Transfer of “wheeled tanks” AMX-10RC to Ukraine: far from useless toys
Well, as they say, wait. If a few months ago the version of a possible transfer to Ukraine of some kind of Western-style armored vehicles slightly heavier than various kinds of armored cars seemed unlikely, now the gates have almost opened to the fullest. The Americans dragged their Bradleys, the Germans promised Marders, and Macron, who once claimed the title of dove of peace, announced the delivery of AMX-10RC wheeled combat vehicles, which are also often called wheeled tanks.
Of course, you can get by with on-duty phrases that French deliveries will not change anything and are generally useless. Nevertheless, despite the impossibility of radically changing the situation on the fronts, these wheeled vehicles can do a lot of things, so they should not be neglected, at least in terms of specific combat areas.
outlandish thing
To be honest, the gift from the French in the face of the AMX-10RC looks interesting. Despite the abundance of weapons supplied to Kyiv from its partners, some clear line can be traced in their classification. For example, they gave away a bunch of Soviet-style tanks and are preparing to supply Western ones - well, a tank is a tank, and its place in the army hierarchy is clear. The same is with infantry fighting vehicles, various kinds of armored cars, armored personnel carriers and other things, including even air defense systems and MLRS.
And here is the AMX-10RC from this slender stream weapons stands out at least in that it is a specific combat vehicle, which, although it is in service with Morocco and Qatar, generally fits the concept of exclusively French armored cavalry units. This is facilitated by its tactical and technical characteristics, including powerful weapons, wheelbase, weak armor and the inability to transport troops in favor of weight savings and high mobility.
The AMX-10RC cannot be called a tank in the full sense of the word - even the abbreviation RC (Roues Canon), which means “gun on wheels”, speaks eloquently about this. However, in the cavalry regiments, he performs the function of the main caliber. Flank attacks, breaking through sections of the front with the dissection of enemy positions and the development of the offensive, pinning down enemy forces before the arrival of the main forces and reconnaissance are far from a complete list of the tasks of modern French cavalry, where this fast machine with a large caliber is needed.
And you should not forget about the Foreign Legion and the fighting in Africa and the Middle East, because there the "wheelers" showed and show themselves from the best side. In general, all these colonial and post-colonial affairs left their mark on the French family of wheeled armored vehicles and on the AMX-10RC in particular. But a lot has been written about this, and it does not fit into the subject of this material.
Features
Before starting, one important fact should be noted: Ukraine, most likely, will be supplied with AMX-10RCRs, which have undergone a fairly deep modernization, which affected both security and the electronic component - France simply did not have any others in significant quantities. Therefore, further we will talk about the updated car.
AMX-10RC/RCR layout. The gunner and vehicle commander are in the turret to the right of the gun, the loader is to the left. The driver's seat is on the left side of the hull.
Armor
One of the most controversial points, which are subject to more criticism, is the too light armoring of the French product. A number of restrictions, among which weight savings, mobility and buoyancy were put at the forefront, forced the developers to use the same armor composition as on the progenitor of the AMX-10RC, the AMX-10P tracked armored personnel carrier. Namely, aluminum alloy 7020, as the most balanced in terms of toughness and hardness.
Both the hull and the turret of the machine are made of it. At the same time, it should be noted that the level of standard protection of the "Frenchman" is lower than that of the domestic BMP-3, since the maximum thickness of its aluminum armor plates does not exceed 45 mm.
In general, exclusively bulletproof armor, which holds heavy machine guns in the frontal part, and only light 7,62-mm rifles on the sides. What to do, the buoyancy of military equipment was not only a priority for us. It is noteworthy that the French designers eventually spat on her, opting for increased security.
AMX-10RCR with additional armor
In the modified version of the AMX-10RCR, the hull and turret are additionally covered with high-hardness steel sheets up to 10 mm thick, as a result of which resistance to 23-mm armor-piercing projectiles in the forehead and heavy machine guns in the sides was ensured. The increase is significant. At the same time, due to the mass increased from the initial 15,6 to 17 tons, the machine is completely deprived of the ability to overcome water obstacles by swimming - even the water cannons were removed.
