Two Different teams of two separate countries will be featured, each with their own set of tanks.
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U.S. Army Future Tanker's Program (USFTP)
Country: United States of America
Number of Campuses: 50 (Across five continents, North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania)
Gender Demographics:
(In America, Tanks and Tankery as a sport are not seen as Feminine. Therefore, Boys are an overwhelmingly large majority, the few girls are usually daughters of servicewomen)
Ship: None
Aircraft Operated: C-5M Super Galaxy, C-17A Globemaster III
(A whole school ship was seen by the Joint Chiefs as a waste of valuable funding, instead, campuses were located globally with, usually be way of C-5M Super Galaxy transport aircraft requisitioned from the USAF used to carry vehicles and personnel to wherever they were needed. C-17s are used for lighter loads.)
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Team Marking:
Armored Division tricolor, the marking of American Armored Divisions and the Future Tankers Program
National Markings:
Allied White Star
Allied White Star (Broken Circle)
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Tanks operated:
—— Light Tank ——
M24 Chaffee Light Tank
The M24 is mainly used as a reconnaissance asset, used in conjunction with other vehicles to plan attacks from afar. It only has meager armor and a smaller 75mm gun. However, it's fast, and equipped with an automatic transmission, allowing it to escape from threats it cannot destroy.
—— M26 Pershing and Variants ——
M26 Pershing Medium Tank (T26E3)
The M26 Pershing, although classified as a Heavy Tank during the Second World War, in May 1946 the M26 was redesignated as a Medium Tank. In modern service, the M26 Pershing is the core tank of the FTP forming its backbone in battles across the world, being used in a similar way as a "Main battle tank" being useful in almost every role. The M26 has significantly improved armor over the slightly more practical M4 Sherman and a larger 90mm M3 gun than the 75 and 76mm guns mounted on M4 Sherman tanks.
T26E4 "Super Pershing"
The T26E4 is a variant of the M26, but equipped with the longer T15E1 90mm gun, it is used in a long range tank destroyer role due to the clumsiness of the longer gun. It has a counterweight on the back of the turret to balance the tank when firing.
T26E5 "Pershing Jumbo"
The T26E5 boasts significantly more armor than the base M26, with a 150mm front plate sloped at 30 degrees, able to shrug off rounds from high velocity guns, the turret mantlet is much thicker, making the tank much heavier and more sluggish when moving. The tank is still equipped with the same 90mm that equips the standard M26.
—— Heavy Specialized Tanks ——
T29 Heavy Tank "Eisenhower"
The T29 Heavy Tank is a significantly larger and more armored vehicle than the standard M26, and much rarer. The T29 acts as a sort of enforcer to its smaller teammates, with a terrifyingly large T5E1 105mm gun firing Armor piercing shells with explosive warheads, destroying anything it manages to penetrate with a single shot.
The T29 is Carm's preferred vehicle, he uses the T29E3, a version with a built in rangefinder for long-range shooting.
T30 Heavy Tank "Pool"
Similar to the T29 in overall shape and size, the T30 differs from its slightly older brother by having a monstrous 155mm gun mounted in the place of the 105mm on the T29. The 155mm can easily destroy any enemy vehicle it comes up against, usually firing High-Explosive, as armor piercing is not needed due to the enormous explosive filler of the 155mm shell. However, the large caliber comes with a price, the gun needs a long time of respite between each shot due to the shells weighing in at over 100lbs, and requiring a rammer to force the two piece projectile into the breech.
T34 Heavy Tank "MacArthur"
Not to be confused with the Soviet T-34, the T34 heavy tank is yet another heavy tank design borrowed from the T29's chassis. Similar to the T30, it uses a different gun on the same chassis, however, this time, the gun is a 120mm gun T53.
Built for raw penetration rather than firepower, the 120mm gun can penetrate 283mm of flat steel armor, able to punch through a Maus tank in the turret. It is easy to recognize because of the cylindrical bore evacuator on the gun barrel.
T32 Heavy Tank "Marshall"
Essentially a "Super Duper Pershing" the T32 uses the same T15 90mm gun that the Super Pershing uses, however, now on a much more heavily armored hull, with a 120mm thick hull front plate able to withstand blows at least as good as a King Tiger, with an unnaturally heavily armored 300mm thick gun mantlet, giving it significantly better protection than the majority of other American tanks. The "Marshall" is much more of a close range brawler thanks to its improved protection, and slightly smaller gun than the T29/30/34 series.
T95 Super-Heavy tank "McNair"
The T28/95, developed in 1944 and 1945 to combat the German Siegfried line in occupied Europe, it has two names, T28 Super heavy tank, and T95 Gun-Motor Carriage. Designated T95 by FTP General staff to avoid confusion with the Soviet T28 medium tank, the T95 has an extremely thick 305mm front hull. With a 292mm thick gun mantlet, this tank is utterly impenetrable frontally, even to the likes of the German Jagdtiger or Japanese Ho-Ri, with even the largest guns simply unable to make it through the armor. The tank uses the same engine as the M26, but the vehicle itself is twice as heavy, and with no turret, the T95 a sluggish beast, only used in defensive roles.
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General Description:
The U.S. Future Tankers Program was a project undertaken by the United States Army, in May of 20(REDACTED) the plan was put into effect as the Junior Tankers Initiative (JTI), and plans were put into place to make a national tank-based sport, however, instead of a civilian administration such as Major League Baseball (MLB) and the National Football League (NFL), the FTP was administered directly by the United States Army, who provided funding and the personnel needed to effectively manage what was essentially a military unit for sport.
The FTP necessitates harsh mental and physical training, discipline, and unit cohesion to make an effective fighting force utilizing numerous different types of vehicles.
Another thing of note is the FTP and its use of divisions to manage battles in different areas, with brigades being made up of different types of tanks to create divisions as if they were building blocks. Such as two Medium Tank brigades and one Light Tank brigade, with a logistics company made of Army Personnel to provide supplies to ensure that the unit has plenty of ammunition and spare parts, instead of relying on supply that is given to the competing teams in matches, which can be easily sabotaged. This use of "home grown logistics" has been made legal by the United States Army itself hosting talks with competition owners.