Heavy Urban Support Vehicle

The Heavy Urban Support Vehicle is a FRAUT, designed by Federal Defence. The vehicle was designed in 2008, and entered service with the Federal Republic Land Force Command in 2013. Production of the HUSV family began in 2013 with a total of 897 vehicles being produced, with a total of 1200 planned of all variants for the Land Force Command. The vehicle has not seen any conflicts. The HUSV family includes the M101 Heavy Armored Personnel Carrier, M102 Heavy Urban Support Vehicle, and M103 Heavy Armored Logistics Vehicle.

History
After seeing a range of urbanized conflicts abroad, the FRAUT directed the Land Force Command to develop a specialized, heavily armored armored personnel carrier for use in urban environments. While the current generation of tracked and wheeled Infantry Fighting Vehicles provide sufficient protection and firepower for use in a wide range of situations, they were still deemed too vulnerable to short range anti-armor weapons. Thus, the new Heavy APC program required armor exceeding the levels of a Main Battle Tank. Federal Defence submitted the first prototype on a single source bid in December of 2009. After integration from the M90 Centaurus Project, a working prototype was delivered to the Land Force Command Evaluation in 2010. Trials were successful, but development of the Remote Control Weapon System that was unique to the vehicle was abandoned. Instead, the already in use M954 RCWS was integrated. The Fire Support variant, the M102 was also successfully tested in 2011. Low Rate Initial Production was approved and deliveries to the Number 107 Armored Guards of Nodorza began in early 2012. Full rate production began in 2013 and continues with a total of 1,200 to be produced.

Design
The HUSV Family is based on the design of the Hull from a Main Battle Tank, in reverse. The engine is placed forward, with the drive sprocket front and idler wheel rear. This allows easy exit and entry for the infantry through the rear of the vehicle. The HUSV shares a modified running gear system from the M90 Main Battle Tank. The sides, and front are heavily sloped to increase armor protection against all kinetic weapons.

The top mounted Remote Control Weapons Station is un-obstructed to allow a high range of engagement options in urban scenarios. The Fire Support variant allows for high traverse to hit targets high on rooftops and baloney's.

The vehicle also incorporates an advanced, classified active protection system designed to defeat Improvised Explosive Devices and portable HEAT weapons.

Gun
The M101 mounts the existing M954 RCWS that can fire armor piercing, incendiary, and enhanced penetration ammunition. The weapon feeds from 500 round boxes.

The M102 mounts the MS100UE Urban Support Gun. This gun is a 100mm rifled, double cold forged, carbon nano-tube reinforced, breach semi-automatically loaded gun capable of a fire rate of around 10rpm. The gun is electronically zeroed and aimed using an advanced fire control system. The gun is accurate to 3,500m with 0.2mil of dispersion. It can fire the following ammunition:
 * MS100AP Armor Piercing, Discarding Sabot, Fin Stabilized, Tungsten Core (APDSFS)
 * H100782Y2 High Explosive, Fin Stabilized (HEFS)
 * CSS100H5A1 Anti-Infantry Canister Shot (AICS)

Protection
Protection of the HUSV family exceeds that of the M90 Centaurus in all-around protection, including advanced protection against IEDs and top attack weapons. It consists of both an advanced composite package and RHA steel chassis.

Mobility
The HUSV family is powered by a Federal 345A0 79168 W12 Diesel Engine. Instead of a traditional V8 or V12 design, two v6 cylinder engines were mated with a single crankshaft, producing a W-12 engine. While the output is de-tuned to 1000hp, the engine is highly under-stressed, making it highly reliable and requiring less maintenance hours than other stressed engines in main battle tanks. To improve the smoothness of power delivery and enhance acceleration, each bank of 6 cylinders was turbo charged and intercooled. The vehicle is equipped with a water cooled exhaust, lowering the thermal signature of the vehicle.

Electronics
The M79 features uses a 24v electrical system, with twin alternators. When the vehicle is turned off, a 103hp 4 Cylinder Diesel Generator produces enough power to operate the turret and/or gunnery systems, while making the vehicle a much smaller heat and noise signature. The vehicle has an advanced, third generation fire control system with thermal imaging and real time reporting capabilities integrated. The vehicle also incorporates a 360 degree camera system to allow occupations to survey hazardous conditions and improve situational awareness prior to disembarkation.

Variants
Three variants have been produced. The M101 is the main armored personnel carrier variant. The M102 is the urban support variant with no troop carrying capacity, and the M103 is an armored logistics vehicle.

M101 "King" Heavy Armored Personnel Carrier
The M101 is the Armored Personnel Carrier variant of the HUSV family. The vehicle can transport 12 soldiers and 2 crew, which exceeds the size of an infantry team. Crew enter the vehicle from two top hatches. Infantry disembark from a center mounted rear door. This allows the additional space for medical personnel or other specialist personnel, who also require armored transport in urban environments. The M101 can also be have all seats removed and can be quickly transported into a heavily armored ambulance, or resupply vehicle.

M102 "Queen" Heavy Urban Support Vehicle
Although the M101 provides heavy protection for its occupants in urban environments, the 20mm RCWS is insufficient to fight other heavily armored vehicles. So, the M102 incorporates a powerful, quick traversing and elevating semi-automatic 100mm gun to effectively engage and destroy heavily armored targets in urban areas. The M102 cannot transport any personnel, as all space is devoted to safe ammunition storage, and an armored compartment that is separate for the gunner and driver.

M103 "Stalwart" Heavy Armored Logistics Vehicle
The M103 Stalwart was developed to transport material long range, in high risk asymmetric and IED situations. It is armed with a 12.7mm machine gun, has a crew of two. The remainder of the vehicle is a traditional flat deck for cargo loading, and can also tow a trailer when required.