What conclusion can be drawn here?
The machine, in principle, was not intended for direct clashes with the enemy, massively equipped with heavy armored vehicles and anti-tank weapons. Due to the modest armor parameters, of course, no fool of the AMX-10RCR will drive a frontal attack on tanks even now, especially since there is a negative experience in Iraq, where a lot of these products were battered. And reconnaissance UAVs, of which there are sometimes more over the battlefield than birds, will exclude this possibility as much as possible. But for the infantry, even under the cover of infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers, this "Frenchman" can be an unexpected and extremely unpleasant surprise.
Another question is that the peculiarities of the territories where hostilities are taking place within the framework of the NMD will not everywhere make it possible to realize the possibilities of French gifts. Even the minimum building density is already a big obstacle for their application.
weaponry
This machine is, to some extent, a collection of compromises, both in terms of weapons and the fire control complex.
So, for example, the sighting system of the "Frenchman" seems to meet modern standards. There is a laser range finder, a ballistic computer and a set of sensors that provide data on meteorological conditions, the position of the vehicle's hull and turret, target speed, and so on. There is integration into a unified command and control system with satellite navigation. The commander has a panoramic observation device with the ability to fire from a cannon, and the gunner has optical and thermal imaging sights.
Commander's panoramic sight and periscope observation devices
There is no only stabilization of the gun. Yes, the AMX-10RCR, like its earlier versions, does not have any gun stabilization, so the most effective shooting from it is possible only from a stop. At the same time, the trunk itself also has a feature.
You can often see information that the AMX-10RC and its upgraded variants have a standard NATO 105-mm cannon. And, accordingly, at least some unification with the M-55S tanks transferred by Slovenia may appear in terms of shells. But no, the Western partners of Kyiv are gradually starting to load logistics with a variety of sorts.
AMX-10RC with ammunition
The machine is equipped with a 105 mm F2 BK MECA reduced pressure gun with a barrel length of 48 calibers. Unlike a full-fledged gun mounted on Leopards 1 or M1 Abrams tanks, it was designed exclusively for the French cartridge 105x527R, and cannot digest any other range of ammunition other than native.
The ammunition load of the vehicle, consisting of 38 unitary shots, includes three main projectiles:
• OE 105 F3 - classic high-explosive fragmentation projectile weighing 7,2 kg and muzzle velocity of 800 meters per second;
• The OCC 105 F3 is a fairly high speed HEAT projectile with a muzzle velocity of 1 meters per second, capable of penetrating a vertically mounted steel plate about 120 mm thick;
• OFL 105 F3 is a tungsten-based piercing sub-caliber projectile that is guaranteed to penetrate 150 mm steel plate at a 60 degree angle from 1 meters. The initial speed is 200 meters per second.
As auxiliary weapons, a 7,62-mm machine gun coaxial with a cannon with an ammunition load of 4 rounds and a 000-mm machine gun mounted on the roof of the tower near the commander's hatch are used.
A serious flaw in the form of an unstabilized cannon can significantly affect the firing capabilities of a French product, and this, in turn, can affect its survivability on the battlefield. But this is actually not such an important drawback. Even stabilizers do not give at least a 50 percent chance of accurately hitting a target on the move, and the current realities are such that hussar rally attacks on armored vehicles are an unlikely thing.
But the arsenal of the machine is very impressive. For the frontal protection of most of our tanks, of course, the penetration rates of the shells of the French vehicle, in principle, are not so dangerous. Only in the sides and stern, no more, but there the ancient grenades for the RPG-7 can cope - just like with Western tanks. The only exception is the T-62 with steel armor, which, taking into account the angles of inclination, does not give more than 200 mm.
