How Does the Scorpion Compare to Today's Tanks?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 15 вер 2022
- The Scorpion is a hallmark in Halo; its big, it's loud, and it booms. It's a staple of the franchise, anyone who grew up in the 90's and 00's can recognize it for its unique design. It's seen heavy use all over the Galaxy and is the primary tank for the UNSC. Despite the cool factor, how does the Scorpion match up against modern main battle tanks?
Special credit goes to the many public videos and photos used to illustrate different vehicles and life in the US Military.
Halo © Microsoft Corporation
Halo 3 OST © Marty O'Donell Michael Salvatori
Follow me on Twitter!: / thebigcabezon
Join the Discord!: / discord - Ігри
Wanted to pin a comment for discussion: Diesel Electric Hybrid's instead of the drive train shown in my video. I've received several comments on that, and I did some reading, but am not entirely sold. Tanks frequently stop and move again, which I think would rapidly diminish the benefits of a Diesel-Electric motor. The main engine is either wasting electricity if the hub motors for the tracks are still, or it downspeeds significantly to produce only what power onboard (non-motor) systems require. I imagine it is doable, but am not a railroad or tank engineer. Let me know what you think!
nice video and thought experiment, i would like to add my two cents, i'm no military expert or engineering or anything but i'm gonna copy paste something i said in another comment about the ammo caliber:
it is canon that the scorpion is such a PITA to covenant forces that by the time of installation 04 they had little data available for high ranking elites about the vehicle and the best way that officier came up to deal with three scorpions in a ravine was three groups of wraiths all stationed on the upper sides of the ravines with initiative and elevation advantage and i dont recall if they also had banshee support but they difinitely had a strong infantry support.
it is worth noting titanium A, the alloy used mid war for UNSC armours is simply bullshit compared to modern alloys, now that alloy looks like paper next to covenant nanoplating of equivalent mass and thickness, wraiths are in the same armour category and mass ballpark as scorpions. the three scorpions all one tapped the wraiths, straight up, mind you depending on the source and or model wraiths also come with shielding by default, and this was after the covenant forces used their initiative.
whatever the UNSC uses for their ballistic is demonstrably way above identic calliber in modern day consistently, infantry weapon being able to damage plasma shielding and going through elite or brute combat harnesses that are also making use of covenant nanoplating also supports this, a side note about thewhole thing is that its noted the ONI scorpion in halo 5 uses the contemporary (aka 2500+) era propergol for the projectile which is...yeah make of that what you will.
It is very likely 90mm from our modern equipment would simply be shrugged off by wraiths and locusts and other vehicles the covenant has in that size category given how covenant vehicles and ships in canon can successfully ram UNSC vehicles and equipments of the same mass with no to little damage and once again reminder that the UNSC uses a theoritical alloy by our modern understanding of science/ metalurgy that is consistently shown as way better than modern armour.
if you're wondering the exchange between wraiths and scorpions mentionned above is in i believe halo the flood? its in the novel that recounts and expands halo CE, been a hot minute since i read it but that moment stuck out to me BECAUSE of the whole "scorpion with shit (by comparison) armour and supposedly small calibre being an absolute menace to covenant forces with higher number positioning and initiative"
anyway, good day
you have to add a few hundred years of R&D to your speculation
Was already done in ww2. completely possible
The Abrams has a fuel capacity of 504 gallons. It takes 10 gallons to start the engine. It can go 265 miles. If it ran on the average gas price in America it would cost $1953.50 to fill up and $38.76 to start (moving/parking these would be a pain). Gas prices tend to fluctuate in the country your invading.
I’m also not an expert and I’m not an employee at General Dynamics/I don’t have access to those classified documents. I don’t know how practical it is but I haven’t heard many bad things.
Edit: I know it doesn’t (only) run on gasoline.
@@grantlauzon5237 The Abrams does not take 10 gallons to start. Thats BS. I looked at the citation that wikipedia cites, and it doesnt even say that, so someone just literally made it up. Starting fuel requirements are literally never stated, and the website cited is from 2007 and is dead, made by some random guy, and is only found on the wayback archive.
This is what that website does say: "The M1 will need approximately 300 gallons every eight hours; this will vary depending on mission, terrain, and weather. A single tank takes 10 minutes to refuel. Refueling and rearming of a tank platoon - four tanks - takes approximately 30 minutes under ideal conditions.
Fuel consumption (average):
0.6 miles per gallon;
60 gallons per hour when traveling cross-country;
30+ gallons per hour while operating at a tactical ideal;
10 gallons [per hour] basic idle;
A mine plough will increase the fuel [consumption] rate of a tank by 25 percent."
to be fair when fighting battles against aliens a lot of the tech on the Abrams becomes quickly redundant simply because they don't use conventional weapons. And while yes there was no thought put into the tank, if you think about it the scorpion was meant to be made to travel through all types of terrain and fight everything from grunts to the wraiths. So there would be no need for other types of armaments. The last thing, while in our era tanks having a low profile is a must in halo that doesn't matter simply because when plasma hits you it doesn't care about your fancy angles and material composition, if it hits its gonna do damage and they would be able to see you anyway so having an elevated position actually helps the tank with its aiming.
Interesting thing about the Scorpion I didn't bring up (it's maybe too in the weeds), the massive treads means a very low psi from the vehicle, so it would actually handle significantly better in things like mud and sand. Downside is it's so big it may have trouble moving down roads in an urban environment. I agree with you about plasma, not much you can do about that.
The issue with that is that the scorpion was first used by the UNSC in 2218. That about 300 years before they engaged the covenant. Your point still stands though.
No it was designed to be transported, the only reason it exists is because they were fighting insurrectionists who don't have any heavy armor of their own.
@@montypython5521 and leading to the human covenant war the design stayed largely the same. While true that it was designed t be transported it wills its role well, for a human design.
the funny part is the tank version of trench warfare, where it's perfect to shot it's 90mm barrel with little profile while the head cam inside the gunner is assisted with a dumb A.I
A decent argument for Scorpions lacking some of the defensive features of modern tanks would be they were stripped off to simplify production and make them cheaper because those additions wouldn't really do anything against most Covenant weapons (canonical Covenant weapons, not necessarily the ones in the game). That's not canon to the Halo universe or anything but it seems fairly reasonable.
It has things like mine detectors and sensors, it can be drived with neural interface even but that's more a Spartan thing
exactly, you don't need an active protection system to simply drive out of the way of a slow moving plasma round fired by a wraith
@@iancrowley420 the plasma of a mortar travels way faster in lore, is slower in gameplay for balance, is like the Marines geting hit by plasma bolts witouth dying instantly, in lore plasma mortars and Covenant plasma is extremely dangerous, a bolt passing one or two meters of unprotected flesh can inflict two degree or three degree burns, direct impact can melt titanium and vaporize half a person. That's why I say modern tanks being more durable than the scorpion is BS, a Scorpion can survive barrage of those plasma bolts with ease and survive a single plasma mortat that could turn any modern tank into slag.
I could probably see that argument working for active protection systems. You can't really shoot down a bolt of plasma, and you don't really need special detectors, given that the projectiles literally glow in the dark, and move at subsonic speeds. However, basic armour packages, such as the composite and reactive armours would work pretty well against plasma. I don't see an excuse for leaving those out.
