- Yes!
- No.
- Researchable vehicle, foldered with AMX-30 1972.
- GE/Pack premium.
- Squadron vehicle.
- Event vehicle.
- I said no.
Hello, in today’s suggestion #4, I’d like to suggest a unique AMX-30 variant - equipped with a DR-VT-3 ground radar!
HISTORY + BACKGROUND.
After the cancellation of ARL-44 and AMX-50 tank projects in early and mid-1950’s respectively, the french had adopted a ‘new’ medium tank - the M47 Patton. This did not mean that french medium/main battle tank production came to an end, however, as in 1956 France, together with Germany and Italy, entered a joint European MBT project. Sadly, despite the common characteristics that the nations agreed upon, the project faced multiple disputes - primarily between France and Germany, which caused the project to eventually fall apart, with Germany later creating the Leopard 1, and France creating the AMX-30 from their Europanzer prototypes.
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French Europanzer
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German Europanzer.
After the Europanzer project was cancelled, France moved on with the development of their own domestic MBT’s. In 1965, France produced the first AMX-30 (A) vehicles. By that time, the French decided that firepower and mobility was the way - considering their armed doctrine was defensive, not offensive. As such, the vehicle(s) sacrificed their armor for speed and amazing firepower - achived by the development/usage of the ‘Obus G’ 105mm HEAT round, which had spin-stabilization, enhancing accuracy, while keeping the inner shell stable, increasing efficiency of the penetrator, and the warhead could penetrate 400mm of steel. Later, the A’s would face more changes, due to the fact that it was already outclassed by most other NATO tanks - not to mention the very frequent transmission issues it had. It’s successor, the AMX-30 (B), would fix these issues in 1966-1968, with the last AMX-30 (A)'s being withdrawn from service in 1970.
The AMX-30 (B)'s had a welded + cast hull, and a fully-cast turret. The tank featured NBC + Ventilation, aswell as a new HS-110 diesel engine, developed by Hispano-Suiza. The fuel-efficient engine was quite the upgrade - however, the issues with the transmission were still making themselves known, and would only be fixed with the AMX-30 (B2)'s.
Did you know? AMX-30 (B)'s survivability was dictated by it’s mobility, not armor! French engineers, under the belief that the tank’s mobility would be compromised under the (near-useless against HEAT) extra armor, actually made the AMX-30 (B) the least protected NATO MBT? That’s right - AMX-30 had the thinnest armor out of all NATO MBT’s.
The tank faced many, many various upgrades from 1968-1972, but today, I’d like to focus on the more interesting one - that being mounting a radar on an MBT.
Under the experiments of raising crew awareness, French engineers decided - not to mount more periscopes or observatory devices - but to mount a whole radar on the AMX-30 (B)! Only one AMX-30 (B) was mounted with the radar, which was designated DR-VT-3 (Full name; Electronique Marcel Dasault RAPACE). The radar had a range of up to 5km, and a scanning area width of 120 degrees. The most unique future, however, was the fact that the system could align the turret to target.
FIREPOWER.
The tank features the CN-105-F1 cannon - an impressive weapon, which can annhilate anything at it’s Battle Rating with minimal issues. The tank features:
OCC 105 F1 - HEAT round - 400mm at 0m 0°, 346mm at 30°, and 200mm at 60° at any distance.
OE 105 F1 Mle.60 - HE round - 25mm at any distance AND angle.
OFPH 105 F1 - Smoke shell - 3mm pen at any distance AND angle. Non-lethal.
The tank also featured a 20mm M693 (CN 20 F2) coaxial autocannon, made for dealing with lightly-armored or low-altitude aerial vehicles.
HEFI-T/HVAP-T - 57mm pen at 0m and 0° - ~1000 rounds available, 500/belt.
However, we should also take the radar into account - you are a much greater sniper than you were before, and your situational awareness is higher than on normal AMX-30’s. Avoid bushy/forest areas, however, as your radar advantage will be neglected in these environments.
ARMOR.
As mentioned in the history section, the tank didn’t have any impressive armor - only able to protect against autocannons (UFP + Turret) and low-calibre cannons (UFP). As such, your best bet is to keep fast and stay hidden from the enemy’s line-of-sight - otherwise, you’re as good as dead, as pretty much anything can penetrate you with no problem what-so-ever.
HULL - 79/35/30mm in the front/sides/back - Front angled at 70°.
TURRET - 80/41/30mm in the front/sides/back. No angle to speak of.
MOBILITY.
Mobility is your armor and survivablity with this vehicle. You can reach up to 65km/h in both forward and reverse - an impressive feat! The engine has a power-to-weight ratio of 20hp/t, and a total HP characteristic of 720hp. The vehicle itself is rather light - only 36t - this is 4t less than Leopard 1! With such speed, you can easily flank your enemies and reach key positions on the map with ease, and then deliver critical blows to the enemy with your amazing firepower.
CONCLUSION.
In my PERSONAL opinion, I belive that the AMX-30B fitted with a DR-VT-3 radar could be a fun and unique event vehicle for France at this BR. Let me know what you think in the comments/polls, and thank you for reading my suggestion!
EXTRA PICTURES + SOURCES.
JG, Jeudy - Chars De France - 262 - 1997~
Kelso, E Robert. Magazine of Mobile Warfare, page 21, Armor section, 1973.
