AMX-50 (TOA100)

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AMX-50 (TOA100)
fr_amx_50.png
AMX-50 (TOA100)
AB RB SB
7.0 7.7 7.0
Class:
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This page is about the medium tank AMX-50 (TOA100). For other uses, see AMX-50 (Family).

Description

GarageImage AMX-50 (TOA100).jpg


The AMX Char Moyen de 50 tonnes (TOA100) is a Rank V French medium tank with a battle rating of 7.0 (AB/SB) and 7.7 (RB). It was introduced in Update 1.75 "La Résistance". If features the same armament (and turret) as the Lorraine 40t on a more robust chassis, similar to that of the AMX M4, in sum, it is a fusion of the former's firepower and the latter's mobility and protection. It is the logical next step to the French rank IV medium tech tree.

The lower part resembles that of a Panther's hull with its overlapping metal road wheels, its two large fans over the engine deck, its sloped front and back armour and its high profile. There are a few things that distinguishes it from its predecessor: there is not longer a "flat" portion between the LFP and UFP and the two fan casings have been removed. As for the turret, it is quite a classical post-war French design: an oscillating turret fitted with an auto-loader mechanism, a long gun and turret bulge and a thick turret ring.

General info

Survivability and armour

Armour type:

  • Rolled homogeneous armour (hull, turret roof, cupola roof)
  • Cast homogeneous armour (turret, cupola)
Armour Front (Slope angle) Sides Rear Roof
Hull 80 mm (55°) Front glacis
35 mm (61°) Lower glacis
60 mm (39°) Front cheeks
40 mm (24°) Top
40 mm Bottom
40 mm (0-30°)
30 mm (30°) Transmission hatch
20 mm
Turret 45 mm (39-56°) Turret front
30 mm (9-26°) Turret base
50 mm (7-82°) Barrel shroud
30 mm (0-55°) Turret
30 mm (0-25°) Turret base
30 mm (0-30°) Turret bustle
30 mm (6-22°) Pivot ball
20 mm (69-90°) Turret underside
20 mm
Cupola 30 mm (45°) 30 mm (conical) 20 mm

Notes:

  • Suspension wheels and tracks are 20 mm thick. Suspension wheels are interleaved and thus overlap in some areas.
  • Add-on tracks hang on the hull sides in the crew compartment area.
  • Hull undersides above tracks are 20 mm thick.
  • Belly armour is 20 mm thick.
  • There is a 20 mm plate separating the crew compartment from the engine bay at the top of the hull.
  • There is a 5 mm plate separating the crew compartment from the engine bay at the bottom of the hull.

The AMX-50 (TOA100)'s hull is very similar to that of the famous German medium tank, even in armour values. It is only slightly weak from the side, making angling quite ineffective. This armour should be able to deflect incoming shots from the weaker tanks it may encounter at its BR spread, notably the famous Russian 85mm D-5T. With its good slope, it can easily deflect APCR shots. The only negative point is the turret: it is very weak to incoming shots, with only 45 mm sloped at 52°, it is a bit weaker than a T-34-85 (D-5T)'s hull. The only way to avoid being taken down too easily is to increase distance between the AMX-50 position and the enemy. Don't worry on that: the 100 mm gun is suited for that purpose.

Mobility

Game Mode Max Speed (km/h) Weight (tons) Engine power (horsepower) Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
Forward Reverse Stock Upgraded Stock Upgraded
Arcade 58 22 48.4 1550 1,908 32.02 39.42
Realistic 52 20 884 1,000 18.26 20.66

While not the fastest tank, the AMX-50 (TOA100) certainly is capable of many feats of agility. As mentioned in the AMX M4's article, this tank may be the slowest French rank IV tank, which is not a bad thing considering French tank's general dynamic game-play at this BR. "Don't put the tank in nasty front-line situations" is the best advice to follow with this tank. As it is, this 800+ HP engine should be able to carry the tank to any location in good time.