@@alexisbaz8746 Actually, tank operators in the books need a neural interface to properly operator it if I'm not mistaken.
A few points to consider and some trivia:
* The post war M820 Scorpion is a total redesign that only really retains the same basic layout of the older M808. It's almost HALF the weight (35 tons vs 66 tons) while being more resistant to enemy fire thanks to armor improvements derived from wartime advances and studying alien materials.
* The 90mm cannon of the M808 was replaced on the 2557 M820 with a 150mm ETC cannon as a standard main armament, with options to replace it with more exotic weapons. It's doubtful there's a modern tank in service anywhere that could take a hit from that and keep going. Also, the version as shown in Infinite has obvious Abrams style blowout panels over the magazine at the back of the turret.
* By the time you get to play with the M808 in 2552 in the original trilogy, everything not helpful against Covenant technology was probably long since removed for ease of production. Laser/radar warning systems were useless since the Covenant didn't use those methods of targeting, and kinetic or explosive APS probably won't stop incoming plasma or particle beam attacks.
*Also worth noting that the M808 was OLD technology, the design first entered service in 2218, and changed relatively little over three centuries since the UNSC had no peer or greater military opponents prior to 2525.
*Never seen in the games, a BMPT Terminator style variant of the Scorpion exists, the M808B2, armed with 40mm autocannons.
I wonder if the reason for the lighter cannon and weaker armor is because the scorpion perhaps was made for mass production. With this way the tank can be shoved out the line faster and in far greater numbers than actual, modern tanks.
@@JJAB91 it was also designed originally to fight mere human rebels.
Able to move in any terrain and fire fast at rebels.
But the Scorpion found itself fighting against the Covenant's plasma weaponry.
No modern tank of our time could take a hit from a Covenant Wraith, an Elite with a plasma rifle would cause severe damage...
thing is, in-lore, the UNSC and Humanity as a whole was on the brink of extintion due the Covenant's superiority
Also dont forget the hannibal variant which has a railgun as its main armament and some sort of energy weapon machine gun on the front
ERA would be fantastic, dispersing the plasma instead of letting it sit there and burn through the hull.
@@oseandepartmentofnarcotics the Hannibal Scorpion uses a laser weapon as its main gun, and its "machinegun" is a guass repeaster, similar to the Hannibal Mantis
the scorpion might be outclassed when fighting other MBTs and ATGMs, but it excels at killing aliens and doesn't afraid of anything
*aleins
@@eyeballpapercut4400 um, no, it's aliens.
@@DespondentGuardian *aleins. That's what John Halo kills everyday.
@@eyeballpapercut4400 aliens
@@seriousleek3691 ayyyleins
The 90mm might look tiny compared to today, but 500 years of cannon and projectile advancement might make it very capable to a 120 or even 152mm cannon. Also the scorpion has a turret that can be exposed while not exposing the crew. The scorpion as a whole has a relatively low profile, better tracks, and a good sum of armor.
It was designed to be airdroppable and was designed 200 years ago. At the time of it's design the creators had no powers to deal with besides rebels on multiple planets.
For what it is meant to do it's a decent tank.
However the Covenant have made it fight out of it's intended element and role.
damn the Grizzly Tank is a battleships in treads when any Covenant see it in the battlefield they request for an orbital bombardment at the Heavy tank.
Indeed good sir
thats a good point i never thought about tht
90mm ain't shit. Abrams can be airdropped as well, and the Scorpion has no record of firing anything other than dumb munitions while the Abrams is capable of using a variety of munitions including guided smart munitions in combination with technology that allows its crew to coordinate devastating attacks from ranged artillery or air support should it be strategically advantageous for the Abrams to not directly engage. Abrams stomps period, Scorpion is a really cool tank but absolutely not designed for real combat.
@@Redditor6079 I literally just stated that 90mm in the halo universe has advanced so much that it is equivalent to 130mm or more.
Also the Abrams only just recently gained smart munitions upgrades.
Also the UNSC can very much use coordinated air support with the Scorpion. What we see in the games is only a small portion of what a Scorpion and the UNSC can do.
Also while the Abrams can theoretically be airdroppable. Most Abrams that are airdroppable need the crew to jump outside the plane and parachute down after the tank.
The scorpion can just flat out be carried via a pelican fully crewed and ready. An Abrams would need prep work first...
I always thought the Scorpion was designed that way to easily be assembled and disassembled for transport, or if say its turrent was blown off it could be easilly replaced in the field.
It certainly looks very modular. The main body, track pods and turret all appear to be easily connectable modules.
You,Sir/Madam/Madman/Both/Neither/Attack Chopper,are among the very few of the most correct people in here.
That wouldn't really make sense? If the tank's built for easy assembly and disassembly for transport, they wouldn't be putting 4 separate sets of tracks on it and they wouldn't have it be on such a high profile and cumbersome design.
@@tandemcharge5114 Multiple smaller track pods are easier to transport and the high turret is rather self contained and can be replaced easily.
@@scelonferdi Multiple smaller track pods are not easier to "transport" as they present 4 separate completely different packages that need sorting(Scorpion has different shaped tracks per depicted). Contrast that to modern tanks that only have 2 tracks of which require half the boxes needed to transport them and of which take less space as they're of less overall length than the Scorpion.
The design of an MBT warrants it to not need to remove its turret unlike the Scorpion unless the vehicle transporting the MBT really needs the headspace(Which it never does)
So overall, Scorpion's neither easy to transport nor easy to assemble and disassemble
I think it would've been good to talk a bit about the lore too, before the covenant the UNSC had no formal military threats. They didn't require a big armor penetrating weapon.
I think you should also cover the halo 5 redesign and how if at all it makes the tank better.
I really loved the h5's scorpion design!
Halo 5s scorpion was a different model entirely pretty much like a m1a1 abrams and a m1a2 abrams
He missed a lot of really important details about the lore from halo, which would have given a lot of context to these supposed “flaws”.
Technically the unsc did still have formal military threats, but that was more ship on ship combat that never escalated to ground combat.
We used tanks in Iraq, they definitely could have used them against the humans they were fighting and the Spartan 2’s they created to fight them. I’d argue that if they created master chief to take on this threat then they were definitely using tanks to fight them.
I've heard people say that the Scorpion isn't really an MBT but a heavy IFV. The UNSC's role isn't fighting grand pitched battles, their doctrine is more about small scale rapid response and the rapid deployment of force. For instance, they don't use APC's, they favour lighter vehicles such as the Warthog which are more suitable for spec ops missions (ODST's/Spartans). And a Scorpion's primary use doesn't quite line up with being an MBT, it is intended to be airdropped and used to support a platoon/company in order to spearhead assaults on positions too heavy for just infantry to handle. It does the fighting part, but (mostly) ditched the transporting part that IFV's normally do, as that's the role of the Warthog.
If gameplay is anything to go by then the Scorpion also has one other use, it also doubles as a short-ranged AA platform. "Tank beats everything!" after all. That would be of limited use on a modern battlefield, but would make for a pretty crazy secondary role if and when the opportunity arises. Whilst not impossible for a modern tank to bullseye a gunship, it is highly unlikely. But a Scorpion seems to be capable of doing the same feat almost trivially. I think it's a safe bet that a Scorpion's main cannon has a higher muzzle velocity than a modern tank would, which would excuse it's lower calibre size, and also allows for a greater ammunition capacity (and would help explain the fast auto-loading speed).
