Mamba main battle tank

The Mamba, officially the "Mamba" Armored Battle Crawler (Tipsprek: Panserestridkruper «Mamba») abbreviated as '''Psk. Mamba''', was a Tiperyn first-generation first introduced in 1957 during the Great Kesh War and fielded as the Tiperyn Realm Defence's primary main battle tank until 1997. The Mamba was Tiperyn's second main battle tank design, developed shortly the King Cobra main battle tank had seen first seen combat on the western front of the Kesh War. The Mamba was first fielded en masse during the redeployment of Tiperyn forces to the eastern front of the Kesh War where they'd faced Kodeshi-manned Modrovian tanks with armor and firepower superior to what they had faced fighting the Mihranis.

Experience against the Modrovia-produced and Kodeshi-fielded main battle tanks proved that Tiperyn armored forces were ineffective at the beginning of the war to deal with modern threats. The King Cobra was introduced as a stopgap solution in 1954 to counter these threats and replace the Cobra medium tank which was unable to penetrate Kodeshia's and Teutonia's most heavily protected tanks from the front. However, while the King Cobra was able to penetrate newer main battle tanks with its 89mm gun, it proved to be flawed, unreliable, and outgunned with a limited range of action. Concurrent with King Cobra development, the Ministry of the Sword had issued directives to the nation's major tank factories to put forward designs specifically to counter first-generation main battle tanks. The Ambrosia Tankworks — later a division of Oermakt Motorverken — proposed an entirely new design that would eventually lead to the Mamba. This tank would replace all previous medium and main battle tank stopgaps, and eventually phase out the rest of Tiperyn's armored car force which were not deployed to Kesh.

Prototype variants of the Mamba was first field tested by the Tiperyn Realm Guard in late 1956 in eastern Asharistan to counter a small contingent of Kodeshi tank forces. Selengeria received their first shipments of Mambas shortly after in early 1957 to aid in armored operations on its front with Kodeshia. When the western front was won for the Crown Coalition, Tiperyn redeployed to Selengeria. At that time, about 30% of its tank forces sent there were Mamba-equipped units while the remainder were a mix of King Cobras and Rattlesnake light tanks. Following the end of the Kesh War, Tiperyn and Kaya continued to field the Mamba as their primary main battle tanks in Nasiria until their replacement or modernization in the 1970s.

Design
The design of the original Mamba A was the result of a specific doctrinal expectation of how Tiperyn would wage future armored warfare. Unlike the King Cobra — which had more attention paid to the asymmetric environment of South Nasiria and, as a result, protection on all aspects — the Mamba was envisioned for a more conventional maneuver war against a peer opponent. In such a conflict, Tiperyn did not consider it viable for its forces to remain stagnant. Aside from sharing no land borders with another nation, Tiperyn's Zuidema doctrine prized high tempo, deep maneuver warfare as a means to decisively defeat the enemy. This meant that mobility was the highest priority, with firepower also needing to be top notch to defeat modern main battle tanks already in production in Modrovia and anticipated to enter service in other rival states. Armor protection was less of a concern, because during the high speed maneuver war, it was projected that the risk of being targetted by anti-armor weapons or shrapnelling artillery would be mitigated by staying mobile. However, it was acknowledged that in some tactical situations, Tiperyn tanks would have to halt their advance to engage dug-in enemies or prepare ambushes for enemies on the move. In this state, it was believed that the Mamba would still need enough protection from certain aspects to survive impacts from other tanks. But again, the area that would need protecting could be decreased through the intelligent use of mobility and terrain.

Thus, the Mamba was intended to be a very mobile tank with a powerful armament and high protection in some aspects that would necessarily be exposed when fighting from a position. However, in most areas — including the hull from all aspects — the Mamba's protection was far lighter than in other comparable contemporary designs. Later requirements which dictated that as few armored fighting vehicle platforms should be used as possible to facilitate more efficient shipping and maintenance practices led to the Mamba replacing all medium, light, and main battle tanks in active duty service by the late 1960s (although the King Cobra remained in reserve service until 1986).

Main battle tanks

 * Psk. Mamba A - Produced 1957-1959. Initial production variant.
 * Psk. Mamba B - Produced 1959-1963. Included upgraded add-on armor and an enlarged engine and engine compartment to deal with the additional 3 tonnes of weight. Included steel side skirt armor that covered the entirety of the sides of the chassis and the sides and rear of the turret, wire mesh cage armor add-ons, upgraded optics, and upgraded communications equipment.
 * Psk. Mamba C - Produced 1963-1972. Included upgraded turret armor, upgraded fire control system, gun stabilization system, upgraded autoloader, laser ranger finder, and internalized infrared systems. Provisions for the mounting of composite plates and rubber side skirts replaced the steel side skirting of the Mamba B, and provisions were made for the mounting of new explosive reactive armor.

Other variants

 * Ptk. Mamba A - Produced 1963-1972. Military engineering vehicle with a bulldozer blade to clear obstacles and equipment for vehicle recovery. The Mamba's turret removed and replaced with a flat superstructure.

Current

 *  Asharistan
 *  Council Republic of Veikaia - Captured from Veikan Kingdom during the Veikan Conflict and fielded after the formation of North Veikaia in 1979.
 *  Poja - Purchased from Tiperyn as surplus following the Great Kesh War.

Former

 *  Selengeria - Imported in 1957 from Tiperyn as the first foreign nation to field the Mamba. All Mambas have been upgraded to the Black Mamba standard.
 *  Kaya - Imported in 1959 from Tiperyn. Fielded as a medium tank just after the end of the Great Kesh War in 1959 until replacement by an indigenous Kayan main battle tank in 1974.
 *  Tiperyn - Fielded as its primary main battle tank from 1957 until the introduced of the Psk. Black Mamba in 1982. Completely phased out in 1997.
 *  Veikan Kingdom - Imported starting in 1960 from Tiperyn. After the fall of the Veikan Kingdom during the Veikan Conflict, the majority of their Mambas fell into the hands of the Council Republic of Veikaia.

Tanks of comparable role, performance and era

 * Wolfhound tank (Teutonia)