France is a relatively different country in the Western allies, especially in NATO, and the de Gaulle principle of military autonomy has led to France's prominence in NATO led by the United States or the entire Western world, which continues to this day. After the end of World War II, before the Cold War had even begun, France began its own road to military autonomy in 1946, and France began to design and develop new armored vehicles for its own army, and their design ideas far exceeded those of other countries.
In the design concept of light tanks, France believes that it needs to quickly transport armored assault forces to overseas territories, and from the beginning of the design, it is required that light tanks should be suitable for supporting airborne operations, and can use airborne methods to quickly maneuver. And the French military demanded that light tanks should be suitable for the loading and use of other weapons of the modified army, and at the same time issued a request for proposals to companies. In 1949, the design of the French company Issellino Lino was selected, and in 1951 it began to be standardized, named AMx13 51.
Production began in 1952 at the Noron manufacturing plant in France. In the following years, the first tanks were produced, with a monthly production of 45. Since 1953, the tank has been exported to more than a dozen countries, and by 1982, the world's total production reached 3,000, which emphasized its transportation capacity as early as the beginning of the design. In order to facilitate air transport, the hull of the Mx13 is relatively small, with a total length of 6.36 meters, a width of 2.51 meters, a height of 2.35 meters, an empty weight of 13.7 tons, and a total combat weight of 14.5 tons. There were three members of the car, namely the commander, the gunner and the driver. The commander is located on the left inside the turret and is observed using eight periscopes, while the gunner's right side is observed using two periscopes.
It is worth noting that due to the small body, the members of the car must not exceed 1.73 meters. For the Generally Tall Frenchman, the AMx13 had to be driven by a small man. Another interesting feature is the automatic reloading system. The AMx13 pioneered the autoloader, becoming the first tank to be able to automatically reload shells. Of the tanks that entered service in the 1950s, few were fitted with autoload systems, and the AMx13 was one of the few. Due to the use of a shaking turret, the gun trunnion is fixed to the upper part of the turret, and the relative displacement of the two is not large, and it is easier to arrange the automatic loading system. The AMx13 uses a revolver-like rotary automatic loader that uses the recoil of the gun to drain the empty shell shell out of the vehicle after firing, while the loader rotates to send a shell into the ready position.
Due to the use of automatic loaders, the AMx13 eliminated the loader, there were only two commanders and gunners in the turret, the firing speed reached 12 rounds per minute, much higher than the tanks of the same era, when the shells in the rotating magazine were exhausted, the commander and gunner could load spare shells into the rotating magazine from the ammunition depot next to the seat to continue the battle. The AMx13 body is made of steel plate welded structure, the front and upper armor of the hull are obviously tilted, the anti-wave plate is usually located in the lower position of the front upper armor plate, and the front upper armor plate has two windows, the left side is the driver's hatch, and the right side is the power transmission inspection hatch. The cockpit cover is fitted with three periscopes, one of which can be replaced by infrared or low-light driving.
The design of this tank is very different from that of other countries, and the biggest feature is the use of FL10 shaking turrets. The various turrets are divided into upper and lower parts, located in the middle of the hull. The upper part of the turret is mainly a gun fire control system, communication and observation system, using trunnions installed in the groove of the lower turret protrusion, and rigidly connected to the gun. The lower part is mounted on the hull, supported by half of the ball seat, mainly responsible for the rotation of the turret, the rotation speed is 30 degrees per second, and the advantage of the turret can also be changed from hydraulic to manual control when shaking is that without considering the gun pitch mechanism, you can use a more powerful gun, automatic loader, more convenient, and can reduce the height of the turret, reduce the diameter of the turret seat, so it also reduces the width and weight of the turret, and also facilitates the realization of loading automation.
