M8-120 Thunderbolt II

* Default
* Eraser
* Ridgway

## Crew

* Commander
* Driver
* Gunner

The **M8-120 Thunderbolt II** is a Tier 9 progression Light Tank under Marat Shishkin's dealership.

## History

Class: Light Tank (Prototype)

Developed: 1993-2015

Service: N/A

Vehicles Built: 2

Operators: N/A

The M8 (also called "Thunderbolt II") is an upgraded XM8 prototype from the old Armored Gun System program from the 1990s, initially developed to replace the obsolete M551 Sheridan Light Tank. The program was originally terminated in 1997 due to lack of funding and would then stay dormant for more than half a decade. In October 2003, the company that had built the original XM8 unveiled an upgraded prototype called M8 Thunderbolt Enhanced Capability Demonstrator. The biggest change was the gun upgrade. Instead of the older 105mm gun, the Thunderbolt had a 120mm soft-recoil smoothbore gun that could fire standard NATO 120mm APFSDS and HEAT ammunition. Unfortunately, nobody was interested in this vehicle.

In 2006, a second (different) Thunderbolt prototype appeared with a different name (120 Armored Gun System or 120AGS) only to be shelved again and revived another decade later. In 2015, the final iteration of the Thunderbolt appeared as a contender in the recent U.S. Army Mobile Protected Firepower program only to again disappear after not being selected, this time probably for good.

## Vehicle Traits

* Stealthy: This vehicle does not lose any camouflage when moving at any speed, which is handy primarily for scouting.
* Heavy Weapon: This vehicle carries one of the largest weapons around with significantly increased damage per shot.
* Modern Kinetic Rounds: This vehicle's kinetic (APFSDS) rounds are very effective against ERA kits.

## Upgrades

### Armor

Thunderbolt II Stock Armor with Level III Upgrade
 The M8 Thunderbolt II features spaced aluminum stock armor along the front and the sides of the turret. It also has the highest level appliqué armor option installed.

### Weapon

**Stats:**

* **Depression/Elevation**: -10.0° / 20.0°

### Engine

 Detroit Diesel 6V92TIA 600 hp Diesel Engine

## Abilities

**Description:**Temporarily improves your vehicle's acceleration, maximum speed and hull traverse values at the cost of increased camouflage penalty for movement. In other words, activating this ability makes your vehicle easier to spot when moving.

**Description:**This ability improves your vehicle's reload speed, allowing it to fire faster for a short period of time. However, for the duration of this ability, the gun also becomes considerably less accurate and ATGMs become far more difficult to aim.

## Footnotes

1. ↑ Enables you to unlock one tier 9 vehicle.

Dealer: Marat Shishkin

Vehicles with Tier 9 token:

	* T-90A Vladimir
	* Ramka-99
	* M8-105 Buford
	* Al-Hussein Hybrid
2. ↑ Enables you to unlock one tier 10 vehicle.

Dealer: Marat Shishkin

Vehicles:

	* T-14 Armata
	* T-15 Armata
	* PL-01
	* Chall. 2 ATDU
3. ↑ 730 mm at 150m;
584 mm at 600m
4. ↑ 800 mm at 150m;
640 mm at 600m
5. ↑ 86 for Non-Penetrating Hits
6. ↑ 18 mm at 100m;
9 mm at 1000m
7. ↑ Also unlockable on:

	* PL-01
	* WPB Anders
	* K21 XC-8
	* VT5
	* M8-120 Hades
	* ZTQ-15
	* CV90120 Ghost
	* MPF Light Tank
	* VN17
8. ↑ This upgrade is unavailable until the vehicle progress is complete.

CV90105 TML  •
CV90120 Ghost  •
M41  •
 Marat Shishkin | Bglt. Pz 57  •
FV101 Scorpion  •
FV101 Scorpion 90  •
M551 Sheridan  •
M8 Buford  •
M8-120 Hades  •
**Thunderbolt II**  •
PL-01  •
PT-76  •
PT-85  •
Stingray  •
Stingray 2  •
T92 ACAV  •
T92 LT  •
 Zhang Feng | VT5  •
WPB Anders  •
 Oscar Faraday | ASCOD  •
Exp. Tank  •
Griffin 120mm  •
K21 XC-8  •
RDF/LT  •
 Francine De Laroche | Harimau