Are Mecha a feasible alternative to tanks.

After all, miniature computer controlled turrets would be silly, right?

Jeez...If ERA can be applied to modern combat, then "Mechs are impractical" can hold no water.

Ever.

The biggest problem with that is the one tpe of round that is designed for killing heavily armored vehicles is utterly unaffected by it and that round is the SABOT (pronounced saybo, it's french apparently) it is a bullet made of depleted uranium, the A-10's main weapon (the Gau-8 winner..cough.. I mean Avenger) uses the same material for it's ammo, and we all know what that monster does to tanks, only thing is, the modern SABOT round for the tank is much bigger, but it doesn't spew as many rounds in a short period of time.

Well I couldnt remeber the spefics on how missles operate, but, let's say stuff like HEAT missles and such, thats what tanks use for their main armament?

Does it take some time for the missle to arm and lock on target? If so, it could mean that mechs has just to worry about closing the range with tanks to effectively neutralize em in a way.

That is of course assuming that mechs can move fast as our current tank's speed or more faster, wont work if mechs are real slow.

When a tank fires a round it doesn't lock on at all, you have to aim the bloody thing, they don't use missiles they use shells, and bullets, really big bullets. Now when someone fires a missile they lock on to the target before firing, the missile will already know it's target and it will fly toward it. HEAT shells or High-energy anti tank rounds, I'm not sure why they call it anti tank since we use them almost exclusively against lightly armored targets, can be stopped by ERA, Heat shells use explosive energy a fireball and such to destroy its target. The SABOT round cannot be stopped as it is simply a chunk of depleted uranium fired at high velcity, and uses kinetic energy to pierce armor and kill the crew or damage something vital.

Kais, there's been something I've been meaning to ask.

Exactly how fast does a tank turret turn?

Fairly fast all things consider (it only weighs about 30 tons) a full 360 turn takes maybe 5 seconds, it can be quite shocking if you are in it.

Ooo.... thanks! B/c I was wondering about this for quite a long while to be honest ^_^

And since that missles lock on their targets before firing means that they can be fired pretty close range.. and hm

seems like tank can be effective against mechs if use em in formations cuz they're relatively small targets compared to mechs, but, still seems like once mechs get up real close and personal its all over for tanks unless they can bail it out quick enuff.

http://www.tankopoly.com/M1_Abrams_Battle_Tank_M1A1_M1A2.htm
http://www.fprado.com/armorsite/abrams.htm

and plus it seems that tank's turrets are currently limited to 120mm in accord to NATO treaty. But, taking that M1A2 's weight is at 69 tons so.. and the mph maximum it can attain's at 42 mph. The normal would be around 30 mph.

How fast would mechs go?

And whoa, to replace an tank, it'll take almost six million, which's cheaper than I thought, basically if I win an lottery or be a bill gates I can own one provided that I'm allowed to lol.

Composite armor means that the said armor has bunch of different armor layers on each other so that you know.

Still thinking will add more later on.

One of the first tactics I learned as a tanker was that the best way to combat other tanks is to wait for them on the other side of a hill, now this would be effective against mechs as well since they typically can't low-crawl. I set my tanks on the other side of a big hill and wait for a mech, who's weapon is around their torso line, to peak over the hill and blow its head off. Tanks don't need to be in formation to kill mechs, as they too would be in a formation.

Mechs can't crawl...?

The whole point of Humanoid Mecha is that they can execute all the maneuvers a infantryman can. What do you mean, cannot crawl?

In counter to the hill scenario, most mecha are equipped with large-scale variations of infantry gear, including corner mirrors. No sane man would go up and over a large hill without a quick peak first.

Please try to remember that Anti-Tank strategy does not apply to anti-mech combat.

How many mechs have you seen crawl?

It would have the same effect, tanks have been known to shoot through the hill, and against a soft(ish) target like a mech's head then yeah they would totally fire through a hill given that most mechs run incredibly hot, it is safe to say they would be able to see the mech, if not then someone will probably notice when the vehicle starts walking over the hill, if not then the mech gets to walk around a blind corner for all intents and purposes, which all leads to a very dead mech.

depending on the kind of mech most wouldnt be able to crawl and if the were able to have the ability do what Gundams can i doubt we would still have tanks anyways

Grav-tanks fast, mobile, heavily armed and armored, they ignore terrain. Those are the future of tanks, of course if we actually gain the ability to make Veritech fighters all other vehicles would become obsolete except the mechs which are basically a pile of guns on legs, since they can hold ground better, but those are little better than turrets you can move every so often. Back to the subject at hand, a grav-tank is basically a helicopter with armor and the addition of a big gun, oh yeah and it propels itself from the ground with an anti-gravity engine. Fighters would be the other half of what a gundam does.

If we have developed anti grav engines then we could pretty much have real gundams with out the laser weapons of course Basicly DOMs(if you dont know what this is ill post a pic soon) but i personally dislike Vetitechs because having the ablitiy to transform worries me if something was there that wasnt abd u transformed then KABOOOM or something along that road

after talking about this with my friend i noticed that we need to say what kind of tech is avaible
also if mechs had beams and lasers pretty much everything is srew
and yes current and near future mech would suck but they will make way for more gundam type mechs

The Veritechs have safety measures in place to make sure you don't explode when you transform, even denying you certain forms from time to time.
I know what a DOM is. The M1 tank (and it's variants) auto-unloads itself, after the shell is fired the breech pops open and spits out the aft cap. Next-gen tanks have an autoloader, those will be online long before a combat mech could hope to be.
EDIT oh yeah I forgot you can make a turret turn faster if you tell the driver to turn. Tanks are accurate to 2 miles after that it depends on crew.

EDIT EDIT: Ok the M1A2 SEP is accurate to 2 miles.

This is a DOM its heavy but uses jets/anti grav or something to make it hover above the ground and uses small jets for quick manuverments and these guys mainly carry bazookas, rocketlaunchers, a machinegun and for close combat a sword that heats up- more likely that freakn beam sabers but as effective

i think that they already have auto loaders for artillary but im not too sure

Yes and at the same time a huge resounding no, they exist but aren't in use, most vehicles and artillery use manual loading.

EDIT: hehe it's been 2 years since I messed with a tank and I still have it.