Pak 85

The Pak 85 (Panzerabwehrkanone 85) is a Raumian anti-tank gun developed in the 1970s. It stood as an innovative weapon design for the time due to its power source. Unlike traditional weaponry using gunpowder as a propellant for projectiles, the Pak 85 uses electricity to fire the projectile in a way like a rail gun, making it the first weapon of its kind to see operational use.

Development
Seeking a new, heavier gun for the R.M.F. stocks, a request for a powerful gun came in. The R.M.F. got more than what they bargained with the arrival of the AT-85 design. Unlike conventional methods, the gun did not fire using gunpowder propellant, but rather with electricity through its electromagnetic propulsion system, effectively making the propulsion through methods of a rail gun. The gun was then adopted and renamed the Pak 85 in the 1980s.

Design
The Pak 85 differs from many conventional design with the use of an external energy source as the propellant of the shell rather than one interned in a shell casing. The shell comes as itself and is meant to be inserted into the rail gun, each shell has a design to complete the circuit to the rail gun, meaning the gun cannot fire unless there is a round inside and it completes the electrical circuit. Then the power source is used to power the rail gun to propel the shell to its target. This firing mechanism propels the projectile at an extremely high velocity, giving it massive penetration power. However, due to the velocity at which the projectile is launched at, the shell cannot contain any explosives otherwise the explosives would vaporize and explode in the breech. This caused the weapon to retain exclusive anti-tank properties until an effective high-explosive shell could be developed for the Pak 85 in the 1990s. The Pak 85 uses a semi-automatic sliding block system that reopens after each shot due to recoil to assist with reload speed, with a manual breech opener, recocker, and ejector in case of a misfire. The Pak 85 is meant to be crewed by 8 people, the commander, loader, gunner, ammo bearer and the rest are riflemen; however, only a crew of three is needed to fire the weapon effectively, and a single person could operate if on his/her leisure.

Operational Usage
To fire the weapon, the breech must first be opened manually if closed. The loader would then load an AP or HE round into the breech and then manually close the breech, locking and cocking the firing mechanism in the process. The gunner will line up the sight by orders of the commander at the target, and when acquired will fire at the target. The recoil of the firing action would cause the recoil breech of the gun to force the sliding breech lock open, allowing the loader to instantly place the next round into the breech once the recoil mechanism resets to its original position. The loader will then manually close the breech to prepare it for firing again. In case of a misfire, a recocker is available to rearm the weapon for firing. Should this mechanism fail, a manual breech opener and round ejector can be used to extract the dud round.

Ammo
These shells could be loaded into the Pak 85.

Performance
The gun was well received during testing, as the gun could fire accurately at targets theoretically up to 16 kilometers away, or up to 10 miles, however it has no record of being used over 3 kilometers. The penetration and energy the shell gives proved useful in urban combat when fortified buildings required a heavy punch to annihilate. However, complaints are raised on the weapon for having no high-explosive rounds available for use despite technical limitations until the 1990s. The gun proved so successful that it was eventually mounted onto Raum's first domestically-designed tank, the P-48 "Cougar" to provide it an easily movable platform.