Po II Heavy Tank

Description
An upgraded version of the Capellan Confederation's Po Tank. While the original was an exceedingly cheap and simplistic design, the Po II is a considerably more expensive Main Battle Tank.

Developed to quickly fill both the depleted post-Fourth Succession War CCAF and the Capellan Treasury through export sales, the Po easily exceeded expectations. But while minor weapon upgrades were made as increasing volumes of advanced technology filtered down to the Confederation after the initial Clan Invasion, for the most part the tank was left unchanged from when it was first introduced, as the Strategios were unwilling to lose the sales income the Po generated in the time it would take to halt production to retool and upgrade it more completely. The complete annihilation of the Ceres Metal Industries St. Ives Po turret production lines during the Word of Blake's assaults against the St. Ives Commonality capital forced such a halt as the line was rebuilt and provided the Capellan engineers the opportunity to finally redesign and upgrade the Po.

While the original was intended to be cheap and simple to manufacture and maintain, the modern upgrade traded the Ceres 240 internal combustion engine with a much more expensive but considerably lighter Pitban 240 XL Fusion Engine to provide a massive amount of room for extra weaponry. Eleven tons of armor, a modest increase of half a ton, provided average protection for the vehicle's weight.

Weapons and Equipment
Where the original was built around a single main cannon supported by machine guns, the Po II featured a more expanded weapons array. Upgrading the AC/10 to a massive Ceres Huang Di Ultra AC/20 Autocannon allowed the Po II to inflict almost three times as much damage per firing. To complement the Ultra Autocannon at close range, a pair of ammo-efficient Hovertec Streak SRM-2 racks were carried, while at long range it was supported by two LongFire V LRM-5 launchers. Just like the original, a pair of Sperry Browning Machine Guns were mounted for anti-infantry duty.

With three tons of autocannon reloads, one ton for each missile launcher type and half ton of machine gun ammo in the body, while intended to reduce the amount of design time, with all its weaponry mounted in its turret the Po II is able to rapidly shift targets.

Variants

 * Arrow IV : An extensively remodeled variant developed by the Ceres Metal facility on Menke in Introduction Year::3085, the Ultra Autocannon is replaced with a Luxor Mobile Battery Arrow IV system. BV (2.0) = 1,118


 * Dark Age : A variant sighted during the Dark Age era, the Ultra AC/20 was replaced with an Inokuma Gauss Rifle, trading a reduction in damage for increased range. With its main cannon now its ranged weapon, the LRM launchers were replaced with a pair of Harpoon-6 SRM-6 racks for enhanced close-combat ability. A Guardian ECM Suite was also added


 * Gauss : Introduced in Introduction Year::3086, this model carries a Gauss Rifle, two machine guns, two SRM-6 launchers and Improved One-Shot Streak SRM-2. BV (2.0) = 1,215


 * Stealth : Another Dark Age variant developed in Introduction Year::3089, this model is protected by Vehicular Stealth Armor powered by an Angel ECM Suite. It carries a Gauss Rifle, twin machine guns and two SRM-6 launchers. BV (2.0) = 1,415

Related Designs

 * Po Tank