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 in the build-up for 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 FMB 46M Tjván - widely considered to be the first main battle tank - proved that Tiperyn's armor forces were largely ineffective against the next generation of armored fighting vehicles. With Tiperyn's premiere tank - the Psk. King Cobra - unable to penetrate the Tjván's armor and vulnerable to its powerful 90 mm gun, 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 proposed an entirely new design that would eventually lead to the Mamba. The former was introduced early in 1953 as a stopgap measure, while the Ambrosia design was selected to replace all of Tiperyn's medium and heavy tanks.

The Psk. Mamba was first fielded by the Tiperyn Realm Guard in 1957 in eastern Asharistan to counter a small contingent of Kodeshi tank forces. Guurdalai received their first shipments of Mambas shortly after in early 1957 to aid in armored operations on its front with Kodeshia. Following the end of the Kesh War, Tiperyn and Koryeo continued to field the Mamba as their primary main battle tanks in Nasiria until their replacement or modernization in the 1970s.

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.
 *  Koryeo - 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 Koryeo 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)