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UT10M3 Nombril

The UT10M3 Nombril is by far the most advanced and most capable main battle tank to exist in Khertland army service thus far. Its designed to replace both the Escutcheon IV and Seth main battle tanks and combine their capabilities onto one platform. Significant research into this area originated with the failed MI2 Infantry Fighting vehicle prototype. The MI2 program led to the creation of a hull design that provided excellent protection against kinetic and chemical rounds along both the front and side while still retaining equally impressive EMP protection. However due to the vulnerability of the turret, the MI2 never entered service. Instead the lessons learned prompted interest in the possibility of replacing the Escutcheon IV and Seth main battle tanks.

The UT10 Nombril utilized the MI2 program technology providing equal frontal armor protection to that of the Escutcheon while having better EMP resistance than even the Seth. Not only that, the side protection which the Seth sacrificed on, is only slightly worse than the Escutcheon's. The turret frontal armor is the thickest of the three main battle tanks, although the exact armor composition is not as good as the Escutcheon giving it roughly equal level of protection in practice. This was accomplished by using a large turret with improved insulation technology to maintain and exceed EMP protection of the Seth.

Two issues arose. First, the onboard sensors are considerably more vulnerable to physical shocks due to material choice in order to insulate it from EMP despite significant efforts to mitigate this weakness. Nonetheless, the efforts proved fruitful as their reliability improved substantially. Although not as reliable as those on the Escutcheons or the Seth, it was within acceptable limits. The army has cited this as potential need for improvements in the future be it on a new tank or a improved model.

Ultimately, when operating with accompanying support vehicles, this was not a significant issue.
Secondly, the breech is not as well protected as on previous tank models but was not found to be a decisive issue in practical terms. More often than not, the tank would be disabled by some other means first.

The army was so impressed with the design, they wanted to replace all existing tanks with this new model. However despite the cost only being slightly higher than the Escutcheon, they were significantly more expensive than the Seth. The government initially authorized development and procurement of the Seth in order to fill a vital capability gap. The Seth resulted in increasing the tank force by 50% and the associated cost was significant. The government once again authorized the Nombril in hopes of reducing the budget that was originally allotted to the Seth.
The army promoted the Nombril as being able to fulfill the role of both Escutcheon and Seth and indeed it was superior to the Escutcheon in the anti-tank role while superior to the Seth in EMP protection. But as existing regiments operate 3 tank companies, the same budget would only allow for 2 and a half companies worth of Nombrils. While the latter is the superior option, the Khertland army have standardized on 4 tank platoons per company and each platoon are split to form Combined Arms Team. A half company would thus not work doctrinally.

2 companies of Nombrils is thus the most a regiment can be equipped with. This reduction in numerical strength is enough to bring up concerns regarding the combat capabilities of units equipped with the new tank. The Army attempted to request a budget increase to replace all tanks in a 1:1 ratio but was rejected as the army promised this was a cost saving measure originally.

One idea was to equip half of the tank formations with 3 companies Nombrils while the other half operated with 2 companies. This would balance the budget, but the army also wanted to provide Stoats to support the Nombrils due to lingering concerns with the Nombril's sensor suite being vulnerable. Ultimately, the bean counters came up with the idea of going with 2 tank companies but supported by cheaper light vehicles. 2 companies of Rosettas and 1 company of Stoats were found to have comparable cost to that of just two platoons(Half a company) of Nombrils. This latter solution (dubbed as the Hi-Lo organization) was tested in two major exercises against the existing organizational structure and the results suggested the proposed reorganization was substantially superior. The army then authorized complete replacement of the existing tank-heavy organization with the new Hi-Lo organization.
The army began phasing out the old tanks from front-line active units and moving them into units manned by part-time reservists instead. The older eclectic collection of Escutcheon I to IIIs currently equipping the reservists are finally to be removed from service.

Basic specifications:
Cost: 26.7k
Blocks: 527
Weight: 103,793
Volume: 832 cubic meter
Length: 21m
Width: 9m
Height: 6m (hull), 8m (total)
Speed: 26 m/s

Gun:
Caliber: 304mm
Barrel Length: L/55
Projectile: Sabot head-solid-solid-base bleeder-9x casing
Rate of Fire: 15 rpm
Kinetic damage: 6200
Armor piercing: 62
Penetration: At least 1 layer of 4m HA beam

Armor:
Hull Front: 6-9m HA
Hull Side: 2-3m HA
Hull Rear: 1-2m HA
Turret Front: 1-3m metal + 6-8m HA
Turret Side: 1m HA
Turret Rear: None
EMP Resistance: Up to 56000+ damage

Ratings:
Total firepower: 15.3
APS: 16.04
Simple Weapons: 0.74
Armor: 41.9% (11180 materials)

Update Compatibility: 3.5.7
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