And what, the Italians have good tanks?
Yes, the title turned out to be a little provocative, although truthful. Stereotypes about Italy are a wagon and a small cart, and they are limited not only to the notorious pizza and pasta, but also include armored vehicles. There is an opinion that the Italians do not know how to build Tanks. Here, of course, it is no longer clear whether their tank building during the Second World War is to blame, or the purchase and production of foreign equipment in the post-war period. But the fact remains: many, having heard that Italy has its own national tank, are sincerely surprised.
Nevertheless, there is a tank, and, contrary to expectations, it is far from such rubbish as one might imagine. We are talking about the C1 "Ariete" - a car whose name can be translated as "Battering Ram" or "Baran", which in Italian is the same for military tools.
We have a lot of "Leopards", but no more
In order to dispel the myth that the Italians absolutely cannot make tanks, you need to roll back deeper into history, in the mid-50s. At that time, there was a rush in Europe around the program to create a single tank - an adventure that, repeated over and over again, never brought results. But then it was still the first serious attempt, so at first glance the idea looked very attractive. Germany (FRG), Italy and France decided to get involved in this.
Works were going on, projects appeared, discussions and tests were conducted. However, in the end, as was to be expected, the disagreements between the countries on what the tank should be, intensified so much that everyone went to make their own car with blackjack and other attributes. For the Germans, it was the Leopard 1, and for the French, it was the AMX-30.
Italy, of course, did not begin to make its own tank, and for a number of reasons of a financial, economic and political nature, it began to purchase these very Leopards 1 from Germany since 1970. In total, 200 units were bought, and then the Italians even received a license for the right to manufacture this tank at their OTO Melara plant, from whose shops 80 steel “cats” came out by the beginning of the 720s.
"Leopard-1" early series. Source: wikipedia.org
And production, albeit under a carbon copy, and under a license, is an experience. These are hundreds of engineers, technologists and other specialists trained not only in theory, but also honed their knowledge in practice. Without this human resource, as well as without the production base that was established thanks to the Leopard-1, it is quite difficult to build a new own tank. Well, okay, let's move on to the beginning of the 80s and our "Baran-rams".
In 1982, in Italy, they seriously began to resolve the issue, which had been required for a long time. The situation for the military and political leadership of the country was very ambiguous. It can be described something like this: we have 920 Leopards-1 and three hundred American M60s - a mighty horde, but morally obsolete so much that it will be problematic to use it in case of war. The Soviet Union at that time had quite a few T-64/72/80s of various modifications for which these Italian tanks were not a problem. And on the way, there were T-72B and T-80U at all - the most powerful armored serial vehicles in the Soviet lineup.
What to do? It would be most logical to turn again to the Germans who produced the Leopard-2. Buy or start production at home - and no problem. A fresh tank fleet is guaranteed. But then other circumstances intervened.
The fact is that even in the years of the release of the first Leopards, the Italians tried to sell them to third countries in order to make money on it, but the Germans said their firm “no” - since they were allowed to produce only for themselves, then produce for themselves. With the new Leopard 2, this could also happen again, and the supporters of creating their own national tank also did not weaken the onslaught, which ultimately led to the appearance of the C1 Ariete.
Requirements for the tank and its prototypes
Here, as they say, let's be realistic: the rejection of the Leopard-2 did not mean at all that the Italians would follow their own special path, so even the requirements for the new car were focused mainly on the German product. And in the full sense. In a very generalized form, they sounded like this: to make a tank no worse in terms of security, armament, mobility and operational properties than the Leopard-2.
All this was supposed to fit in a mass of up to 50 tons, which is almost 10% lower than that of the German prototype. How to deal with the booking, which with such a weight will be clearly worse than the Leo-2, is a rhetorical question. However, they still went beyond.
Nevertheless, in 1984, development nevertheless began, and the contractors were the time-tested and production companies OTO Melara and Iveco Fiat.
It was originally planned to produce five or six prototypes of the new tank. The first of them was ready in January 1987 and after about three months it became a kind of exhibition model-demonstrator of technologies - they showed it to everyone, from official dignitaries to the press. This is understandable: after all, the first post-war national tank of Italy, down with the "Germans" from the armored forces.
Almost a year later, the remaining prototypes of the C1 Ariete were completed, and their large-scale, almost one and a half year tests began: thousands of shots from cannons, thousands of kilometers traveled at training grounds, and everything else that is inherent in rigorous testing of military equipment.