The main weaknesses are the complex drive/suspension system, lots of shot traps (modern tanks benefit massively from having simple, boxy designs), and a very exposed machinegun operator (which would be good to replace with an auto flak/laser defence system, the Scorpion can have a co-axial after all). The turret is kind of an issue as it makes it harder for the vehicle to go prone, but it also allows the vehicle more opportunity to fire over obstacles without placing the pilot at risk (who is probably safe from the ammunition cooking off).
People have pointed out,alongside the use of Marines,is that the Scorpion is pretty much a light tank.
A light tank that,like light tanks of today,far outclasses the heaviest things we have today(the light tanks of today being far heavier then some of the heaviest WWII designs),and considering the lore,was pretty good at it.
@@NareshSinghOctagon light tanks today are completely obsolete and very few are in service. What meth are you smoking
@@himedo1512 ,I have no idea what that even has to do with anything.
For starters,yes,light tanks of today outclass still out class even the heaviest heavy tanks of back then.
They're anything but obsolete,since there plenty of nations using them en masse,typically as either airborne or marine expiditionary units,because they're easier to transport,cheaper to maintain,useful in environments where weight is an issue,and can be armed with enough firepower to blast most threats.
So do tell,what on Earth are you smoking to make such a bad take?
@@NareshSinghOctagon name a light tank still in service in a first world country right now. What light tanks does the US use?
Thr unsc does actually have traditional apc's, it's just the warthog is seen the most in games because it's too iconic.
Imho the Scorpion feels like a really light tank. For UNSCMC that kinda makes sense, as they have to deploy their hardware from orbit. The army using it in reach raises a few eyebrows. Imho they should've come up with a new MBT, even if it's just to distinguish the two branches a bit more.
Yup,a lot of people have pointed this out.
It's also why you don' really see actual Warthog Caravans.
Yeah, it’s a light tank designed to fight mainly infantry and some light armor and take out some fortifications, not really designed to slug it out with other tanks. (The wraith being an exception)
@@proofostrich9061 Yeah. Tbf, the Wraith clearly is self propelled artillery and not a MBT. Seems like no faction in Halo really is doing that. Lorewise I'd write it off as a result of doctrine and technological progression.
It probably boils down to mobility and cost. The UNSC lugging around anything heavier like a Challenger from planet to planet would probably be way more expensive and logistically probably wouldn't make any sense.
@@Gamerguy826 ,you need to read the definitive wiki.
A Challenger 2 weighs 64 metric tonnes(75 with the combat armour modules),the Scorpion is 66 metric tonnes.
Yes,it's technically a light tank,but just like some light tanks of today outweight the heavier tanks of WWII,it's not that light.
You could say it is almost equal to the UNSC dropping Challenger 2s on each planet.
What makes the unusually small 90 mm gun even weirder is that according to some sources, the ammo types it uses are APHE with a ballistic cap and Grapeshot, technology straight out of World War 2. It's bizarre. It is however worth noting that the Scorpion from Halo 5 has a vastly improved gun. Instead of a 90 mm cannon, it uses a 150 mm cannon with electrothermal-chemical technology.
I thought they used HEAT. It would make more sense considering that you can use it against pretty much anything.
@@Gamerguy826 I think I heard somewhere that the 150 mm version does use a HEAT round, but the classic 90 mm version of the tank straight up just uses 600 year old ammunition for some reason. It's stated in numerous sources. I guess the designers were only really familiar with World War 2 era tanks, so they based its weapons technology off of them.
Does anyone in the comment section actually read the definitive wiki?
The 90 mm M512 smooth-bore high-velocity cannon fires tungsten rounds and the S1 canister shell/grapeshot/"Salient One".
Despite its' name,the S1 is basically a canon fired cluster bomb,the fired cylinder impacts the target location,releases the submunitions,which then detonate.
It's anything but bizzare.
Considering the use of the Scorpion against insurgents for a few centuries and it's ability to blast most things in one shot,at the most being three shots,the 90 mm gun works well.
Part about World War II technology struck me as meaningful. The impression I got is wild to a certain extent bungee did try to make their equipment somewhat realistic and practical they’re still games designers and not weapons designers. So when they designed the scorpion guys who did it probably just knew about tanks from half remembered stuff about World War II, they’re big they’re steel then there was that Tiger with the 88mm. So add on thicker plates have a robotic autoloader to be futuristic and of course you have to make a huge in order to appear suitably big from perspective of players who are in control of a 7 foot tall Spartan that can jump 20 feet in the air. It’s not a bad offer and it’s not a bad design especially considering that the team is in the business of making video games and not consulting about weapons.
@@NareshSinghOctagon I did not actually know that about their Grapeshot rounds. That being said, I'm still skeptical over how effective you could make a cluster bomb out of a 90 mm round. There is only so much explosive you can fill it with. Typically cluster bomb munitions are for large caliber artillery, airdropped bombs, and missiles.
As for the APHE rounds being made of tungsten? Tungsten rounds are not new. They also existed in World War 2. I can assure you that a Tungsten APCBC is not going to stand up to modern Kinetic Energy Penetrators.
I'm not sure if it can warrant it's own video due to it being cut content, but Halo CE was originally going to have a counterpart to the Scorpion called the Stealth Tank that has a much more conventional design that I think would be interesting to see explored. It was recently finished and added to the CE modding tools as the M700 Viper
Got a UA-cam channel name for witnessing that?
@@NareshSinghOctagonI tried looking for gameplay of it and I couldn't find any, but it is covered on the Digsite articles on Halo Waypoint and there's a video from Mint Blitz covering the whole Digsite project ua-cam.com/video/PChLWP51UDc/v-deo.html
I think the Scorpion is a good design. In modern tanks, there is the issue of having an auto-loader, but leaving the magazine open to the crew compartment like in Russian tanks, or like in US tanks which are manually loaded, but are safer because there is a thick blast door separating the magazine and the crew compartment. With the Scorpion, you have an auto loaded gun and magazine completely separated from the crew compartment, which means if it gets hit and goes up, most of the tank and all of the crew will be perfectly fine, so it can just drive off, get it's turret replaced, and be back in action pretty quickly.
I think that can technically happen in game. I say technically because that might not be the intended purpose, but you can have your Scorpion's turret blow up and you and the rest of the tank remain mostly unharmed. If I remember correctly it can happen in Halo Reach, 4 and 5. Not so sure about Infinite though.
I'd say the main weakness of the design, at least assessing it by modern qualities, is that it has an unfortunate amount of shot traps and sections that would not deflect incoming projectiles. Otherwise the main flaws are the complex drive systems, the exposed gunner, and the high profile of the turret. Though the turret is not as major a weakness as you pointed out due to the vehicle's one pilot being sealed off from the ammunition. And whilst the turret's profile is very high and makes it harder to go prone behind cover, it also gives the tank more opportunity to fire whist keeping the pilot safe. If the turret is targeted and destroyed then that's a useless vehicle, but at least this poses no meaningful danger to the pilot.
