AZTEC: The Mexican Army’s Aero-tanque para Combate del Alcance extremo, Modelo 2297 “General
David Héctor Ledesma Cuadra”
Introduction
A cutting-edge, indigenous Mexican hovertank design, partly replacing the LkPz-VIII in that nation’s inventory (along with the Argentinean ATAB-2), the Aero-tanque para Combate del Alcance extremo, Modelo 2297 is a specialist hovertank design optimized for beyond visual range combat. More commonly known outside of the Mexican and Argentinean sphere by the it’s American/Brazilian military codename, “AZTEC,” the design is quite effective, though its overall expense (especially its extremely sophisticated ECM and ECCM suite) has limited its international sales and its widespread fielding among Mexico’s armored forces. Narrative
Senior
Instructor Juan Gonzalez O’Callahan took care to keep his innocuous gray
coveralls impeccably starched and pressed, as befit a former officer of the 4ro Regimiento de Caballería
Blindados “Héroes del Batalla de Colinas Hollywood,” el Ejército Méxicano. His steps were precise, his black leather
boots glossed and polished to a mirrored finish. The Inca
trainees were a rather sharp contrast, slouching with hostile eyes, their
shabby uniforms unkempt. Gonzalez did
his best to hide his own contempt for the Indíos, with their ridiculously contrived culture,
peasant officers, and institutional hatred of all things new since the day Pizarro
landed. It
was, however, a peculiar and selective hatred.
“Comrades, today we begin our hands-on training with the Aero-tanque
97,” The
contempt in their gazes directed at him did not extend to the row of sleek
hovertanks behind him. The Incas’ skepticism
concerning the new Mexican tanks had faded rapidly, once the technical
specifications had been presented to them.
The Aero-tanque para Combate del Alcance extremo, Modelo 2297
“General David Héctor Ledesma Cuadra”was a specialized fighter, but in its element, it
was the equal of anything fielded by the hated Brazilians. Perhaps more importantly, as far as the Inca
soldiers were concerned, it possessed the lines of a racer, stylish in the
extreme for what it was.
Development History
StatisticsType: Hovertank Crew: 3 (Driver, Direct Fire/Defensive Systems Gunner,
Commander/BVR Weapons Gunner) Weight, Combat
Loaded: 39,000 kg Plenum: 20 Front: 85 Overhead: 95Other Faces: 35 Armament: 7cm Mass Driver Cannon in remote
overhead mount Coaxial Type-21 Plasma Gun Dual Estoque Anti-Tank
Missile Launcher Dual Garra del Águila Surface to Air Missile LauncherDefensive
Systems Dual 4.5mm
Gauss Anti-Missile & Anti-Personnel Point Defenses Six Mangosta
Anti-Missile Decoys Ammunition: 60 rounds
7cm Mass Driver Ammunition 500 Type 21
Plaser Cells 2 x 3500
round 4.5mm Gauss Magazines Twelve Estoque
ATGMs Six Garra
del Águila SAMs Signature: 2 Sensor Bonus: +3 Rangefinder/Fire
Control Bonus: +3 Development History
Like a number of
other Earth nations, Mexico was faced with the need to replace its existing
fleet of Luftkissenpanzer-VIIIs in the 2290s, as the design faced block
obsolescence. Mexico’s replacement
program began a decade earlier, in the 2280s, but was troubled for years by a
lack of clarity on actual operational requirements for a next generation
hovertank and the influence of former general officers who riddle the Mexican
defense industry and policitcal structure and who interjected themselves in the
project with a degree of influence that would be considered inappropriate in
most other developed nations. Consequently,
development moved forward in a rather slow and aimless fashion, further
complicated by the Mexican government’s announced decision to purchase the
Argentinean ATAB-2 hovertank when that design became available for export. Funding continued for a new indigenous
hovertank design after this decision, but conflicting guidance was provided as
to how this Mexican design would fit into the Mexican armored vehicle fleet
alongside the ATAB-2.
