C2 Rinoceronte

The C2 Rinoceronte is the main battle tank of the Romagnan Army. The vehicle is also in use with the Yeuropan Defence Corps forces, particularly in the Romagnan units. The tank first entered service in 1920 and has remained in service since. The vehicle carries the latest optical and digital-imaging and fire-control systems, enabling it to fight day and night and to fire on the move.

Design
The tank has a conventional layout with the driver located at the front of the hull, the fighting compartment towards the middle and the engine compartment in the rear.

Armament
The Rinoceronte's main armament is a 120mm smoothbore cannon, stress-hardened to increase durability over extended periods of firing and allowing the use of APFSDS and HEAT ammunition. The gun can fire most Pan-Yeuropan Union Standard rounds of the same calibre. The tank carries 42 rounds, with 27 rounds stored in a magazine inside the hull and the remaining ammunition stored in the rear turret bustle, separated from the crew compartment by an armoured door. The gun barrel has a thermal insulating sleeve and a fume extractor, and is full stabilised by an electro-hydraulic drive system.

Secondary armament consists of a coaxial 7.62 mm machine gun operated by the tank gunner or commander and an additional 7.62 mm machine gun configured as an anti-aircraft weapon operated by the main-gun loader from his hatch.

Armour and countermeasures
The armour of the Rinoceronte is a 3rd generation composite armour, which includes high-hardness steel, tungsten and plastic filler with a ceramic component.

Two side-mounted, electronically fired grenade launchers are also equipped on the tank, consisting of four barrels each which can be intermixed with either smoke or chaff grenades. The smoke grenades are capable of shrouding the tank from visual or thermal detection, while the chaff grenades disperse the tank's radar cross section. The tank is fully NBC protected.

Crew
Similarly to western tank designs, the C2 Rinoceronte has a crew of 4. These include the driver, the commander, the gunner and the loader for the main gun. Emergency provisions are stored within the tank for three days.

History
The C2 Rinoceronte was first designed in 1917, to replace the older C1 tank and Belkan Panzer IIIs that the Romagnan Army had been using. The first prototype was ready by mid-1919, and after some modifications it was put into production in late 1920. The Rinoceronte was welcomed by tank crews in the Romagnan Army due to its more spacious interior and greater amount of armour protection than the C1. Since then, the C2 has been the main battle tank of the Romagnan Army.

Operators

 * Romagnan Army
 * Yeuropan Defence Corps
 * 4th Armoured Division
 * 5th Armoured Division
 * 277th Cavalry Battalion