M1080 Titan (FRAUT)

The M1080 Titan is a FRAUT, designed by Federal Defence. The vehicle was designed beginning in 2007, and entered service the the Federal Republic Land Force Command in 2010. Production of the M1080 entered full rate in 2011 and so far 547 vehicles have been produced, with a total of 800 planned. The vehicle has not seen any conflicts yet. The M1080 is an automatically loaded self propelled artillery gun capable of firing up to 5 rounds per minutes sustained.

History
Previous artillery designs used by the Land Force Command had large calibre guns capable of firing un-assisted shells great distances. The largest, a 390mm, L/90 gun was capable of firing on targets over 55km away, and inflicting massive damage with the large blast radius. While these guns were extremely effective against massed formations, the analogue aiming meant the weapons relied on volume of fire and massive blast to effectively destroy enemies. Because of the extremely slow fire rate, large numbers of these weapons had to be massed to engage targets effectively. The large guns also meant that reloading was very slow, and mobility was very limited. Finally, the designs meant that armoring was impossible without making the vehicle unreasonably large. By the late 1990s, most of the extremely large calibre weapons were phased out, and an interim solution using the M79 chassis was developed. This proved too inaccurate, and had underwhelming firepower. In 2000, as part of the Land Force Command 2020 strategy, a requirement was set for a mobile, high calibre, electronically augmented self propelled gun with an armored profile. Federal Defence was assigned development in the first prototype was demonstrated in 2007. The 210mm gun with auto-loading mechanism proved to be extremely effective, with both a devastating blast radius, and comparatively fast firing rate. Production was approved in 2009, and deliveries began, with Colonel General Zhukayov's Own Battery being the first regiment to receive the new self propelled gun.

Design
Based on the common chassis of the M90 Centaurus Main Battle Tank, the M1080 Titan retains the rear engine layout. This is un-common for self propelled guns, and created a challenge for re-loading. Instead, the M1080 has a large armored hatch mounted on the rear turret face that forms part of the conveyor system for reloading. The main advantage of the M1080 over older analogue SPGs is the greatly increased fire rate and accuracy. This is due to the fully electronic fire control system. The fire control system has an advanced, micro-processor based supercomputer capable of calculating ambient ballistic conditions. It can link via battlefield Ethernet/GPS to retrieve atmospheric conditions on a path to the target, to ensure the most accurate firing solution is created. The FCS also allows for constant re-zeroing of the gun, after every shot. This means that even a slight deviation in the angle of the vehicle is accounted for, resulting in unparalleled accuracy.

Like the M90, the M1080 also incorporated advanced composite armor. The vehicle shares the mobility of the M90, with the fully rated 1,500HP engine.

Gun
The 210mm M10210 L/84 Gun Gun is used in the M1080, the first vehicle to employ this new gun. While the calibre of the gun was reduced from the 390mm guns on previous artillery the gun is rifled and features a new cold forged barrel allowing for extended barrel life. The gun also incorporates an advanced, modular charge system allowing for much higher velocity than previous, higher calibre guns. Typically, a gun with such length would require an elaborate counter-weight system as not to affect the weight balance of the vehicle. However, the M1080 is unique that the gun is carbon-nanotube reinforced, and is over 55% composite construction. Combined with high hardness steel, the weight of the gun is only slightly more than the normal 120mm gun fitted on the M90, which is only steel construction. This means the mobility of the vehicle is unaffected cross country, and that no counterweight system is required. The gun is electronically elevated and traversed allowing for very precise aiming. The gun fires the following ammunition and charges:
 * H210EE High Explosive (HE) - Traditional HE ammunition with large blast radius
 * TA210SS Top-Attack Self Seeking (TA/SS) - GPS guided and fully targetable round for destroying armored vehicles or other precision targets
 * S210 Smoke Shell

The gun fires up to 10 modular charge bags, allowing for the maximum range of 40km. This is extended with the rocket assist charge, to 70km.

Protection
The M1080 uses advanced, and classified composite armor with spaced areas with spall lining. The vehicle features an aggressively slopped lower and upper glacis, with a relatively flat turret incorporating composite armor and spall lining.

Mobility
Like the M90 Centaurus, The M1080 Titan is powered by the FD 90195 W16 Twin Turbo Diesel. A W-16 Engine uses two inline eight cylinder engines mated to a common crank. The Federal Defence 90195 also uses a twin turbo charged, twin intercooled system which provides 1,500 brake horsepower. The engine is electronically controlled and features drive, brake, and steer by wire systems allowing for very little mechanical linkage between the driver's compartment in the front of the vehicle and the engine located in the rear. The twin intercooled system also cools the engine allowing for an exhaust silencer, which limits the thermal and IR signature of the vehicle. The vehicle's powerpack is modular, allowing it to be completely replaced in under 3 hours thanks to quick release connections on all major components and very little mechanical linkage.

Electronics
The M1080 Titan uses advanced electronic systems. The 24v electrical system powers all of the vehicle's utilities, such as power generation, lighting, and auxiliary electronic functions. A 48V triple redundant system powers all of the fighting functions and electronic systems in the M90. The vehicle has an advanced auto-reloading as well as loading system. The auto-reloading system can automatically connect to a resupply vehicle.

Variants
The M1080 Titan is supported by the M1081 Armored Artillery Supply Vehicle (AASV).

M1080 "Titan"
The M1080 is the standard varaint. The 210mm M10210 gun is sighted with both a primary gunner's sight, and secondary backup/independent commmander's sight. The M1080 is also equipped with an M84 12.7mm coaxial machinegun for local defense, which can be fired by the commander.

M1080A1 "Husky" Armored Artillery Supply Vehicle
Because of the 150lb shell, resupply with soldiers alone would be extremely fatiguing and inefficient. It was estimated that the 150lb round would take 2 minutes to load from a cargo vehicle into the M1080. So, the M1080A1 Husky was developed jointly to provide efficient ammunition resupply. The M1080A1 has an integrated conveyor system. It parks behind an M1080, and can connect to the conveyor system to allow for seamless loading of rounds. Because the M1080 is fully auto-loaded, the human loader only operates a loading computer to determine where the stored rounds are sent. RFID tags are automatically scanned and ammunition types are detected by the computer.