I think the one design feature I'd change would be replacing the exposed machinegun operator with an active flak/laser defence system. You can put a co-axial in the turret, and given how stupidly fast the turret traversal is in a Scorpion that being the only small gun is not the worst thing in the world.
@@RJALEXANDER777 ,the older variant did have a coaxial,whilst later variants "not ordinarily equipped with a coaxial machine gun".
you know you can have an autoloader that keept the ammo separate too right?
It makes a lot of sense since the UNSC has to spend lives veeeery carefully. Humanity is a limited resource compared to manufacturing capability.
My headcannon for it is that the exposed MG variants were designed with spartan use in mind while the ones we see in the books, CE and Wars are way better designed for normal human use, having coaxial or remotely operated MGs and multiple crew instead of just one dude.
That's not headcanon, actually. It's just canon. Scorpion tanks are supposed to either be operated by a crew of three iirc, unless the driver has a neural link. Spartans and officers have neural links, and those links allow them to directly interface with the tank's controls and control it like an extension of their body. In fact, this is the same method of control that Spartans use to control their Mjolnir armor.
The autonomous elevated turret was quite useful in game actually. It allows the tank to fire behind cover without exposing the crew while also giving it greater gun depression when defending a high ground as well as gun elevation for shooting fly targets like Banshees or gunships/helicopters. Sure the neck is vunerable so the best solution is to make it extendable from the chassis giving the turrent even more flexibilty while also the ability to hide it like a more conventional modern MBT
We actually almost had a tank in real life that resembled the scorpion. It was object 490 and this video really makes me wish it would have existed because it would have been devastating even on battlefields today with a 150 mm Cannon that was auto loaded and it had really good armor putting crew safety above everything else in fact the crew actually set in the very back of the tank and the engine was in the front in the auto loader was in the middle. But it had a weakness because the turret couldn't turn 360°
Well, considering it was a *Soviet* tank, I wouldn't sing its praises too heavily. While, yes, object 490 has very impressive hard characteristics and a blowout panel to the munitions, Soviet vehicles are generally incredibly lacking in soft characteristics. Optics, tactical connectivity, crew comfort (which effects crew operability strongly), electronic systems, and so on. The top armor is paper-thin making it extremely weak to top-attack munitions. And, importantly, it's the Soviet economy you're talking about here, you'd be lucky if they could produce 20 of them.
Oh, and side bar, object 490 COULD turn a full 360° in the second design iteration.
@@Storywalker4 actually it's top armor was quite impressive for its time and yes it won't hold up to a Apache but it was built to be a tank destroyer and to fight other tanks and nothing else really. And I say the thickness of its armor suited that will very well. And it's not just a thickness but the slope that makes a difference. It was its underbelly that had thin armor and it would be extremely vulnerable to anti-tank mines. And for the turret I guess you could technically get it to rotate almost 360 but just looking at the design is unrealistic and trying to fire it backwards would be a death sentence in combat.
@@thergaming8275 This doesn't really negate what I said. Yes, the hard stats are very impressive, I said as much.
@@thergaming8275there’s other top attack munitions than a hellfire, like the javelin or spike missiles etc that can be carried by infantry or the Bradley can carry top attack munitions also
When it comes to fighting against an enemy that fires balls of plasma that melts metal, the only real defense is being fast. The Scorpion feels more of a modern "light" tank, and it make sense if they are designed to out maneuver the Wraith.
It is bigger than an Abrams which already weighs 65+ tons. Such a big target isn't a good design for light tanks at all.
They aren't fast
Modern tanks can drive up to 45 mph in the right conditions. The scorpion can’t touch that.
Fast in relation to the Wraith's attack. The Scorpion can outrun the Wraith's plasma balls, but the Wraith can't outrun the Scorpion's shells!
I mean an Abrams would delete a wraith from half a mile away.
thing is the lore and design around the scorpion and general tactics could be considered to be partially built around gameplay and cinematic experience. Halo would be pretty boring if you were popping covenant tanks from half a mile and calling down UNSC HIMARS on entrenched positions as some 500 year in the future Patriot battery swept the sky clear of Banshees.
In regards to the complexity of the quad track system. My thoughts are the Scorpion is probably a hybrid with the rear tracks being powered by the engine and an electric motor. While the front two tracks are powered by one electric motor each giving it AWD. This is actually a thing on modern hybrid hyper cars. As for the auto loader I heard the new Abrams X has an auto loader that fixes the crew safety problem.
Also many 8X8s use conventional transmissions and drive trains.
The main problem with those tracks (besides the fact they exist) is that they are attached at the middle. This means that when the tank goes up a slope, the tracks can go up with the back tracks pushing the hull front into the slope. Given how narrow and pointy is the hull front, it will push into softer ground.
If the front tracks were joined at the front with the hull not extending beyond joints, the Scorpion's hill-climbing and trench-crossing abilities would be far better.
@@user-xb1wh5mt4l "will push into softer ground" Me with the CE tank will literally accidentally do that if the terrain was realistic
I would like to say that the Scorpion Tank in Halo 5 was the most drastic deviation from what we had and have in previous Halo games and Infinite design wise. It was much chunkier with a bigger gun and 343 tried to mix realistic tank attributes with the original design. I urge you to give it a closer look if you get the chance.
(Also, I’m kind of sad you didn’t talk about the side-mounted machine gun on the cannon that’s controlled by the driver in Halo 1 & 2’s iterations!)
It's weird that the Scorpion's projectiles are so small considering the amount of damage they can do to covenant alloys
My best guess would be 500 years of projectile advancement making UNSC 90mm the equivalent to a modern Rhienmetal 130mm cannon.
The projectile is stated to be high velocity, compared to modern munitions. A 90mm wide slug with length for stable flight is heavy, and with enough velocity the slug can do more damage than a modern 140mm sabot cannon.
@@WolfeSaber9933 my point has now been even more proven. Thanks for the info.
@@commanderhurst3283 Just look at Installation00's video breakdown of the Scorpion.
@@WolfeSaber9933 I have. He does amazing lore breakdowns. Altho I don't think the Scorpion has anything like Trophy APS and warning systems/drones.
However I would not be surprised if it actually did have those systems and just wasn't mentioned.
Also it is stated the Scorpion has two regular human crew, Id imagine a main gunner and driver. However I cannot see where the main gun operator would go inside the tank due to a lack of secondary hatches.
Unless the machine gun area is actually the top of the area a gunner can sit and operate the turret or it is an optional replacement for it.
The way I look at it, the Scorpion tank was developed after a millennia of peace, and has completely demands upon it than modern tanks. The most enormous demand that the Scorpion has that a modern Abrams doesn't have to deal with is the insane logistics it takes to field a tank across the galaxy. If you've read history, or had first hand experience playing Foxhole, then you know that tanks are notorious logistics sinks. On the simplest basis, you need fuel and ammo. Then there are the more complex issues, such as maintenance, repair, and transportation.
I believe the Scorpion tank was not designed to be the 'best tank'. It was designed to be the EASIEST TO FIELD tank.
