with an all-tube-artillery paradigm for the Inaban Defense Force, but there's something special about squeezing the extra 20km range out of Heavy Salvo Rockets compared to Medium Tube Artillery.  So I took the Type 95 APC, stripped the turret off it, beefed it up a little (with a reduction in engine weight to keep it at the standard 1.5 tons) and slapped a six-shot rocket pod on it.  Each rocket weighs 500kg, and brings a pretty decent amount of firepower against its target.  It's capable of keeping up with mechanized and armored units, so it can provide fire support to a force on the move if necessary.

[ANS Kamas P81]

Rescuing from page 2 again, this time with heavy Technicals with big badda boom guns.

[chanman]

More Colombian Cav:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SdgKBKUyVw

[ANS Kamas P81]

Their heavy battalion is pretty well equipped as far as a frontline combat unit goes, I'm impressed with the capability.  I wonder what kind of artillery they bring to the battalion.

The Cascavels and Urutus seem like the quintessential Fringe vehicles.  Simple, effective, and rugged, and probably in every mercenary unit out there.

[Daryk]

Task and Purpose went to Kursk!  I won't link it directly, but it's a very interesting video.  The Ukrainian comments about the Ma Deuce were especially interesting.  Apparently, it's the single most reliable piece of kit we've given them.  They like the vehicles, but they're maintenance hogs.  The commentary about EW was also fascinating.

[Daryk]

Task and Purpose's latest video from Ukraine talks about drones!  I'm now convinced drone teams should be four people...

[DOC_Agren]

I stumbled over this and thought I should share
Ballad of the Mechanised Soldier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG08V5y_bJs

[Daryk]

"Through dust and fire", nice! :)

[ANS Kamas P81]

Reviving the thread with a solid desert warrior, the Alvis Saladin!

[Daryk]

That looks as light and dangerous as the 3026 version! :D

[Elmoth]

That looks as light and dangerous as the 3026 version! :D

Chevalier?

[Daryk]

I meant the Saladin... ;)

[ANS Kamas P81]

Man, I feel like I want to rework the Inaban Defense Force and center it more around its infantry, with four mechanized brigades and only eight gun-vehicle companies among them.  I can't shake the thought that even a Type 74 tank is a step too far for Inaban heavy industry, and that they'd build something more like a tank destroyer for the role rather than an MBT.

I'm also thinking that the 12-man squad is too big to build an APC around.  I'll grant that an M113 can carry that many, but I've been looking over the Swedish infantry platoon here:



It's got a pretty strong loadout for its size with each squad of six carrying the following:

Squad Leader: Ak 5C with M203
Deputy Squad Leader: Ak 5C with M203
Anti-Tank Gunner: Ak 5C, Carl Gustaf
Anti-Tank Loader: Ak 5C, AT4
Machine Gunner: FN MAG
Combat Lifesaver/Rifleman: Ak 4D, AT4

The Ak 5C is a 5.56mm assault rifle, while the Ak 4D is basically a scoped HK G3 making for a DMR in each squad.

I've been eyeballing the CV90 for a while now, and wondering about what a 1970s version might look like.  Keep the 40mm since the Bofors gun is a decades old classic, and try to cram as much armor on as possible.  It'd be a case of the Inabans being protective of their infantry, and their small military would focus on keeping the soldier alive hence the heavier IFV.  Use that as the basis for a typical family of vehicles; IFV, tank destroyer, mortar carrier, command post, engineer vehicle, antiaircraft vehicle, and artillery piece.

[Daryk]

That's a lot of ordnance for a small squad! :)

[ANS Kamas P81]

Yeah, the Swedes don't mess around when it comes to their infantry.  It's a small platoon but it's got some nasty teeth to it.

EDIT:

I made the 1970s-CV90, a TL3 26-ton IFV with decent protection against other IFV autocannons and a bit of bite of its own with the 40mm.  No missiles; I'm saving that for the tank destroyer variant.  Behold the okayest majesty of the Type 87 IFV.  It has seating for seven dismounts, but I'm only using squads of six, with the Swedish organization of three squads to a platoon.