One of the prototypes of the C1 "Ariete". Source: warspot.ru
The results were generally positive, so the military-political leadership, inspired by success, immediately planned the purchase of 700 units of this tank. But the reality did not match the expectations. Due to various kinds of problems, the timing of the production of the first batches of C1 Ariete constantly shifted, first to 1990-1991, then to 1993, and as a result, the first production tanks left the factory only in 1995.
The collapse of the USSR also intervened. In fact, the state that the NATO bloc considered its main adversary disappeared from the map of the world, so the military budgets of many Western countries were reduced to a minimum - why spend money when no more war is expected in the future? This also affected the production program C1 "Ariete", which was reduced from the original 700 units to two hundred. These two hundred tanks were produced between 1995 and 2002.
"Taranopard" some turned out
C1 "Ariete" is just the case when they did not reinvent the wheel and chose a completely typical and well-developed tank layout with the location of the control compartment in the front, the fighting compartment in the middle and the engine-transmission compartment in the aft.
Serial tank C1 "Ariete". Source: warspot.ru
The seating of the crew of four is also quite classic, “leopard print”: the driver’s seat is located on the right side of the hull, the gunner and commander are also on the right, but in the tower they sit one after another. The loader is given the entire left half of the tower, so as not to hamper his movements during combat work. By the way, at hand he has only 15 shots stacked in the rear of the tower. The remaining 27 are located to the left of the driver, and getting them during the battle is another task.
By the way, since we are talking about loading and shells, then, perhaps, for a start it is worth talking about the armament of the Italian "Taran". There were no surprises here, although it was predictable. The main armament of the tank is a smooth-bore 120-mm gun with a length of 44 calibers. There was a lot of talk about the fact that this is a branded product of OTO Melara, but in fact the German origin of the gun was not hidden in any way. This is the same "Rheinmetal" L44 gun from the Leopard-2 tank. And the shells, both cumulative and feathered sub-caliber, are also German for her.
But this is not bad, but even good (from the point of view of Italians, of course). There is no need to invent and develop anything - all advanced German-made ammunition is already at hand. And this seriously increases the firepower of the C1 Ariete, since the DM43 sub-caliber shells - products of not the first freshness - pierced about 560 mm of steel armor and could become a problem for Soviet armored vehicles, inherited by the newly formed states after the collapse of the USSR. And this is not to mention the later developments in "shell building".
On the machine-gun part of the tank's arsenal, usually few people dwell in detail, so we will not break the tradition either. In this case, it consists of two German 7,62 mm MG-3 machine guns, one of which is paired with a cannon, and the second is the basis of an anti-aircraft machine gun installation above the commander's hatch in the turret roof.
Finishing the story about the weapons of the C1 "Arieta", one cannot ignore its fire control system, since it is not enough to have a penetrating projectile, they also need to hit the target. It was developed by the Italian company Officine Galileo, which in the recent past managed to be noted in the Syrian war: then tanks with the TURMS-T sighting and observation system were seen in the armored units of the army of President Bashar al-Assad. So this is from Italy.
The C1 Ariete gunner has the following equipment at his disposal. Two optical sights - one backup, and the second main, monocular, with a tenfold increase. A laser rangefinder that is capable of measuring ranges up to nine kilometers, but neither the ballistics of the projectiles nor the ballistic computer allows more than four. All this is complemented by the VTG-120 thermal imaging sight-surveillance device, which provides reliable identification of targets in difficult visibility conditions at a distance of up to one and a half kilometers.
As for the commander, everything is quite standard for Western tanks. A panoramic observation device with a night vision channel and a built-in rangefinder, as well as a backup system that allows the commander to display an image from the gunner's thermal imaging sight. There is not much to say here, because this is exactly what the commander’s sighting and observation system should look like to implement combat work in the “hunter-shooter” style, when one detects a target and gives target designation, and the second hits it. At this point, it’s time for us to think that the same solutions are needed on our, Russian tanks.
The "brain" of the entire fire control system of the Italian tank is a digital ballistic computer built on the basis of the 8086 processor and the 8087 coprocessor from Intel. Yes, this is not a Core i9 or powerful "snapdragons" in smartphones, but the chips do their job with a bang. By processing continuously incoming data from a laser rangefinder and a variety of sensors, including the measurement of the temperature of powder charges, wind speed and direction, tank roll, target angular velocity, etc., the ballistic computer provides the necessary corrections for firing in real time, ensuring accurate aiming of the gun at the target.