It probably doesn't use a normal diesel engine, it uses a hydrogen electric engine instead, so each of the four tracks operate independently on electricity. Due to advances in anti armor weaponry (such as the Spartan Laser or Gauss Cannon), it was not economically feasible to continue to up armor the tank, especially since to do so would cause more weight not only for the tank, BUT FOR THE SPACESHIP IT'S BEING TRANSPORTED ON. As for its autoloader, it's absolutely fine since the turret itself has no crew exposed to an explosion, and I'd argue it's a force multiplier, since instead of needing five people crew one tank, you just need ONE (Halo CE Scorpion).
To sum things up, the Scorpion isn't really a tank, it's a self-propelled gun that's easy to transport and crew. Proper tanks like the Abrams probably went extinct because anti-armor weapons became too advanced, aircraft dominate the battlefield, and weight restrictions mean less armor can be put on the vehicle. Moreover, rather than being its own independent vehicle, a Scorpion is part of a modular military doctrine that focuses on logistics over combat performance, and its value grows ten fold when paired with a Pelican.
As for what battle between the Abrams and Scorpion would be like, the Abrams would obviously win against a Scorpion 1 v 1. HOWEVER, because a Scorpion has a crew of ONE, you can field five Scorpions for every one Abrams. Moreover, the Scorpions can be deployed via dropship anywhere quickly, where as it is a massive undertaking to deploy an Abrams, using ships and cargo planes.
tl;dr: I don't necessarily think this was merely an oversight by the devs, I think there's ample in-universe explanations for why the Scorpion is the way it is. It's essentially the T-34 of the future, not the Tiger Tank. Its strength is cost-effectiveness and ease of logistics, not combat performance.
It was absolutely over sight from the designers. That is if you were to look at it as a real world scenario. Also, they did not have a millennia of peace. The spartan 2 program was originally designed to fight an insurrection of humans. So if they created the master chief to take on humans then they definitely used tanks to fight them as well. It’s just a terrible design for anything but game play. In game it’s awesome. Real world it’s a design with a great many flaws.
It was absolutely over sight from the designers. That is if you were to look at it as a real world scenario. Also, they did not have a millennia of peace. The spartan 2 program was originally designed to fight an insurrection of humans. So if they created the master chief to take on humans then they definitely used tanks to fight them as well. It’s just a terrible design for anything but game play. In game it’s awesome. Real world it’s a design with a great many flaws. Also the scorpion would have been a more expensive design to transport as it would need more room, and even though it took less people to run it doesn’t mean you could field more of them. There are a lot of soldiers and it’s easy to get more. The only advantage it would have for one person running it would be that one soldier could do a lot of damage. However, that one soldier wouldn’t be nearly as accurate, wouldn’t be able to be nearly as defensive, threats would be seen far to late, and collateral damage would be far higher. Even in game you can experience much of this.
The benefit of the elevated turret is if you angle the cannon down, you can shoot at stuff literally right next to your treads. And considering that it’s apparently standard UNSC practice to send just one of these things against a battalion of covenant, you’re probably gonna need to do that. ‘Course, being super wide and unmaneuverable does somewhat counteract the function as a cqb vehicle.
One of the abrams tech demonstrators (abrams X) has both an autoloader and blowout panels. The best of both worlds!
However the army can decide whether or not they decide want it. If allowed for export there will be countries who would love to have the auto loader and others who might do without it.
Most unsc vechiles are modular. Able to switch out based on the situation needed, like Swapping the main gun for a plasma cannon (halo wars) or the wathogs gun for a rocket launcher or transport.
The downside to that Is they arnt specialized so are generally weaker then if there built for 1 purpose.
Only thing you miss and forgot about the scorpin tank was that in halo 1 and 2 it had a mini gun on the top of the tank that could be used. Halo 3 they put the current turrent in the center of it.
Glad I found this channel! Just subbed! Keep it up big head
Spookston has a good series on tanks and explains a lot of its flaws. Worth checking out.
A worthwhile mention for the Scorpion tank, most iterations of the tank have a driver controlled turret alongside the main cannon for anti-personel defense inbetween cannon fire.That said, the high up cannon of the Scorpion can be more easily explained. While the higher cannon isn't very defensive it allows the gun to point downward at closer downward angles which allows for easier access to enemies who are closing in to try to pull you out. Also, in the "Halo Wars" RTS series, we see an upgraded double cannoned Scorpion known as The "Grizzly." It should also be noted that each tread section is designed with staging for ridealongs in mind, it's a certain DEATH SENTENCE for any riders but I feel like how it's used can provide valuable insight into the mentality of the people responsible for the design, and the tactical application implications associated with such.
One quick note about a lack of defensive systems on the scorpion. Even given it being designed in the early 00's irl, by that time there had been things like smoke canisters and antipersonnel canisters used as far back as late ww2.
I chalk it up to the fact that it was created by game designers not weapons designers.
@@Mortablunt Oh definitely. I was more responding to something said in the video than anything.
I love how you even pointed out that the Tank looks a Scorpion with the turret resembling the Tail Gland of a Scorpion. This was actually something I noticed as a kid and I'm finally glad people were able to catch onto that fact.
Just a point to consider. The Scorpion, like the warthog is likely a hybrid. The engine acts as a generator to power quad electric motors. This means instant torque at all four tracks, and no driveshaft from the engine, just power cables.
Brother the way you speak is so fluent, articulate, funny, and well informed.
Keep these kind of vids coming; you've got yourself a subscription today.
I forgot where it said in the lore but I think the Scorpion has a VERY high velocity gun. Like, as close to the velocity of tank sized MAC you can get without actually installing a railgun or coilgun. I feel like in that case a 90 would be fine for piercing armor
Elevated turrets allow the tank to fire over obstructions while keeping the crew and main tank compartment concealed or at least protected. This would also be beneficial for fighting in terrain with a lot of hills or elevated land features. For target acquisition, a simple optic can be beside the barrel, so the tanker can see targets while keeping the tank mostly unseen
In my head (I’m an avid Halo fan and read the books, etc) the Scorpion is smaller than shown in game/books. I love it’s sci-fi design but to me, I like to pretend that it’s actually the size of a Covenant’s Revenant, which is also technically a one-man (brute/split-jaw) crewed vehicle. In my mind there’s another, larger MBT that fits what we SHOULD expect 500 years from now and that is still multi-crewed with no dumb exposed machine gunner, just 2 tracks, and a way to carry crew that isn’t them sitting on the side like balloons from Mario Kart.
One thing to note is the Grizzly tank has *two* 120mm cannons on it and is way more heavily armoured than the Scorpion.. It more than likely is because while the UNSC army is planet based they used heavier equipment, where as the marine corps, that we the player fight with, are a rapid deployment force and have limited space for vehicles, so they use lighter and faster variants, in Halo Wars you can also transform the basic Scorpion into a somewhat heavier tank through numerous upgrades
Edit: The Grizzly also has counter measure systems, smoke grenades, and missiles
fun fact: we did actually experiment with quad tracks back in the day, but we found that its considerably inferior to the standard two tracks, reason being there is far more points that can fail and it provides pretty much zero advantage over two tracks.
having infinite ammunition and perfect accuracy seems like a pretty good advantage
all im getting from this series is that the little details In halo can be made better in real life but the concept of halo as a whole is possible
I actually like Halo just fine the way it is, my goal is to show people some real world aspects they may not know of via video games
The quad tracks would make a lot more sense if it was diesel electric with each track having an independent electric motor.