Unlike tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers can get out of luck. There, even in the forehead, even in the side - for 105-mm shells there will be no difference.
Well, this is if such meetings between the “Frenchman” and our equipment take place at all. Still, the prose of the NWO is somewhat more banal than the poetry of estimates. Here, full-fledged high-explosive fragmentation shells of this machine come to the fore. A large caliber on a very mobile chassis can cause a lot of problems both fortified positions and when operating from ambushes. And this is greatly facilitated by the suspension capabilities of the AMX-10RCR, but more on that later.
Mobility and Legendary Suspension
As you know, a wheeled chassis in relation to armored vehicles is, first of all, high mobility. And the AMX-10RC/RCR will obviously not be an exception in this regard.
The 6F11 SRX diesel engine with a capacity of 280 horsepower, together with an automatic transmission, allows the car to accelerate to 85 km / h on the highway and 40-45 km / h off-road with a power reserve of 500 to 1 km, depending on road conditions. At the same time, the reverse speed is about the same, although in the AMX-000RCR modification it was limited to 10 kilometers per hour.
The passability on soft soils of the "Frenchman" as a whole is at the level of its counterparts. Nothing definite can be said about sourdough from the Ukrainian black soil here - it will be necessary to look at the practical application. But, for example, it drives quite confidently through wetlands, which is facilitated by the tire pressure control system.
An example of the operation of the hydropneumatic suspension AMX-10RCR
But something else is more interesting here.
Firstly, the AMX-10RC/RCR, unlike many wheeled armored vehicles with multi-axle chassis, can turn like a tank. In order to turn in any direction, he does not need to describe an arc or perform back-and-forth maneuvers. Everything is done on the spot.
Secondly, in the design of its suspension there is a hydropneumatic system (oil + nitrogen), which can change the position of the hull. With it, you can change not only the clearance - ground clearance - in the range from 210 mm to 600 mm, but also the trim. Roughly speaking, you can tilt the nose of the machine to the limit down, or literally lift it on its hind legs.
How this can help in combat, especially in ambushes, does not need much explanation. Raising the hull by almost 40 centimeters increases the visibility from the car and makes it possible to see those targets that previously did not fall into the field of view due to the terrain or other terrain features. And lowering or raising the bow of the AMX-10RC/RCR multiplies the angles of depression of the gun to hit targets.
In general, a very, very strong help not only in the open field, but also in those situations where the more familiar technology for us will be powerless.
Conclusions
First of all, of course, it is worth mentioning the cons.
Still, the AMX-10RC/RCR is a specific machine. This is not a tank and not an infantry fighting vehicle, and not an armored personnel carrier. And this, of course, is the reorganization or creation of a new staff of the military unit where they will go. With this, it seems, there will be no particular problems, but we will see an example of the use of cannon armored cars that are completely atypical for the armed forces of the post-Soviet countries.
Obviously, problems in logistics will also have a negative impact. "Frenchman" is generally not unified with any Western, and even more so Ukrainian weapons. Naturally, the suppliers will not scream for help, but spare parts and shells will force the use of the car, even if a few dozen pieces are handed over, in separate areas and not scattered along the entire NWO front.
Well, traditionally and formally: the AMX-10RC / RCR will not have a serious impact on the course of the special operation. Simply because Paris will not give up its entire fleet of the Foreign Legion and armored cavalry regiments. Well, ten pieces, twenty, thirty?
But it is formal and traditional. But in practice?
A weighty caliber with powerful projectiles on a mobile chassis, equipped with a thermal imager? You need to hammer this, even when it is on railway platforms somewhere in the western regions of Ukraine. But such cases are not yet practiced in our country, so we will have to sort it out, as they say, on the ground. And there it will be possible to stumble upon ambushes with the "French" and mobile armored groups with them - the Armed Forces of Ukraine have already managed to test the tactics of maneuverable groupings, therefore, perhaps, they will try to integrate the AMX-10RC / RCR into their staff with some success.
Information