MT47 Anteater

## Medium Tank, MT47 "Anteater"

The MT47 Anteater (Officially Medium, MT-47) was an Orion Medium Tank designed by the Orion Armor Works in 1946. It was a jack-of-all-trades tank, combining features from previous designs and making a capable, future-proof and easily upgradable system.

## Description

The original MT47 borrowed many traits from the real life M4 Sherman, featuring a single angle in the front (three in future revisions), A cast turret with almost identical proportions, and a 75mm armament. The drive system used a transmission with 5 gears forwards and two reverse, similar to the M4. The most notable difference is the chassis, containing a 2-2-4-4-2-2 wheel arrangement system compared to the M4's 2-4-4-4-2. The MT47 also notably had stronger hull armor at a lower angle, and a more armored mantlet.

## History

Contrary to popular belief, the Anteater name actually spurred rather late in the Libran Front, not becoming officially adopted until 1957, which by then it was long outdated in service. The MT47 actually first used a hyphen for the designation, however the hyphen was dropped in 1949 after the Orion Ordnance Bureau reformed. Originally mounting the 75mm M9 Infantry support gun, the MT47 was originally designed to be a simple infantry tank with , complimenting the VT2's anti tank capability with anti infantry needs. When the war started, it was proved in multiple key battles that the VT2 was far too outdated for anti tank warfare, and missed crucial key modern day components such as welded/cast/angled armor, a high velocity round, and fast turret rotation speeds. The MT47 already contained both the armor and mobility needed for modern anti tank warfare, and only lacked in armament. The OOB provided a stopgap ammunition type to accompany the already existing AP (M71), and HE (H51) rounds available, dubbed the M27 APDS round. The first of its kind, the M27 round proved to be effective against early war RL and RM tanks, which the round penetration statistics was arguably better than the rather mediocre M71. Due to the M71's wider availability however, it remained as the main armor piercing round for the M9 MT47s. In 1950, after the OOB had reformed, there was a need for a more suitable anti tank gun on the MT47 while the M51 and it's armor Dissolving ammunition was being researched. What soon came afterwards was the M9B1 High Velocity Cannon, which used more effective rounds than before. When the M51 Main Combat Tank was finally put into service in summer 1951, the MT47 still supplemented the originally rare MCTs and was heavily used by the Orion Armored Forces. With a much better muzzle velocity of about 856m/s on the M9B1, coupled with the better penetrating M91B1 APBCDS shell (similar stats to the M27 APDS round) , the MT47 and its subsequent variants became a mainstay of Orion Tank forces well into the Advanced Battle Tank era, fully replacing the VT2 by 1952, with some even serving in the Centauran campaigns alongside M51s, seeing the end of the war. It was gradually taken out of service as more M51s arrived, with the final nail in the coffin for the original MT47 being the M51A3S8s and MT47A2/A3 G1s/G2s being put into service.

## Trivia

* The MT47 was greatly influenced by the M4 Sherman in design, however was completely different in doctorine.
* In 1953, one MT47 nicknamed "Cruella" knocked out five RM-IIIs, four RM-Vs, one AS-1, and two RL-Vs in a tank battle near the Yuntian River, gaining the MT47 the name "Anteater." At the end of the war no other tank surpassed this KDR, becoming one of the most legendary battles of the Forman War.
* Only 31 MT47s were in service at the end of the war, and only nine were sent to museums. It has been suspected that the remaining 22 MT47s were sent to be sunk in the bottom of the Libran Coast, and on June 27, 1981, An MT47 was discovered sunk near LIbrassen's port. Another one was discovered on December 9th, 2001, in the southeastern coast of the Antarean Republik. However these two MT47s were located almost five hundred miles apart,