90mm could be enough especially with APFSDS ammo and high velocity.
Personally when I came up for a semi-realistic fictional future tank mine had a 140mm HEAP (High Explosive Armor Piercing) round which was effective against most targets, I think a tungsten round with a delayed HE round would fit the bill in Halo.
Oh the irony of that last line...
having an HE charge in an APFSDS round is a very bad idea because of how weird the penetration is at those velocities
@@overtoast1105 maybe something more like an APFSDS round with a small hesh stabilizer at the rear. If it equates to something like shoving a soda can sized chunk of RDX into the hole your sabot makes there could be merit there.
Yes, a real shame to comment on the caliber but not velocity or mass. You know... Something humans would have mastered considering they also use MACs and gauss cannons.
To quote sergeant Johnson: "this here is 66 tons of HE spewing deeevine intervention" and also one of the marines from that same level: "how does 90mm of tungsten strike ya?"
In the Halo Combat Evolved manual, the bit that described the Scorpion said that the Scorpion crews 2 or one Spartan. Since this was before the forward turret mount, that means the Scorpion back in Combat Evolved needed a driver and a gunner. Or a Spartan with their advanced neural implant.
If you take any details from Halo Wars or Halo Wars 2 into canon for this vehicle, a Scorpion can be equipped with a rechargable energy shield which is an amazing defence against all things. I believe Reactive Armour was also something you could add to it in one of those games.
Master chief doesn’t need a tank he is the tank
Oh and dont forget that halo started off as a retro future science fiction. Taking A LOT if inspiration from "Aliens" and the aesthetics of the colonial marines. Vietnam in space (in wavy font) also the T92 Light Tank probably was the focus of their goog....library search.
Another thing to look at is the fact that the Scorpion was designed to be used in counter-insurgency operations against guys who had pipe guns they made in their sheds. It was never meant to go toe to toe with other tanks, just to support the boys on the ground. Yeah, maybe the Insurrectionists could capture a SPNKR or two, but at that point things have already gone pretty far south.
Pipe guns? Lies! The live action series told us they have og AKs and chainguns! /s
I’d think the enemies and how they fight are the reason why this tank was developed like this, maybe since there aren’t many guided munitions from the covenant. Still I’d say I think it makes sense why the UNSC made it it’s main battle tank, knowing the Warthog was made for Spartans, ODSTs, and Marines (being much more fast and light), this tank might’ve been designed to be a similar but heavier armored vehicle for the Special Operations of Halo. Basically saying this would be like a light/medium tank, much more maneuverable and lighter than the heavy tanks.
Another reason not mentioned in the video is that sloped armor increases the effective thickness of the armor that must be penetrated, giving you more protection for the same weight as a flat plate of armor.
Well the scorpion was designed in an era of UNSC vs human insurgents. It worked well against them and when the covenant war started, they did upgrade it a little in some ways (as seen in the redesigns of it through the games). I’m sure as time passes (in the Halo universe) the tank will be upgraded or phased out for a new design.
Honestly if the scorpion was scaled down in size, like imagine if Spartans were regular human average size… so I guess by 20%, it actually would be a pretty great design for a tank.
Like I’m really into model making and I 3D printed a scorpion tank to have the same track width proportionally to an Abrams, it’s actually a really neat looking light/medium tank.
It's a tank that has to be deployed from orbit to a battle zone with minimal crew hence why technically it only really needs a driver and gunner. Also the fire rate of the Scorpion is way faster than even the fastest crew trained to load a tank shell. The biggest thing of all is its an infantry support vehicle and not designed to fight other tanks that's where vehicles like the cyclops and mantis comes in.
Question: Did you only go off in game or is there other source material to go off like the book which i have not read all.
if game only it could be it does not have these features cause balance.
I primarily reference games, the only books I'll use as a primary source would be the encyclopedia that was released this year. Although I read several of the books, it was when I was a teen and I struggle to remember that far back. When I need to I'll also use Halopedia.
Something I thought of that could combine an autoloader with the Abram's crew protection system is to have a panel that separates the crew from the ammo that will slide down to allow a shell grabber to grab the ammo, which comes with its own set of problems of course
I never liked auto loaders. Germany used them but all of our crews and even the German crews that used manual loaders could load at double and sometimes triple the rate. The benefit was that you could reduce crew size to two people. I prefer quality over quantity.
fun fact, recon pelican's carried by the Spirit of Fire did have laser warning systems as detailed in the book Halo Divine Wind
Hardkill APS is actually able to knock sabot off target somewhat. reducing it's penetration significantly.
I think one thing that influenced the design of the scorpion in lore is that before the covenant showed up there really wasn’t any other faction regularly making tanks. The only enemies the UNSC had really were insurrectionists. It’s likely that instead of being built to be the most effective tank of all time it was instead built to be extremely intimidating. That’s likely part of why the turret and tracks are so large.
Although they probably removed it for balancing reasons i wish the tank had a controllable machine gun for the driver like back in halo 2/ce. The halo reach model even still has it modeled back on even though they removed it on halo 3.
i read somewhere that the tracks are all independently powered, each track pod contains its own electric motor powered by the central hydrogen reactor. meaning there is no complicated drive train, in fact it should be vastly more simplified than today's tanks, each track pod can be removed and replaced quickly and easily requiring only power/control cables from/to the main body to function.
also the 90 mm rounds might be vastly more powerful than today's 120mm rounds. its hundreds of years into the future so for example, they could hyper-velocity rounds, each delivering much more penetration power than today's 120mm APFSDS rounds, or packed with future ultra high density explosives to deliver high explosives rounds in a compact size but equivalent to a 155mm round today.
active/passive defence and sensors is a miss, since even if and especially if the unsc was only fighting partisans and separatists, those rebel would still have future equivalents of the rpg, making active defence and advanced sensors all the more important. latest chinese drones are even coming with drone launchers for example, and any nation designing new tanks are adding laser warning and APS systems.
Although even if a 90mm gun was equivalent to today's 120mm (or even 130mm on the KF-51 Panther-), a 120mm would still be simply better than a 90mm. The only reason not to fit the bigger gun is weight and cost, and I doubt the Scorpion would have issues mounting a 120mm since it's already huge. Maybe the UNSC preferred the fire rate of a lighter round? The Scorpion has a muzzle break too, so I don't think they're using any form of Sabot round, so they probably rely heavily on HEAT. Armor penetration with HEAT goes up with caliber of the ammunition, so 120mm would beat 90mm handidly. A higher caliber could also fit more explosive per shell, so 120mm HE beats 90mm HE too, and that includes APHE and all that.
The 90mm is kind of a miss overall. If you're gonna have a huge tank you may as well give it a huge gun.
@@darethrylls9747 ah, good point on the muzzle break. So maybe it's just heat rounds. But that said, it might still make sense for them to go with the 90mm, since prior to fighting the covenant, they were fighting separatists, often on fringe worlds. Perhaps in such a scenario, the 90 mm is good enough for whatever Jerry rigged armor the separatists come up with and being on fringe worlds, having many more rounds is better than having more firepower per shot when 90mm is already enough given the potential long time between resupply.