The disadvantage is that the turret sealing difficulty is small, the bulletproof ability is also very poor, the connection can only be connected with flexible materials, the protection ability is insufficient, even if the bullet is shot here, it may cause the gun to jam, resulting in the inability to pitch. The AMx13 powertrain is powered by Renault's 8GXB eight-cylinder water-cooled petrol engine, which delivers 250 horsepower and has a top speed of 65 km/h. The transmission adopts a five-speed mechanical transmission and a Cleveland type differential steering machine, suspended as an independent torsion bar type, consisting of 5 pairs of hanging rubber load wheels, the active wheel in front, the induction wheel in the rear, the track board in steel, and if necessary, rubber liners can also be installed.
However, the tank does not have a three-defense device, cannot wade into deep water, and has not yet been equipped with night vision equipment. As a result, many countries have added equipment such as gunners, infrared sights and infrared searchlights after the purchase of the AMx13. The tank currently in production is equipped with a passive night sight and a night driving instrument, as well as a TCV29 laser rangefinder and a battlefield aiming automatic display. The tank was fitted with a 75 mm gun with a height limit of 1.82 meters, a muzzle brake, and an automatic reloading mechanism. Two drum-shaped magazines at the rear of the turret were fed with six rounds of shells in each bay.
The ammunition for the artillery was equipped with armor-piercing shells and grenades, and the ammunition base was 37 rounds, although the number of vehicles produced in the later period increased to 44 rounds. The secondary armament consisted of a 7.5 mm or 7.62 mm parallel machine gun with 3,600 rounds of ammunition. In addition, the turret is also equipped with two smoke screen grenade launchers on each side, as early as the early 60s, France also installed a 90 mm gun on the tank, the gun has a muzzle brake, thermal sheath, etc., can fire tail stabilized shell piercing shells, armor-breaking shells.
In addition, there are many countries that have been equipped with different caliber guns, of which France has specially developed a 105 mm type for export, which is equipped with a FL12 turret and a gun with the same firing method as the MX30 tank, and can fire a stable shell-piercing shell, submunition, smoke bomb, armor-piercing shell, high-explosive shell and more powerful anti-tank high-explosive ammunition, with a reserve capacity of 32 rounds, of which there are 12 shells in the magazine, nine inside, and another one is installed on the top of the turret in the hull with a coaxial machine gun. 3600 rounds of ammunition. In addition, the AMx13 has also developed a variety of variants, the French armored transport vehicle, bridge car, self-propelled howitzer, etc., and other countries have countless variants.
Interestingly, Switzerland once purchased some AMx13 light tanks from France, which they were called Panzer 51 in the Swiss Army, mainly for the defense of the homeland, using excellent mobility and artillery pitch angle as tank destroyers to defend against foreign invasion. However, the Swiss did not stick to the rules, and they also made many modifications to the tanks in an attempt to give some other functions. One of the modifications was called the lite panda 51, a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, which, unlike the French version of the double 30 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, was modified in Switzerland to use a Swiss self-developed gun, the chassis of the tank was not changed, but the original swing turret was cancelled, and an open rotating combat platform was installed, which was originally water-cooled sleeve, supplied with a 60-round belt, but here the water-cooled sleeve was cancelled and at the same time it was fed with a ten-round magazine.
However, in the end, the modification of this self-propelled anti-aircraft gun was not successful, although the basic performance of the gun was very good, but in the era at that time, the small-caliber anti-aircraft gun needed better shooting accuracy, and this happened to be the weakness of the gun, and it had to be said that it was still the original good. After 1964, production of the AMx13 was handed over to the French company Croso Loire, after which the production of the tank was greatly reduced, and production was finally stopped in 1987. However, at this time, the AMx13 is still in service, and after-sales and upgrade services are still in progress. By the early 1990s, the AMx13 began to be phased out of the French army and was gradually replaced by the ERC90 and AMx10RC, and the story of the AMx13 in France ended, but its derivatives will continue to serve in countries around the world in the future, continuing to write a good story about it. The introduction of the AMx13 light tank ends here, and if there is any lack of introduction, please come to the comment area to discuss. Thanks for watching, we won't see you in the next issue.