- Yes
- No
caid’s suggestion #100
I would like to suggest a natural addition to close the gap between the AMX 30 and the current Leclerc, the EPC Leclerc
the design of the EPC started back in 1982 when the French army was launching a new project of MBT to modernize their fleet of tanks. the AMX 30B2 has been aging and the AMX 32 & AMX 40 are not exactly at the top of the technology, France developed a new MBT capable of matching the modern MBT currently offered on the market. the possibility of importing tanks such as the M1 Abrams, Leopard 2, and Merkeva was studied but rejected. France wanted to have a tank that would not depend on the supplies of foreign parts and have something that would be entirely theirs. the EPC (engine principal de combat) was launched in 1982 and was often confused with the AMX 56 who didn’t exist or the MSC program who was precursor and part of the EPC.
Following the studies, the French developed a new tank completely from scratch and incorporated all the best parts they had. the development of the AMX 40 and the MSC paved the way for the development of the Leclerc. the prototype was tested from 1987 to 1990, named EPC (Engin Principale de combat) Leclerc and a precursor of the Leclerc S1. The took the name “Leclerc” in 1986 but by then, it was still part of the EPC programs. the EPC was testing what the Leclerc would be. To ensure the capacity to fight enemies in superior numbers, the vehicle was designed to have the best communication, fire control, and firepower technology at the time. the tank featured the automatic loader which allowed to eliminate the loader. this has consequences reduced the size of the tank which included only 3 men and gave the tank the capacity to have more protection for even less weight than the contemporary tanks.
amounts of the EPC program, 6 prototypes were built, the Ares was the first was mostly set the general configuration of the tank and the mobility test. the protection of the EPC was already close to those of the serial production due to the high quality of steel and composite armor.
The EPC program included 5 prototypes which were named as following
Leclerc Ares
Leclerc Bayard
Leclerc Carnot
Leclerc Duroc
Leclerc Estienne
Leclerc Foch
(not the alphabetic orders)
all have slightly different parts and have slightly different purposes for the test. the Estienne notably was built to be destroyed to test the protection.
Firepower
the tank features the CN 120-25 L/52 riffle gun. the gun is well known to be used on the other Leclerc MBT. however it couldn’t fire the OFL 120 F1 for a simple reason, it didn’t exist in 1987. the ammo would be limited to the OCC 120 G1 and OFL 120 G1. This would be a normal nerf of the firepower over the other leclerc which allows a slightly lower BR. the gun still features an auto-loader which can give the tank a good fire rate, laser range, thermal vision, and night vision. outside the choice of ammunition, the Ares will not feel any different than the Leclerc on firepower.
Mobility
the tank mobility will be great. the EPC already has all the parts from the Leclerc S1 that allow it to have smooth acceleration and a high top speed. The reverse speed is also great. powered by a Diesel Hyperbar Wärtsilä SACM V8X providing 1474 hp, and paired with a SESM ESM 500 automatic transmission, 5-speed front and 2-speed rear, and a torque converter. the tank will not lag in the mobility
Protection
the protection of the EPC was not significantly different than the Leclerc S1. The protection was stated to be close to the serial production. this is due to the integration of the composite armour which was already installed on the EPC.The Leclerc has storage boxes all over the turret, including the front, and makes people mistake it for actual armor.
behind those storage boxes, the turret is the same as the Ares’s. this means the Ares have a protection level close to the S1. The storage box offered mostly spaced armor that the Ares did not have. additionally, the Ares has the laser warning system antenna placed at the rear of the turret and the conventional smoke discharger instant of the Galix found in the serial production.
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