@@mxn1948 Perhaps. If the Insurgents didn't have any heavy armor of their own then a 90mm might suffice, and then most the Covenant's vehicles were also technicals and repurposed equipment; the Wraith isn't exactly something worthy of a full 120mm either; the driver's hatch is super thin.
The Scorpion is probably the definition of "good enough", kinda like the Sherman of WW2. Scorpion did have around 300 years of service barely any changes, and anything less than a Scarab didn't warrant the bigger gun it seemed.
...But I do think that if I had to fight a Scarab, I would definitely petition for a bigger cannon-
@@darethrylls9747 considering that one is fightin a fuckin MINING LASER of a super heavy infantry.. Yeah, seems about right.
@@darethrylls9747 i mean in the real world, insurgents tend to not have very heavy armor(or any armor really). if future space insurgents do, it'll be jerry rigged and 500mm of their armor isnt nearly as effective as 500mm of actual military armor. so i would still maintain that 90mm future space ammo is plenty for these kinds of scenarios.
the really weird part isn't why it doesn't have a bigger cannon installed when they had to fight the covenant. its why isnt it using a coil/rail gun. i mean they clearly have the tech, they even have the gauss hog, clearly size and power is not an issue. those rounds are 25mm and fires at mach 40. you end up with the best of both worlds, more rounds and more firepower.
im curious where are you deriving this info from, the books, wiki?
Regarding the turret it looks like an unmanned design like the T14. The unmanned turret on that tank is only armored enough to protect against smaller calibers and not against tank rounds since there is no crew to protect. That saves a lot of weight. The actual workings on the inside are also far smaller than the outside would suggest with a lot of space actually just being storage for the crew and other non critical systems. Its basically just a gun with an autoloading mechanism behind and a limited ammo storage. So the turret on this fictional tank actually looks decently realistic.
The issue with the turret isn't so much armor as its height and shape. Because it has that chin, it'll deflect rounds down into itself. Won't hurt the crew, but does increase profile and likelihood of taking a shot that makes it no longer mission capable.
@@TheBigCabezon Like I said the turret is probably hardly armored. Small caliber rounds deflecting from it wont do damage to the top armor either. Anything else will just penetrate. I agree that smaller would be better. All I said was that its not that unrealistic of a design.
For game play balancing purposes the player controlled Scorpions from Halo 3 onwards, the driver doesn't have a coaxial machine gun. Halo CE and 2 you had a machine gun aligned with the main gun.
If I do recall, someone made a redesign of the scorpion making it more practically designed but I can't find the image anywhere. If anyone has a link to the image that would be great! (If I didn't just imagine it...)
When I think about the kind of scale the UNSC vehicles had to be made to, due to how spread across the galaxy we were, it makes sense to make your vehicles as basic and rugged as possible.
I feel like the biggest advantage the Scorpion has is simply the player’s third person perspective. Serious though, if the cockpit of the scorpion provides as much information as the player is given, it would offset some of its downsides. And I’m inclined to believe this could be the case, with it’s rapid fire rate and turret transversal.
I always assumed that there was an advancement in shell casing strength and propellants, to enable the smaller 90mm APFSDS to perform hotter
A note for most modern tank rounds.
APFSDS doesn't deflect, it either pens or shatters. So shot traps aren't much of a concern on a modern tank, because no one is using standard AP rounds. The other type of ammo typically used is heat, which also doesn't deflect, it detonates and forms a chemical perpetrator that either pens or doesn't, shot traps are again not a issue with these either. This is likely why most modern MBTs have seemingly lots of shot traps, while older tanks from when AP or APHE was common, like the Panther, T34 or Sherman don't have many shot traps.
Applying the concept we use for modern electric cars, there is a chance the scorpion could be using 4 individual track mounted motors that are computer controlled rather than drive shaft based. That theory is pretty much disproven by the fact that you can clearly hear a combustion engine start up when you climb in :D but it's interesting to think about.
Some tanks have auto loaders and blowout panels like the Leclerc, type 10, and even with the new abrams x demonstrator. Just because you have a auto loader doesn’t mean you can’t have blow out panels, russian tanks don’t have blow out panels because of where the ammo is stored (in a carousel under the turret) only exception being the t90m has blow out panels but also still uses the ammo carousel meaning if a round penetrates the hull or turret it could set off the ammo in the carousel
ERA was used in the 80's starting with Isreal in 1982.
You forgot to mention one very important feature on the scorpion.
The tank has a neural link which allows one crew member to control all tank operations with a thought.
While you brought up the shortcomings of the scorpion tank
Its still an amazing work of science in a lot of ways
We forget, this tank only needs a SINGLE crew member to operate it. The gunner in the middle and guys on the sides are just optional
One operator can drive it, use the gun, and everything else is automated like the reloading. Even if you lose 2 scorpion tanks for every abrams, in terms or casualties the abrams is still losing at least 3 to 1 guys.
In that sense, its high profile doesn’t matter, “ohno you shot the turret off that had no one inside it.”
People keep bringing up the turret size to say it won’t do any damage to x tank, but it clearly does more damage we can see for ourselves. The smg uses caseless rounds, literally a thin coating of the propellant and it does damage similar to regular guns. My running theory is humanity uses some kind of space age mixture in their gunpowder to make their projectiles fire at a way greater kinetic force than our current guns do, which would explain why they still do the damage they do even against advanced aliens.
I don't disagree, I hope people don't take away from this video that I'm throwing spears at Halo. I love Halo. My goal, honestly, is to showcase more modern applications through the medium of video games.
@@TheBigCabezon of course, I took no grievances and it was an amazing video, love to see more.
I was going to comment that the new generation of MBTs are coming out.
One of which is the new Abrams X that will be using an old concept with new technology is the ETC gun, which uses Plasma as a propellant rather than gunpowder to launch the round, further, faster and harder.
The tank that the Scorpion is the most analogous to is the WW2 M4 Sherman.
It was a medium tank with a 75 or 76 mm main gun but it's best feature was that it was mass produced in insane numbers and easy to transport just about anywhere in the world.
Yes remember a scorpion can be dropped in by a pelican, it has to be light for use by the marines on offworld deployments. The Grizzly is the heavy tank.
Compare Spartan training to u-28 pilot training next plz
U-28 significantly harder thats why they seals of the sky
What I'm thinking is that it's developed big because there is some kind of technology to distribute heat from plasma rather than deflect bullets and the round is small because it's fast to go through energy shields
Master Chief doesn’t need a M1 Abrams. He IS the M1 Abrams.
Considering how fast the autoloader is you could arguably go through ammunition very fast. Would the smaller round size not arguably be to increase the capacity of the round storage?
Something to remember about the use of scorpions is that for most of their service life they were used against insurerctionists on human colonies. They didn't need extrememly powerful guns or armor because they were mostly fighting militias equipped with small arms. That can explain why it HAD relatively thin armor and a weak cannon, but once the human covenant war broke out I don't know why they never decided to retrofit it to fight a more technologically advanced enemy. Maybe it's about resources and ease of manufacturing, but I know that no covie vehicle would like a direct hit from a 150mm cannon, or something of that sort.
