Sorry FCS is future combat system that aimed at 20 ton (18000kg) tank which was cancelled long time ago, that weight is ideal for wheeled vehicle.
What do you mean by tracked vehicle is more expensive to operate by destroying inertia? Does tracked vehicle get engine/ transmission destroyed faster? Or the track get destroyed faster?
If wheeled vehicle get the same ground pressure as tracked vehicle, will it get the same off road capability? Some off road 4x4 are awesome, even tracked vehicle is hard to follow, e.g hill climbing.
Re Intertia. Imagine you are swinging on a swing in a park, you will keep on penduluming for some time as the mass (you) is swinging on a point and on a circular path. Now imagine if you are on that swing, and at each swing, you jump off and walk to the back of the swing to be swung again, it will take much more effort than just swinging on the swing. the mass (you) are traveling on a non circular path.
The first case is like a wheel, mass rotates along an axial and inertia keeps it rolling and very little inertia is lost/destroyed. the latter is like a tracked vehicle, the mass (the tracks) does not travel on a linear or circular path and each track link piviots on the next and there is mechanical loss per each piviot. i.e. a track might have hundreds of pivot points, while a wheel only have one at the axial. therefore, a track will exhaust it's inertia much quicker than a wheel and it takes much more energy to move it.
If you have a bicycle, flip it upsidedown, turn the pedals, and let go. you will realize that the pedal stops much quicker than the wheel as the chain - like the track - destroys inertia.
If you try to turn a Track by shifting the front wheels it will fail. So how do you turn a tank? You turn a tank by driving with the Throttle and the transmission. You speed one track well slowing if not reversing the other. this demands either a drive by wire system in the form of a electric drive or more commonly two transmissions. Imagine driving a car with no steering wheel two gas petals and two manual transmissions...
more modern western tracked vehicles use a more sophisticated driving system that allows a more conventional steering wheel but it still operates on the same principles accelerate left idle right to turn to the right.
well a wheeled platform can get away with a more conventional transmission.
TE not to be a pain, but there are many ways to steer a tracked vehicle, some do turn the front and rear set of wheels (Tetrarch
) some moves the inner wheels to the left or right so that the track runs in a curve.
Even the orthodox differential speed of track turn systems can be very simple, i.e. Panzer4/T34/Christie brake/clutch with a differential (no neutral steer, but can pivot on one one track ). The Sherman used a geared steering, i.e. one track is faster than the other (no neutral steer, cannot pivot on on track, have minimum turn radius). The Tiger/Churchill had a triple elliptical differential gear box; the Panther have a double elliptical differential gear box that allows neutral steer. You also have hydraulic and electric motor drives which can neutral steer. You don't need dual transmissions - but of course that had been tried (with two engines too)