By 2290, a
substantial amount of money had been spent on the project, without a clear
finalized form being decided on. The
project was sacrosanct, in terms of budget, as the military-dominated Mexican
parliament considered the development of a modern, Mexican, hovertank to be a
national imperative. Attempts by the
military to cancel the project (arguing that the ATAB-2 voided out the need for
the program) had negative implications for the careers of the officers
involved. The program was
revitalized by the assignment of Coronel Enrique Maria Gutierrez Lopez
as project director in late 2290.
Colonel Gutierrez was a veteran commander of Mexican armored units, and
brought a personal vision to the project that was officially lacking. With the apparent protection of one or more
very senior patrons on the General Staff, he set about working the project into
a finalized form. By 2295, mockups and
computer models had developed into fully equipped test vehicles, and by 2296
the new hovertank design was ready for troop trials with units in the Mexico
City area.
The resulting
design was a highly capable, albeit specialized, vehicle, conceived of by
Colonel Gutierrez as a “hover interceptor,” and described by many as a tank
destroyer rather than a true tank (though this is a rather precise and
hyperrefined definition). Optimized for
beyond visual range combat, Colonel Gutierrez’s tank was designed to serve as a
complement to the ATAB-2, and was, in many ways, a main battle tank acting as a
light tank. The most notable feature of
the new hovertank was its electronic warfare suite and sensor package, both of
which combined to raise its price to very high levels. The finalized
design was formally accepted for service on 5 May 2297 as the Aero-tanque
para Combate del Alcance extremo, Modelo 2297 “General David Héctor Ledesma
Cuadra” (Long-Range Hover Tank, Model 2297), being named for one of the
more successful Mexican armored commanders of the 3rd
Mexican-American War at the end of the 21st Century. Production began immediately, but at a low
rate, owing to the cost of the design.
The AZTEC is
fairly conventional in layout for 24th Century hovertanks. The crew compartment, accommodating the
three-man crew, is located forward. The
driver is seated centrally. The vehicle
commander, also responsible for launch of the vehicle’s Estoque
missiles, is seated to his left. The
vehicle gunner is located to the driver’s rear.
The vehicle originally as to seat all three crewmembers in line abreast,
but the inclusion of a second, forward-firing anti-missile system occupied the
space formerly used for the gunner’s seat. The vehicle’s
casemate turret is slightly offset to the right side of the hull. The turret is a complex design and filled
with equipment, containing the primary direct fire weapon, a short-barreled 7cm
mass driver cannon, as well as a coaxial Type 21 plasma gun, the two surface to
air missile launchers, with one of the two 4.5mm anti-missile defense systems
located atop the turret allowing for a 360o engagement envelope (the
forward mounted 4.5mm PDS can only engage within the front 60o arc
of the vehicle). The vehicle only
carries sixty rounds for the mass driver cannon, all armor-piercing ammunition
feeding from a single magazine, a limitation necessitated by the large missile
load out carried by the design. The
Mexican designers did not feel this was a severe limitation, as the mass driver
is deemed primarily as a close in defense measure, and the vehicle also carries
a Type 21 plasma gun coaxial to deal with infantry and light enemy vehicles. The two launch
tubes for Estoque missiles are located to the left of the turret, each
feeding from a six missile magazine.
This location of the launch tubes imposes a no-fire zone if the turret
is slewed 80-100o to the left, as the MDC barrel overhangs the
launch tubes. However, it also allows
the vehicle commander to access and manually trouble shoot the two launchers
from within the vehicle, if need be. The AZTEC’s 1.9MW
MHD turbine is located to the vehicle rear, along with associated turbofans and
fuel tanks. The six Mangosta are
mounted atop the engine deck at a slight upward slant. The launch tubes for the decoys are canted
outward to fire forward and avoid the turret.
