- Yes
- No
General Info
This vehicle is one of the most obscure creations made by Italy during the late 1980’s, the OF-40 MK3 was an Italian main battle tank made by OTO Melara. Its history begins with the creation of the OF-40 family, which included a derivative called the Palmaria. The Palmaria’s role was to allow heavier loads to be installed unto the platform, as such vehicles such as the OTOMATIC would be created. Later down the line OTO Melara began to offer a modified variant of the base OF-40 which would use a 120mm cannon instead of the 105mm from the MK1 and MK2, back then this would be known as the OF-40/120, a similar platform compared to the the MK3. The OF-40/120 was offered to the Italian army during the time where they were still deciding on how they would replace their M60 and Leopard 1 tanks. Italy had to choose between joining France with their EPC program, buying the Leopard 2, buying the OF-40/120 or requesting a new platform to be made with a new set of requirements underlined by the Italian army and ministry of defence, as such the Ariete came to be. During this era OTO Melara had just completed several tests of the Preserie version of the C1 Ariete, but before anything could be delivered to the Italian army OTO Melara would at times run into issues which caused delays. Around this time the OF-40 MK3 would be made, primarily for export purposes however it was also offered to the Italian army in case they wanted to save money. This platform was comprised of a modified Palmaria platform with extra hull armour and the C1 Ariete (preserie) turret armed with a 120mm smoothbore cannon which was also able to fire a variety of different types of munitions, which included APFSDS rounds. Additional armament included a 7.62mm or 12.7mm machine gun. It would feature the same TURMS fire control system that was installed on the C1 Ariete, which allowed the vehicle to fire on the move both day and night. The tank would weigh around 47.5 tons in total, mobility wise it would feature a 1100hp MTU diesel engine, and other minor aesthetic modifications such as Ariete Headlights instead of the OF-40 ones, and it being painted in a tan coloring which was unlike many Italian vehicles of the era. The only real user of the OF-40 MBT was the UAE which ordered several batches of MK1 which later on would be upgraded by OTO Melara to the MK2 standard. OTO Melara would attempt to market this vehicle mainly to them as they thought they would have an advantage considering the previous success in exporting military equipment to them. The UAE had set out a military vehicle competition in which OTO Melara would take part in. The trials the OF-40 MK3 underwent were not easy, each one testing everything it could and pushing the platform to its limits. The main area the UAE was testing the Italian crew on was the platforms mobility and how it would react whilst travelling in an enviorment full of dunes. According to personal testimony from one of the Italian OTO Melara crewmen which participated in those trials, one UAE representative asked for quite an impossibile task which some other nations participating in the trials would refuse to do. The task was to drive the OF-40 MK3 from a great height and see how it would cope under those conditions, the Italian crew had stated that the tank would get stuck once it reached the bottom, and advised against proceeding but the UAE representative wouldn’t budge, his intent likely being on breaking the vehicles, and as such the OF-40 MK3 proceeded to travel below and unsuprisingly got stuck. However an unexpected helping hand would arrive in the form of the Brazilian crew with their Osorio MBT, which had also been partaking in the trials. They would help the OF-40 MK3 get unstuck and ‘tow’ the vehicle back to the main camp where everyone else would go at the end of the tests. Other nations participating in the competition would ignore the situation the Italian crew was facing according to testimonies from both the Italian and Brazilian crews. During the trials some nations would also undergo live-fire tests but the OF-40 MK3 would not partake in that since the UAE was unable to provide the munitions, to make things easier OTO Melara would do the tests in Italy. Besides those small issues the OF-40 MK3 passed every other test. Shortly after the competition was over it was returned to Italy and was stored inside of the OTO Melara compound in La Spezia. It sat there for decades and would slowly be scrapped up until a couple years ago when it was fully scrapped alongside a multitide of OTO Melara vehicles which had no chance of being restored for display at the OTO Melara museum. Since the vehicle was poorly documented and was in essence a secret vehicle from OTO Melara, that reasoning probably aided in the decision of not restoring it.
Armament+Equipment
x1 OTO Melara 120mm Smoothbore cannon (compatibile with most nato standard munitions)
x1 Coaxial 7.62mm Machine gun
x2 Optional Machine guns mounted on top of turret (7.62 or 12.7)
x8 Smoke Grenades
NVD and Thermals
Specifications
Spoiler
(Due to no official specs ever being released i have attached specs for the Palmaria and C1 Ariete)
Why it should be in game
It should be in game because it would be really easy to add even though we don’t know much about the vehicle, all Gaijin would have to do it get the Palmaria chassis which is already in game on the OTOMATIC, slightly remodel it and get the Ariete Preserie turret and merge them together. It would be a perfect vehicle to either fold inbetween the OF-40 MK2 and the Ariete Preserie or to add as a premium or squadron at the same battle rating as the Ariete Preserie. It has a very interesting history and overall would help bolster the Italian tech tree which can always use another top tier-ish MBT.
Sources
Spoiler
Museo Della Melara archives
Tecnolocia & Defesa
Miltech 7/88
Jane’s armour and Artillery 1987-88
Sala de Guerra with Edson Kiyohara
Military Vehicles Forecast archived report Jan 1999
International Defense Review 1987: Vol 20 Supplement : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
https://books.google.com.lb/books?id=NqdDAQAAIAAJ&q=“Last+year+OTO+Melara+undertook”&dq=“Last+year+OTO+Melara+undertook”&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjSjc3Fvd7oAhVyBGMBHU6vCgMQ6AEIJzAA
https://www.armyrecognition.com/italian_italy_military_artillery_vehicles_systems/palmaria_155_mm_self-propelled_howitzer_technical_data_sheet_specifications_description_information.html
https://www.army-technology.com/projects/ariete/
Ariete - Wikipedia
italian Ariete MBT (1995)
https://www.iveco-otomelara.com/tracked/ArieteMBT.php
Ariete (carro armato) - Wikipedia
Photos
