T29 Super Heavy Tank

[Vennie Fireman]

Programshave been initiated on several occasions with the aim of creating an extremely resilient vehicle for penetrating enemy formations without fear of being destroyed in combat; however, only a few examples were built, and there is little evidence of any super heavy tank having seen combat. Examples were designed in the First and Second World Wars, along with a few during the Cold War.

The first super-heavy tank was designed by the Russian naval engineer Vasily Mendeleyev who worked on the project from 1911 to 1915. The tank was envisioned to be invulnerable to almost all contemporary threats but remained on paper due to its high construction cost.[1][2] Following the production of their first tanks, the British "Flying Elephant" was designed as a tank that would be resistant to artillery fire. Since mobility was more important than protection, and the tanks already developed were successful, work on the project was stopped. The German K-Wagen (Grokampfwagen) was a very heavy design carrying 4 guns and needing a crew of 27. Two of them were under construction when the war ended, and both were demolished.

In the early 1920s, the French produced the 70-tonne Char 2C. The ten tanks would see limited combat during the Battle for France in 1940,[citation needed] but were used mostly for propaganda purposes and the French tried to pull them out of combat zones.

During the Second World War, all of the major combatants introduced prototypes for special roles. Adolf Hitler was a proponent of "war winning" weapons and supported projects like the 188 tonne Maus, and even larger 1,000 tonne Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte.[citation needed] The British and Soviets all built prototype designs similar to the Jagdtiger, and the US was working on the project then known as T95 Gun Carriage, which was later changed to T28 Super Heavy Tank. However, not all of these designs were constructed, and most never passed the prototype stage.

Compared to other heavy tanks of the time, the Tiger II can be considered a super-heavy tank, considering that nearly all contemporary heavy tanks in service at the time were significantly lighter.[speculation?] However, during this period of the war Germany generally opted to field and design heavier vehicles. By late 1943, the Panzer IV tank had been significantly up-armed and up-armoured in contrast to its original role and production specifications (resulting in a considerably heavier tank), and Panthers were considered medium tanks despite being of similar mass and volume to contemporary heavy tanks of other nations involved in the conflict. As a result of the trend of generally increasing mass, by late-war German standards the Tiger II is a heavy tank. It is widely classified as a heavy tank by war historians, and nowhere near as heavy as the undisputedly super-heavy Maus.

The idea of very heavy tanks saw less development after the Second World War, not least since the destructive force of tactical nuclear weapons would always overcome any feasible armour. Wartime advances in armour and propulsion technology allowed post-war heavy tanks developed by multiple nations to be significantly heavier than the average heavy tank fielded in World War II, while not reducing overall comparative mobility. Examples include Object 279 (Soviet Union), T30 Heavy Tank (United States) and Conqueror (Britain). All of these vehicles meet or exceed a weight 60 tonnes while still being capable of reaching speeds of 35 kph or faster. While the American T30 tank exceeded 85 tonnes while combat loaded, none of these vehicles can be considered a super-heavy Tank.[citation needed]

Main Battle Tanks were developed and used by every tank building nation during the Cold War, largely phasing out the doctrinal role and use of "Medium", "Heavy", "Cruiser" and "Infantry" tanks. For example, the last heavy tank in American service was the 65-ton M103, which was retired from US Army service in 1963 (and from US Marine service in 1973).[3] Fielding a tank larger than an MBT during this period would not provide a significant advantage to protection or offensive capability, considering the likely battlefield conditions and theaters of war. No super-heavy MBTs were produced during the Cold War.

Further advances in armour technology have given the armour of late 20th century tanks the estimated equivalent of over a metre of rolled homogeneous armour (the primary type of armour used before the invention of composite armour, now used as a standard for comparison between different armour designs). This means adding more armour would not increase protection to any significant degree.[citation needed] Current development is instead focused on a combination of remaining undetected, interfering with tracking, and active countermeasures to neutralize the enemy weapon systems.[citation needed]

That's the BelAz. It's a huge cargo truck, to move things like dirt or ore. Sure, war isn't its purpose, but that doesn't mean we can't shove weapons on those big trucks to make then work as battle platforms.