[ANS Kamas P81]

One last one for the day, a Type 88 105mm SPG based on the same common hull as the IFV and ATGMV.  I wanted to put a medium artillery piece on it but those weigh 6 tons, and would have just made it too dang big a vehicle.  Inaba can live with the lighter artillery.  I'm going to standardize the Type 88 as the only SPG in the vehicle fleet; no rocket artillery systems - they're following Sapporo's paradigm somewhat with that choice.  Tube arty is more accurate in general, so they're getting the most bang for their buck I suppose.

[Daryk]

Heavier arty comes with more range... they should really try to find a way to have at least SOME of it... ;)

[ANS Kamas P81]

Well, I could put a Salvo Rocket (Medium) system on it with a 40km range, compared to the Tube Artillery (Light) 20km range.  That matches the early models of M270 MLRS rockets, so I'll say it's using the same system, just with two four-shot pods instead.  The tube artillery piece had a self-protection minigun mounted on it with the same 200 burst ammo supply as the IFV, so I kept it for the rocket artillery vehicle. 

I also made the Type 89 tank hunter variant of the vehicle, with heavy ATGMs in a triple launcher in the turret and twenty-one missiles stored in the hull.  Since this is built to take on enemy tanks, I added some protection to the front and the turret in the form of ERA; it won't completely stop an incoming missile but it will mitigate the damage if using the Overkill Rules for critical hits.  The Inabans are likely importing advanced missiles from Sapporo, and putting them to use here.  The vehicle's not intended as a line combatant of its own but a supplement - there's three companies per brigade, and typically attach one company of Type 89s to each battalion of mechanized infantry for a fire support role.  The ATGM carrier didn't initially have a self-protection minigun, so I added one to it to keep common themes across the AFV fleet; the Inabans love their miniguns.  Posting the revised record sheet here and deleting the old one.

Tracked APC family
  Type 87 IFV (25.93 tons)
  Type 88 Artillery Carrier (24.51 tons)
  Type 88 Engineer Vehicle (
  Type 89 ATGMV (24.85 tons)
  Type 90 Command Post Vehicle (
  Type 90 FDCC Vehicle (
  Type 91 Rocket Artillery Vehicle (25.21 tons)
  Type 92 Heavy Mortar Vehicle (
  Type 93 Antiaircraft Vehicle (

[Daryk]

+1 for miniguns! :D

[ANS Kamas P81]

I'll post the rest of the vehicles here, more in the tracked IFV family.  The engineer vehicle is also a recovery vehicle, with its heavy winch and crane along with the bulldozer blade.  This reminds me I need to make a breacher version of the IFV, with a mine plow and MICLIC charges.  I'll get to that later.  The mortar carrier is a twin barrel turreted autoloading system like the AMOS mortar, just to suck up weight and not make the machine too light.  And of course, the ubiquitous minigun with its relatively light ammo supply mounted on top of the turret for both vehicles.

[ANS Kamas P81]

And the antiaicraft vehicle, with an M61 20mm vulcan on one side of the turret and a four pack of Stingers on the other side.  The middle of the roof of the turret has the hatch for the gunner and commander, and of course has a minigun pintle-mounted to it.

I also went back and added a minigun to the Type 07 Recon Vehicle, so I posted the revised (heavier) vehicle as well.

[Daryk]

Nice selection there! :)

[ANS Kamas P81]

The Command Post vehicle and the FDCC Vehicle aren't built on the tracked chassis, since they'd be too light to fit that family.  Instead I built them on the same hull as the Type 07 6x6 recon vehicle based on the Japanese Type 87.  They fit the role nicely, though lack the turreted gun of the Recon Vehicle and instead have a raised roofline and a pintle-mounted minigun on top, of course.  That rounds out the revised Inaban Ground Defense Force's combatant vehicles, at least, though I suppose there's still going to be typical trucks and jeep analogues that I haven't bothered to stat up.

Organization of the four brigades is standardized, based on the JGSDF's 5th Brigade.



Instead of a tank regiment, the Inabans have an ATGM carrier regiment.  It's there not as a primary fighting force but to be broken up as supplementary support to the three infantry regiments.  It's the same conceptual organization as the M10 Booker deployment in the Light Infantry divisions in the US Army, to provide fire support for the division's attached infantry units.  Artillery units are made of two batteries of 105mm SPGs and one battery of 270mm rocket artillery.