XM803

MBT-70<=======>XM803<========>XM1 (C) and (GM)

XM1s are coming soon

Origins

By 1969, the quest for replacing the aging M60 is still going. West Germany had left the MBT-70 program due to overbudget on the development, now the US was on its own to either continue or stop the program. The program's budget was bloated to 303 million USD, where originally it was 80 million USD (by then the expected cost per vehicle was a million USD, five times the price than originally expected).

The US Army didn't want to stop though as they still wanted the MGM-51 Shillelagh ATGM and driver in turret to be implemented in their "future" MBT. So they decided to revise some MBT-70's component to make sure cost per vehicle was cheaper and less complex, by sacrificing some firepower, mobility and protection.

The "new" vehicle was called XM803. Work began during 1971 hoping for reducing price for each unit to 500,000-600,000 USD. They also decided to use American-made only components as West Germany no longer in the program.

XM803 on trial

Design

Armament

XM150E6

XM803 has almost identical gun/launcher as the MBT/KPz 70 (XM150E5). The only difference is that the XM150E6 has a closed breech scavenging system and realocating the bore evacuator closer to breech (there is no information about XM150E6's closed breech scavenging system so the in-game model has no change for the breech). The rounds carried for XM803 has increased from 48 (GM Autoloader from MBT-70) to 50 and it still be able to load 6 MGM-51 Shillelagh ATGM per vehicle. Gunner lost his ATGM transmitter, perhaps replaced by optics that placed above main gun/launcher barrel. The gun could elevate from -10° to +20°.

M73

The co-axial machine gun is the only armament that didn't changed from the original MBT-70.

M85 HMG

The Rheinmetall Mk 20 Rh-202 was also sacrificed for reducing price and complexity of the vehicle, including panoramic view and thermal imager for commander. The designer replaced them for a stabilized roof-mounted non-retractable remote-controlled M85 heavy machine gun on the right of his cupola. He also got a day/night camera in place for those cameras. The gun could elevate from -15° to +65°.

Protection

The armor layout is still the same as MBT-70 with spaced armor, but the difference is that the armor was standard RHA instead of Hight Performance Armor alloy. This reduced protection of the vehicle, but the point of this is cost reduction. Sides hull armor were also reduced and added side skirts as complement.
But, as wise people said, no armor best armor. XM803 still use great mobility as form of protection.

Mobility

As West Germany left the project, the component were also made locally so they reduce the power of Continental AVCR-1100-3B engine to 1,250 horsepower (930 kW) at 2600 RPM and replaced the transmission to General Motors XHM-1500-2B. This transmission isn't an electric one so the reverse speed was reduced by half compared to electric one. A simplified National Water Lift hydropneumatic suspension was installed as another complexity and cost reduction, resulting the vehicle unable to adjust the suspension angle, but still able to adjust ground clearance. The track width was also reduced for some reason.

In-game features, systems and controls

Controls and features are pretty much the same as MBT-70, but it doesn't mean I just copy pasting the craft as I actually do some notable changes that you'll find when playing it.

When you started launch the vehicle, there's a little dialogue where commander checking status of driver and gunner.

I think I got the engine gills wrong this time

Controls

Mobility
• Pitch for forward and reverse (16 m/s forward and 8 m/s reverse)
• Roll for turning left and right
• Yaw for turret and roof machine gun traverse
• Throttle for suspension height adjustment

SLIDER
• Slider 1 for gun elevation

ACTIVATION GROUPS
• AG 1 Engine (has English dialogue)
•AG 2 Hatches (has English dialogue)
•AG 3 Headlights
•AG 4 Searchlight
•AG 5 Optics & M85 HMG (commander sight, gunner sight and optics above gun barrel) (has English dialogue)

FOR MORE EXPLANATIONS, HELPS AND/OR INFOS COMMENT DOWN BELOW