There has been conflicting reports concerning the effectiveness of the Mangosta
decoy, though the most telling commentary may be that it is scheduled to be
replaced by an upgraded Mangosta II design when the Block II
improvements to the hovertank are implemented in 2305. One glaring
omission from the AZTEC for its mission of a long-range dueler is the lack of
an onboard UAV system, either in the form of a tethered design like the
American Whisperdrone, or in a more autonomous format. The addition of such a system is another
planned Block II upgrade. It is rumored
that Coronel Gutierrez was personally opposed to the addition of such a system,
personally feeling that the design would benefit more from off-board UAV data
feed rather than an integral system. The
ongoing development problems and cost overruns with the originally planned UAV
system for the design may also have been a central issue in the omission of
such from the current AZTEC. Fielding and Combat History
The AZTEC began
fielding with Mexican forces in 2297, but low production rates meant that it
was not until mid-2298 that the first battalion-strength unit was declared
operational. Production remains meager
at present, due to the extreme cost of the AZTEC’s electronics, with
approximately one battalion-sized unit equipped in 2299, 2300, 2301, and 2303
(another battalion was planned for 2302, but production of export-versions of
the AZTEC for the Inca Republic interfered with this). The Mexican Army
units equipped with the AZTEC are all clustered in and around the Mexico City
area, where they are safer from American intelligence than if they were
deployed along the border with that nation.
In the event of conflict they would be part of the reserves moved to the
American or Texan border. To date
Mexican AZTECs have seen no combat. The cost and
somewhat specialized role of the vehicle has limited its export. A variant with less sophisticated electronic
warfare and sensor systems was developed, however, for export to the Inca
Republic. The Incas were initially eager
to acquire the new tank, purchasing 40 of the export variants in 2301. Internal shifts in Inca politics, however, made
improved ties with Mexico less acceptable, and planned procurement in 2303 was
terminated unexpectedly, leaving a single battalion in Incan service for the
time being. The other export
customer to date, the Indian state of Bengal, received two battalions plus
training vehicles (100 vehicles total) in 2302, with operational units being
fielded later in that year. The Bengali
version uses the same reduced capability electronic warfare suite as the Inca
Republic’s vehicles, but have been optimized for littoral and anti-shipping
operations. Negotiations are underway
for additional vehicles for terrestrial forces, but nothing has been concluded
at this time.
The Mexican Army briefly invested time into developing a personnel carrier based on the AZTEC chassis that would accommodate a small, four-man, fire team in addition to the standard turret. Funding for this vehicle has not been forthcoming, however, and it has not been developed beyond a small number of prototypes. The Inca and Bengali versions of the AZTEC are similar, with the following differences from the standard Mexican vehicle: Signature: 4 Sensor Bonus: +2 Rangefinder/Fire Control Bonus: +2 Cost: Lv750,000 (850,000 for the Bengali version) The Bengali vehicle includes some additional features for littoral operations, such as a modified skirt/hull arrangement, emergency egress equipment, and salt-water resistant coating on certain vulnerable components.
CM-70 7cm Mass Driver Cannon A short-range mass driver intended purely for anti-armor work, the CM-70 is very much a secondary weapon on the AZTEC. It is potent within 1500 meter, though outranged by other modern mass drivers equipping current generation hovertanks. Type:
70mm Mass Driver Cannon Tipo 1 4.5mm Gauss Point Defense
System This is an adaptation of the standard Mexican CASA-14 assault rifle, suitably scaled up to support a significantly increased rate of fire. It fires the same 4.5mm ESA-standard flechette round as that weapon. Type: 4.5mm Gauss Point Defense System Country: Mexico Tipo 21 Fuzil de Alta Enérgia
para Blindados This is the standard Type 21 Plasma Gun arranged in a coaxial mount for use on the AZTEC and feeding from a 500 round hopper. Statistics are identical to the basic weapon, except that rate of fire has been increased to 7. Garra del Águila Short-Ranged Surface to Air Missile A modern surface to air missile of fairly typical capabilities, the Garra del Águila (Eagle Talon) missile is standard on the AZTEC and is also used by Mexican forces as a MANPADS SAM system. In either format, the missile launcher includes information networking capabilities to allow it to take off board aiming cues from other friendly forces and other customary current generation capabilities. Type: Short Range Air Defense Missile |