At the request of the Belkan Federation, the Paternian Army has decided to evaluate their main battle tank, the MBT-100B, against the M5A4 Victoria.

M5A4 Victoria

Main Armament: 120mm Gun, M9A3, (46 rounds), LAHAT-capable (stored with main gun ammunition)
Secondary Armament: 1x coaxial 12.7mm M2HB Browning (1,250 rounds), provision for up to 2x machine guns or automatic grenade launchers on pintle mount + 1x machine gun or automatic grenade launcher on RCWS (400 rounds each)
Armor: Aberdeen III Composite (RHA, ballistic plastic, fused silica)
Rangefinder: Laser, muzzle-mounted
Engine: Lycoming 1200hp turbine
Suspension: Torsion bar
Weight: 60 tons (AUTO) 65 Tons (MAN)
Counter-Measures: Smoke Dischargers, Trapdoor Active Protection System, side skirts, ERA, NBC protection
Crew: 3 (AUTO variant), 4 (MAN variant)

OVERVIEW

The M5A4 Victoria is the fourth major variant of the M5 Victoria tank. Featuring better armor, a more compact hull, a manual loader, and other minor upgrades, the M5A4 Victoria is considered one of the most powerful main battle tanks in the world. Although slow compared to more modern vehicles, it makes up for it with its armor and firepower.

MBT-100B Wittman

Main Armament: 175mm gun-missile system (20 rounds + six ATGM, or 32 rounds)
Secondary Armament: 1x coaxial 12.7mm M2 Browning (1,250 rounds), 1x 30mm Autocannon in pop-up turret (440 rounds)
Armor: 3rd Generation composite; high-hardness steel, tungsten, and plastic filler with ceramic element
Rangefinder: Laser, turret mounted
Engine: Belka Industries 1500hp turbine
Suspension: Hydropneumatic, adjustable-height
Weight: 55 tons
Counter-Measures: Optional side-skirts, ERA, NBC protection, Halberd Active Protection System

OVERVIEW

The MBT-100B is the second major variant of the MBT-100 Wittman tank. Featuring excellent armor, hydropneumatic suspension, an autoloader, and a pop-up 30mm cannon, it is easily one of the most advanced tanks in the world. It's crew of three is all in the turret; the driver is positioned so that he can determine his direction easily. It's armor is highly resistant to battlefield threats, and can alter its height with its hydropneumatic suspension so that it may avoid fire and cross over rough terrain more easily.

Results

The M5A4 Victoria and MBT-100B are competent machines in their own ways. While the MBT-100B is a far more advanced vehicle, the M5A4 is a far more reliable vehicle.

Mobility

The MBT-100B is far superior to the M5A4 Victoria in this regard. It's lighter weight, more powerful engine, and hydropneumatic suspension give it greater cross-country performance. While a heavier vehicle, the M5A4 Victoria has lower ground resistance due to it's wider tracks.

Main Firepower

The MBT-100B's 175mm cannon, while possessing greater explosive power, have comparable anti-armor performance to the M5A4's 120mm cannon. In addition, the 120mm can fire more quickly and with greater accuracy.

Both autoloading and manual loading variants of the 120mm cannon can fire much quicker. The autoloader variant gives a rate of 15 rounds a minute, while a manual loader can achieve between 12-18 rounds a minute, depending on skill. In contrast, the 175mm autoloader gives a rate of fire of 1.5 rounds per minute, severely limiting its ability to engage targets rapidly.

While both vehicles can fire guided missiles from the gun, the 175mm gun is designed to do so, where that is a secondary capability of the 120mm gun. As a result, the engagement distance of the 175mm gun is significantly farther than the 120mm gun, at 10 kilometers versus 3 kilometers. This provides the MBT-100B Wittman with greater standoff capability than the M5A4.

Secondary Firepower

The MBT-100B has a single coaxial 12.7mm machine gun and single 30mm automatic cannon in a retractable remote weapons station. The M5A4 Victoria has a single 12.7mm machine gun, and has provisions for up to two pintle-mounted machine guns (one for the AUTO variant) and an external remote weapons station. All mounts can accept an M240 machine gun, M2 machine gun, M134 minigun, and Mk 19 40mm grenade launcher.

While the basic secondary armament of the MBT-100B is technically superior to the M5A4 Victoria, the Victoria can accept a greater number and variety of weapons and can effectively use all of them. This provides greater tactical flexibility for the crews.

Armor

The armor on the MBT-100B is a ceramic-plastic composite with tungsten and high-hardness rolled homogeneous armor steel and tungsten. The armor of the M5A4 is a glass-plastic composite with rolled homogeneous armor steel, known as Aberdeen III. Both armor can be improved with reactive armor.

The reactive armor fitted to the MBT-100B is explosive, where the M5A4's reactive armor is inert ballistic plastic. While on a plate-for-plate basis, the explosive armor is more effective, but the inert armor has multiple-hit capability, can be used in multiple layers, and is easier to store and handle.

Both machines have excellent protection and are very much similar. The MBT-100B's armor has greater emphasis against HEAT ammunition, where the M5A4's armor has greater emphasis against kinetic projectiles.

Combat Survivability

Both the MBT-100B Wittman and the M5A4 Victoria have comparable armor composition and effective protection. However, the MBT-100B can evade fire better due to its lower baseline profile, the ability to lower it further via hydropneumatic suspension, and higher mobility. It is 30% harder to detect the MBT-100B when maneuvering than an M5A4 Victoria when maneuvering.

In addition, the MBT-100B can defeat guided munitions with the Halberd Active Protection System, a soft-kill APS designed to jam guided munitions. It can also employ its 30mm cannon as a hard-kill system to shoot down incoming munitions.

However, the M5A4 Victoria has integrated smoke dischargers and the Trapshooter Active Protection System, a hard-kill system. The smoke dischargers can obscure a target, reducing the accuracy of shots aimed toward it. It also produces a large infra-red and unltraviolet signature, which serve to distract guided munitions. In addition, the Trapshooter APS can destroy incoming bombs and rockets that would otherwise strike the vehicle.

Ergonomics

The MBT-100B Wittman and the M5A4 Victoria have good crew ergonomics, although crews of the former vehicle are generally more exhausted due to having to handle heavier ammunition and greater maintenance load.

Crew Visibility

The MBT-100 Wittman employs a three-port cylindrical cupola, similar to Chinese cupolas, which were derived from a Paternian design from the M6A2 Ardent. However, the M5A4 Victoria employs a seven-port conical cupola design, identical to those used on the M6 Ardent series.

The seven-port cupola is considered an upgrade over the earlier three-port design, as the seven-port design allows the tank commander to see behind them to the turret's left or right, although not directly behind.

Both gunners are provided periscopic gun sights of variable magnification. In addition, the remote weapons systems can be employed as a sighting device.

The MBT-100B's driver is provided with the same three-port cylindrical cupola as the commander, where the M5A4 Victoria's driver is provided with vision ports. Both arrangements offer acceptable visibility for driving.

Servicability

The M5A4 Victoria is undoubtedly superior in this regard. It's design, although advanced in many ways, is mechanically conventional, and utilizes mature technologies. That, along with its four-man crew, give units a baseline readiness rate of Paternian units with the M5A4 MAN Victoria is 85%. The autoloader variant, due to the smaller crew size and autoloader, can manage an 80% readiness rate.

In the meantime, the MBT-100B Wittman, while superior to the MBT-70 it was derived from in this regard, is still a highly complicated machine. Serviceability as a result is reduced considerably, exacerbated by the smaller crew size. As a result, the baseline readiness rate of Belkan units with the MBT-100B does not exceed 50%.