I think the scorpion tank would be absolutely annhilated by modern tanks. But with that that being said I think scorpion makes sense if you're willing to not take every technical Stat at face value. Reasons being are what's the tank is designed for...at least in game which is a tank thay can be transported across the galaxy and quickly deployed into combat.
The tanks can be transported via the Pelican which allows for quick transport from USNC navy ships to planetary position.
90mm cannon is small but advancements in ammo may mean it's far more effective. Also 90mm ammo takes less space so more ammo can be transported via pelican.
It has essentially a crew of 1. Which on a ship that has to provide all if its own logistics with support being far away or nonexistent. The small crew is hugely beneficial to the UNSC. The Scorpion is also simple enough that standard marines can use it. Meaning that the ship does not need to carry a dedicated tank crew.
So you have a tank that can be operated by one and is simple enough to only require minimal training, and can be moved from UNSC naval ships to ground. So in that regard there are no tanks like that on Earth that can meet those requirements. I would imagine UNSC would have more advanced tanks on their own worlds where transporting them across the galaxy is not a factor.
The scorpion needs only 1-2 crew because the driver can sync up with the tank via neural link, and monitor the systems on their own that would take a crew of 3-4 in modern irl tanks. The engine seems to be a hybrid hydrogen internal combustion engine (all human made vehicles in halo use hydrogen as a fuel) and electric motors. The drivetrain for the front and rear may be linked to the engine, but the track pods use electric motors. The track pods allow it to maneuver easier on more uneven terrain without tipping over like an irl tank would.
The turret being high up would allow a better vantage point, and it can also aim higher and lower then any modern tank can
Because the driver had a neural sync to the tank, they can make all the nessessary adjustments for wind and temperature for the main gun, fire, and hit every time.
I recommend Installation 00's detailed breakdown of the tank, it's quite well put together
The elevated turret is great for hills as it gives amazing gun depression on a field it will suffer but it will also do great in a hull down position
The plus side of it's turret being so high is that it can fire over stuff.
2:20 It's worth pointing out that shot traps don't matter today. Almost every modern tank is covered in them because modern ammunition doesn't deflect or ricochet like it did in WW2. KE penetrators have a tendency to either penetrate, shatter, or weirdly perpendicularize themselves instead. The angling still gives more material to penetrate for a given armor weight so it's still used.
If the scorpion was designed to face other human tanks during the Insurrection, then it makes sense to be designed that way. And when talking about Covenant weapons like the fuel rod cannon and the wraith I don't think deflection happens either.
I wanna give you one thought, This tank is intended to be a fast moving support vehicle, and also fight using it's insane gun depression form defensive positions. Unmanned turrets like this were really built, kinda like the AGS, or HSTV-L. Cool thought shit like this has been explored irl.
Finally year is 2500+ Any mechincal or electric issues, would be solved. Assume peak materials, and peak performance.
I kinda want to see quad track tanks now
cool video
This is interesting stuff, but now I have idea of a battlefield style halo game with adding equipment to vehicles.
i wonder how small halo tanks side to side to the M1. I mean the "hull gunner" isn't really needed to run this thing, so it kinda has a crew of 1 (+ ai i would hope). Considering this tank is air-droppable, maybe it's set up this way for weight saving over the defense.
Very cool never knew gun was so smol
I feel like things that modern tanks have like ERA and APS won't matter when fighting a force that mostly uses plasma
I would like to mention that, while modern MBTs have a low profile, they also have most of their crew in the turret, the Scorpion has no crew in the turret, so, assuming cost isn't a big issue, having a higher turret would actually be a good idea, especially if the tank is designed to take on armor because it can have the haul, with the crew, down low in the ground in a dug out BP (Battle Position), it also allows it to have a much greater elevation and depression for the gun, allowing it to shoot over sharper angles and negates cover that a low profile MBT wouldn't be able to shoot over, it also allows the tank to elevate the gun much higher, which allows the gun to shoot further, as well as stopping building from being able to easily for cover for infantry with anti-tank weaponry, the actual area where the crew is actually has a really low profile
As for the small gun, seeing as most modern MBTs use Sabot rounds, it's not a big deal that the gun is smaller, as long as the charge is the right size, it can fire a sabot just as fast, and with 300+ years of weapons development, I'm sure they've found a more efficient charge that is smaller but has more power. From what I remember, according to lore sources, the main round is a AP solid shot Tungsten round, aka the round is just a tungsten dome that fills the full 90mm bore, the explosion would just be from the round hitting the target with the force it does, as that round is HEAVY, and, despite what it seems, it's moving pretty fast for something with the mass it would have
I would love to have a campaign in the perspective of a unsc tank regiment, something similar to the tank war stories of battlefield 1 and battlefield V.
Have a tree progression similar to like the battlefield games, where you can add more armor, or add a trophy system into it, change the gunner seat to a remote controlled turret or have infrared vision in it.
And the multiplayer can be like war thunder/world of tanks.
and/or tank superiority from battlefield to make it more simple.
I feel like most of the unsc vehicles are for mass production over individual quality as well. The og hornets are basically like cheap small helicopters, warthogs over actual armoured transports or even something like the military jeeps/humvees, etc. Another thing is generally in a losing war, you aren’t going for expensive products but things tht are cheap and tht work (wouldn’t really make sense for halo 4 and 5 considering they are post war but for 1, 2, 3 and reach it kinda makes sense).
There are some tank designs (one American and one German that I can recall) that are beginning to incorporate a turret like the Scorpion, but this one can be raised up high like a crane to fire over obstacles.
I'm not sure what the thinking is behind it. But it's certainly...
Interesting
Low profile hull, great turret depression, extremeley sloped armor, tracks in four potentially swappable pods, much harder to imobalize by detracking, low crew requirment, high gun above hull to fire over hills and such, new cannon/turret can no doubt be easily changed since it's crewless, advanced computer systems, probably plenty of lore behind other capabilities it has. Personally my only issue with the design is that it may be a bit too wide
I always wondered if the turret has its shape so it can be easyer to transport via a pelican. They dont show exactly how it is mounted. So it might be via some "crane arms".
I really like the unsc vehicels. You can see that this is a navy and that everything has to get airdroped. Also we see a fokus on just a handfull of different types to ease production and logistics.
And with this in mind a lightweight tank that can be produced in numbers and easily transported is perfect.
With the gun, even the 90mm version (read a comment about how it was later uograded to 150mm), i imagine there would have been significant advances in material science, which would probably allow for a much heavier rounds to. be used. I wouldnt be surprised if the HE shell it used was quite a bit longer than wharbwe currently use, with an even more powerful explosive filler inside it
First thing. The Scorpion like most human vehicle in halo is a hybrid. A power plant powering electric engines. If each track has its own electric motor, you wont have problem with transmision. Not only that. if the track pods are symmetrical, you have redundancy in the even of a tracking and you can swap a whole pod
Well, I'd like to believe the round composition are different with more explosive power per round, making each shot more powerful andwith mode penetration. It is possible to have stronger amour at the time with improved material engineering and also lighter too, take the mjolnir armour and space ship hulls into consideration. I think they went with that design for quick assaults and accurate strikes, a light tank that can easily be transported by pelicans and carried in large numbers by spaceships and frigates.