Now for the hull and turret. Looking at the hull of the tank, the feeling that we have a disguised "Leopard-2" in front of us is slightly reduced. Yes, there are similar outlines along the sides and stern, but the frontal part still has a slight difference from the German. If the German tank as a whole very much resembles a chisel with a stepped slope of the lower armor plate, then the Italian immediately catches the eye with a solid and large lower frontal armor plate in height. From the available data, we can say that this is a welded structure using exclusively steel armor plates, which form the basis in the side and aft projections, as well as the roof and bottom. There is nothing unusual in this - the usual differentiation of armor, when priority in durability and mass of protection is given to the frontal part, as the most susceptible to shelling.
The tower is that structural element of the C1 Ariete, which, in appearance, has the least number of similarities with the Leopard-2. And indeed, if the frontal part of the turret of a German tank is made almost vertical with an inclination from the axis of the gun, then in the Italian version the forehead has an impressive double inclination. But it is correct: in this way, it is possible to significantly increase the efficiency of the external frontal armor plates and the combined filler behind them. By the way, due to the large dimensions of the tower for protection in the heading angles, its sides had to be equipped with niches for inserts of combined armor, which, in general, is typical for all Western tanks - both Leopards-2 and Abramsov, and "Leclerc"
As for the reservation, it should be noted that the Italian designers failed to meet the 50 tons. Although there is nothing surprising in this, since the higher the resistance of the armor, the higher its mass, even with the use of the most modern materials. As a result, the tank weighs 54 tons, that is, it fits in the format of its German counterpart.
There are only guesses about what is included in the defense of C1 "Ariete". There are versions that the combined armor of the Italian tank includes ceramics and Kevlar. But, given the reports of the designers of the machine about durability equal to the Leopard-2A4 and M1A1 Abrams, and also taking into account the mass, one can speak with some certainty in favor of heaps of "reflective" sheets (steel sheet + rubber-like material layer + sheet steel) and high-hard steel inserts.
It was this version of the combined armor that was extremely popular in those years when the C1 Ariete was at the design stages. But these are just guesses. As a matter of fact, as well as assumptions about the equivalents of the protection of this tank. If we average all the "testimonies" given by various authors, as well as manufacturers, we can talk about 500-600 mm against sub-caliber projectiles and about 800 mm against cumulative ammunition. At the same time, we must not forget that the tank can be equipped with dynamic protection, which dramatically increases these indicators.
C1 "Ariete" in Iraq. Source: war-book.ru
The undercarriage of the C1 "Ariete", consisting of seven road wheels on board with a torsion bar suspension, is almost completely made in the image and likeness of a German tank. Even the tracks for this machine were produced under a purchased license from the German company Diehl. The solution is quite clear. This affects both the general copying of the “leopard” design, and the worthy characteristics of the German chassis, which is rightfully considered one of the best in the world and is able not only to withstand high shock loads, but also to ensure smooth running at high speed.
And the speed characteristics there are far from the worst. A 1-horsepower Iveco V-300 MTCA diesel engine is installed in the engine compartment of the tank. Paired with it is an automatic hydromechanical transmission LSG 12. This tandem provides a maximum speed of up to 3000–60 km/h and acceleration from standstill to 65 km/h in 30 seconds, which is very, very good for a 6-ton tank.
What's wrong with him now?
The tank turned out to be quite decent in most respects. Yes, security, given its relative freshness, is somewhat behind competitors such as the Leopard-2A5 and M1A2 Abrams, but to some extent this can be compensated by the installation of dynamic protection. As for the firepower and sighting system, they are, as they say, on the level. The ability to use modern German shells, coupled with an automated fire control system, makes this tank a serious threat on the battlefield. Yes, here is such an Italian with German roots.
Of the two hundred tanks produced, 164 units were used to equip four tank regiments. Two of them were deployed near the border with Slovenia, and one - in the Campania region, in southern Italy. The rest of the combat vehicles were in storage.
To fight them, fortunately, or unfortunately, failed. Six vehicles were sent to Iraq, but did not take part in the hostilities.
Over time, the staff of C1 "Ariete" has been significantly reduced. According to sources, about thirty tanks of this model remained in active combat service. And this despite the fact that Italy has no other modern tanks in service. Most of the Ariete were transferred to the reserve for storage.
Nevertheless, already this year, work began on the modernization of this tank, which is designed to increase the combat capabilities of the vehicle. As part of the work, he will receive improved components of the fire control system, updated ammunition and a 1500-horsepower diesel engine. Whether these measures will affect all two hundred tanks or be limited to those that are currently in service is not yet specified, but it should be noted that the C1 Ariete itself turned out to be a fairly balanced and modern tank, so its refinement is far from “saving an obsolete rubbish."
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