What's the high slot above cru?

Does this style of fitting help?

The key factor here is two reps, a hardener and the AB. Choose a turret and second high slot (scanner or mCRU) to taste. Makes for 310 effective hp/s reps, which is enough to withstand almost any handheld AV.

If you're looking for more passive hp, this would be a suitable starting point. That's 8.8k ehp against railguns (accounting for 3 rep cycles), which requires a damage amped and actively cooled prototype railgun to kill in one volley. Everything else needs to team up on it to score a kill.

Those fittings are fairly end-game stuff. I think my pilot character has all relevant vehicle skills maxed for those fittings, except small blaster fitting optimization which is currently at level 4. But the principle "1x hardener + 2x reps + AB" or "1x hardener + 1x 120 mm plate + 1x rep + AB" work across any tier.

I find the AB mostly covers my mobility needs. But take care to never come to a full stop and avoid flying towards or away from common AV-spots. Plan your routes so most AV (handheld or HAV) see you moving across their field of vision - that dramatically increases the likelihood of missed shots so you have an easier time getting away. By the way, if you come under fire, activate the hardener first, then the AB. The hardener helps tank the first 3 shots, the AB helps dodging the fourth.

If you're new to armor vehicles I think it's fully sufficient to leave armor composition at level 3. That'll get you most of the effect. Fitting better hardeners or reps is generally much more worthwhile than the incremental increase in maneuverability you get from the last two levels of armor composition. Later on, especially if you're looking into piloting an Incubus, you should definitely look into maxing out armor composition. But that's for later I guess.

P.S.: Always make sure you take a moment to scan for railtanks once in a while. Even when your gunner is doing something useful, *always* check for railtanks.