Atomic Tanks

The ascension of Australia as a world power was caused entirely by corporate interests. Following waves of immigration, Australian industry was revitalised, as it now had a far larger population, enough to justify producing goods itself. An oil crisis caused Canberra to reconsider the nation's energy sources, and within two decades Australia was operating almost entirely off nuclear power. Australia remains the world's foremost in fission reactor technology well into the 22nd century.

In the increasingly unstable period leading up to the WWIII, corporate interests noted an alarming spike in the prevalence of armed raiders. The Australian Navy did a good job in patrolling its territorial waters, but ships are slow and aircraft limited.

As a result, a multicorporation joint venture, founded as the company Icarus Defense Systems, was formed to develop a rapid-response small form-factor vehicle capable of responding to armed raiders and such threats rapidly. The result was a airborne gunship with a miniature fission reactor powering 8 swivel-mount turbofans for lift and propulsion, twin clamps for landing (and also grabbing and sinking offending armoured vessels, if such a situation were to arise), and semisubmersible capacity with a deployable air-cushion for water take-off. As the production facility finished construction, WWIII erupted, and efforts were immediately made to replace the quad MGs with more substantial weaponry.

The resultant Airborne Vehicle, Patrol project expanded into the following series of armoured vehicles.

AVP-101 Devastator

The original armament modification to the basic chassis, the AAV-101 has a turreted 76mm recoilless cannon with coaxial 12.5mm HMG, as well as external ordnance hardpoints. The Devastator has layered aluminium and ceramic armour resistant against sustained 12.7mm fire, and ablative/reactive armour tiles for protection against heavier ordnance.

AVP-102 Daedalus

The Daedalus variant replaces the turret with a superstructure carrying four 30-missile Icarus SRM pods and 4 Gungnir LRMs. The Daedalus also has an internal ordnance bay. The Icarus SRM is a small, laser-guided short-range heatseeking air-to-air missile. It can be used as a heat-seeking anti-missile missile, as a swarm of air-to-air or air-to-ground missiles, in which it is highly effective against infantry, or the pod detached and placed as a fixed emplacement, operated by remote or a control panel. The Gungnir LRM is five meters long, reaches Mach 4, and has an armour-penetrating fragmenting explosive warhead. The Daedalus's standard loadout includes one Gungnir-EXT cruise missile and one Gungnir-MAX thermonuclear missile.

AVP-103 Defenser

The Defenser armoured airborne transport has the internals stripped out to provide space for up to 14 soldiers and equipment. Its high speed, manoeuvrability, survivability, and inexhaustible standby time make the Defenser invaluable for insertion or extraction of fireteams in critical locations. The Defenser has one Icarus SRM pod and a ventral turret mounting the original quad 12.7mm machineguns.

AVP-104 Daphne

The Daphne railgun platform lacks the strong honeycombed bracing of the other variants. This is due to the Daphne's main weapon, a 10MJ railgun firing a 8cm, 25cm long, 5kg slug at 2km/s - 6 times the speed of sound. To fire, it must deploy its bracing grips into solid ground or other suitable surface. Once deployed, the armour afforded by its high-density ammunition and lack of internal bracing allow it far greater survivability, comparable to MBTs.

AVP-105 Dictator

Equipped with state-of-the-art sensor and command systems, the Dictator airborne command tank is a mobile, airborne, command post which can co-ordinate operations from the air, act as a temporary stand-in for AWACS, replace destroyed sensor stations, land and operate as an armoured command post, or even a field hospital in conjunction with a medical-configuration Defenser, as its sensor arrays can be repurposed to diagnose casualties rapidly for treatment.

AVP-106 Defiant

The Defiant is equipped with a multitude of forward-firing weapons and little else. The left side of the Defiant mounts two 105mm recoilless cannon, while the right wing contains two 30mm rotary cannon. A ball-mounted 5.56mm minigun is housed in a recessed ventral turret, in front of the ordnance bay. The Defiant's compact design replaces four of the articulated lift fans with a pair of jet engines. The Defiant is highly effective engaging airborne and surface targets alike, but lacks the immediate damage output of the Daedalus or the long range of the Daphne.

AVP-107 Dagger

The Dagger is the AVP series' recon vehicle. It has a turret containing a high-velocity 50mm burst cannon and a pulse laser, a powerful sensor suite, and twin internal jet engines. Its outer shell is redesigned, and the Dagger is capable of hitting Mach 4.8 on afterburners, matching the fastest supersonic jets. Unlike other vehicles in the series(cruise mach 0.9), the Dagger is capable of supercruise, maintaining mach 1.6 at peak efficiencing and 2.6 at full throttle.

AVP-721 Tercel

The Tercel sacrifices armament and armour for speed and manoeuvrability. The Tercel only has six turbofan thrusters, but has a pair of fixed turbojets and a streamlined body. The Tercel is capable of reaching Mach 1.2 on level flight, and Mach 1.8 on a dive. It's armed with a pair of Icarus pods and a twin 30mm cannon.

AVP-722 Falcon

Unlike the Tercel, which is optimised for airborne combat, the Falcon retains the Tercel's basic chassis but replaces the body with a modular slot which can be swapped out to provide a different vehicle. The Falcon can be used as a light gunship, as a patrol fighter, a sensor platform, a diplomatic corvette, a missile bus, or even a torpedo bomber.

I'll edit the rest in later.