That's a big boy by Perkins. It's carrying parts of a nuclear reactor on its back - over 400 tonnes of metal of cargo alone - and navigating regular roads while doing so. It manages to do so by spreading its weight over 400 feet worth of truck-bits, making it longer than a football field. It isn't that fast, but it for sure is large.

While not exactly 1000+, as postulated on your question, the Perkins is large enough to carry an entire battle-base on its back - be it a mobile fortress/outpost, or just a giant amount of guns to fire at things, like some sort of land-based mini-battleship.

Despite the fact that this thing is very close to a tank already and looking incredibly awesome by itself, this thing is so beefy it can carry an entire spaceship on its back. It weights over 2500 tons by itself, and it is all sorts of ridiculous when it comes to the amount of power it needs to work. It is a logistical nightmare, but it is a solution for another, even worse logistical nightmare - putting a spaceship in place.

Sure, if you're making those beasts war platforms, you'll have to exchange some bits. We'll need armor, extra fuel tanks, a lot of guns. But their very existence proves it can be built, even if we have a bunch of limitations.

I don't see those used mainly as battle platforms. Instead, I see them as vehicles made to transport big stuff that can't be broken into parts. Imagine, for example, that mysterious monoliths appeared all over the planet. Huge, black pieces of stone that can generate a lot of power seemingly from nowhere, if you can take them on your hands. They can be moved, but you need them to be moved whole, in safety. What do you do?

Shove them on top of the meanest, largest vehicles you can build, and then take them home. Of course, a large truck doesn't cut anymore. Those things would need to be kept in extreme safety, so you arm those trucks up. Once they are set, they become mobile power generators, ready to juice up your energy-weapon-based troops, and able to defend themselves from the enemy if it comes to an engagement.

If the magical-space-monolith thing isn't your cup of tea, then you can use them to retrieve warheads, spaceship parts, warsats, or whatever else you fancy that is big and must be carried in one piece, or several large pieces.

They can work as bases for giant railguns, or as mobile power generators, if outfitted with miniature nuclear plants. They could work as housing for massive secret supercomputers that should be kept near the troops for one reason or another. In any case, it isn't on the frontline they will shine - it is on the back, carrying the big things no other vehicle can carry.

The moon is full of loose rocks. Pile those on top for extra armor. If they get blown up, pile some more on there. They are not heavy. They are on the moon! Moon tank is functionally underground, but is moving the ground it is under along with it. Also the rocks are good camouflage.

Moon tank guns easily achieve escape velocity with their projectiles (no air on the moon to slow them down) and so can shoot at enemies in orbit. And enemies farther away than that. Moon tank functions like a gun emplacement, but mobile.

Sci-Fi is full of huge starships which should have been sitting ducks for all of the rockets and blasters, if not for one other thing which is a staple of sci-fi - the force shield. I presume everyone knows what a force shield is and how it works ;)

Imagine in a near future there is a revolutionary development in this area, and we can develop generators which generate a "field" capable of stopping the most powerful conventional weapons. The downside is that these generators weight 100 tons minimum, and require huge power source, which, for mobile vehicles, would necessitate nuclear power generation. This, in turn, would push the total vehicle weight towards 1000 t, and even higher.

Active Defenses are a rapidly advancing technology that can detect incoming weapons and destroy them. Trophe for example is a new Active Defense that is installed on many American and Israeli tanks that has a record of intercepting 100% of anti-tank missiles/RPGs ever shot at it in testing or in live combat. America is already developing a next generation version of this that will be able to stop kinetic anti-tank weapons as well.

If a tank is using active defenses, then a tank that is 15 times as massive as a normal tank, could also be 15 times as hard to destroy since it could cover it's whole surface with countermeasure systems. It also means that large fortifications could become way too big and well defended to be overwhelmed by normal little tanks or bombers; so, ultra-heavy tanks may become necessary for overwhelming the countermeasures of shielded fortresses since one 1,000 ton tank is cheaper to make then 15 separate 67 ton tanks.

Also, penetrating Active Defenses means you need to overwhelm it in a single volley. A single tank can better fire a few synchronized massive shells, than 15 tanks can fire a coordinated volley of smaller shells. If the attack is not synchronized, then active defenses can block your attacks in sequence with much less effort.

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