Armaments

Main armament

Main article: SA47 L/58 (100 mm)
100 mm SA47 L/58 Turret rotation speed (°/s) Reloading rate (seconds)
Mode Capacity Vertical Horizontal Stabilizer Stock Upgraded Full Expert Aced Stock Full Expert Aced
Arcade 50 -8°/+15° ±180° N/A 28.6 39.5 47.0 51.5 56.5 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00
Realistic 17.9 21.0 25.5 28.2 30.0

The SA47 L/58 is a very potent gun for a rank IV tank: it performs in a similar way to the Russian 100mm D-10T equipped on the T-54/55 (Family) series. While not having any HE filler in their AP rounds, the French engineers somehow managed to optimize armour spalling on penetrating shots and muzzle velocity, making these shells very good at long-range engagements. This gun is also mounted with an auto-loader, which provides it with a solid 4 seconds reload time. It has good gun depression and a fast turret traverse, which enables this tank to react quickly to flankers and take solid hulled-down position, its high gun placement minimizes the tank's silhouette behind hills.

Ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition Type of
warhead
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
10 m 100 m 500 m 1,000 m 1,500 m 2,000 m
100 mm Obus de rupture APCBC 273 270 257 242 228 215
100 mm Obus explosif HE 18 18 18 18 18 18
Shell details
Ammunition Type of
warhead
Velocity
(m/s)
Projectile
Mass (kg)
Fuse delay
(m)
Fuse sensitivity
(mm)
Explosive Mass
(TNT equivalent) (g)
Ricochet
0% 50% 100%
100 mm Obus de rupture APCBC 1,000 15.0 N/A N/A N/A 48° 63° 71°
100 mm Obus explosif HE 1,000 15.0 0.1 0.5 1,400 79° 80° 81°

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the AMX-50 (TOA100)
Full
ammo
1st
rack empty
2nd
rack empty
3rd
rack empty
4th
rack empty
5th
rack empty
6th
rack empty
7th
rack empty
8th
rack empty
9th
rack empty
Visual
discrepancy
50 49 (+1) 44 (+6) 37 (+13) 30 (+20) 23 (+27) 16 (+34) 12 (+38) (+43) (+49) No

This tank features an auto-loading system that removes the need for a crew member to reload the main gun, although a loader is present to restock the auto-loader. A large drum of seven rounds is found underneath the gun breech for rapid use. Once this drum is empty, rounds in the hull will need to be placed in the auto-loader rack before it can be used by the auto-loader, which takes about 14 seconds to perform for one round. Nine rounds are found in three racks near the bottom of the hull behind the driver and machine-gunner while the rest of the stowage is found in the side sponsons above the tracks, aside from a small rack of 5 rounds near the rear of the turret.

Notes:

  • Ammo rack 9 is the auto-loader drum and takes priority in being filled at the beginning of the battle, then fills racks 8 through 1.
  • If the auto-loader drum is empty, the main gun cannot fire until ammo is loaded into the auto-loader drum.
  • Simply not firing when the main gun is loaded will load ammo from racks 1-8 into the ready rack, as long as there is ammo present in racks 1-8. Firing the main gun will interrupt the loading of the ready racks.

Machine guns

Main article: MAC 31 (7.5 mm)
7.5 mm MAC 31
Mount Capacity (Belt) Fire rate Vertical Horizontal
Coaxial 4,800 (150) 1,350 N/A N/A

The small calibre of the MAC 31 machine gun makes it largely ineffective against all armoured vehicles but the ones with an open compartment. It still can be used to ping targets as a rangefinding help or to mow down minor obstacles blocking your line of sight.

Usage in battles

This medium tank performs good in its role, being versatile enough to take many battlefield roles: flanker, sniper and ambusher. The only thing it is insufficient at is absorbing damaging shots: there are too many weak spots on this tank to take anything bigger than HMG to the front. Don't stay too close to the front line since the reverse speed will not allow the tank to escape sufficiently fast and flanking maneuvers will make the weak sides vulnerable.

Modules

Tier Mobility Protection Firepower
I Tracks Parts Horizontal Drive
II Suspension Brake System FPE Adjustment of Fire
III Filters Crew Replenishment Elevation Mechanism
IV Transmission Engine Artillery Support

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • High penetration 100mm main gun with an auto-loader!
  • Amazing conical spread from stock APCBC shells. They are free and frontal hits will be deadly.
  • High top speed (57 kph)
  • MAC 31 coaxial MG
  • Fast turret rotation speed
  • Sloped frontal armour can bounce some lower rank guns and APCR
  • Very maneuverable
  • Great flanker
  • Higher velocity than the Russian 100mm D-10T gun, easier to aim at range.
  • Has 5 crew members
  • Wide tracks: able to cross all sorts of terrain with good speed.
  • Overlapping wheels provide extra 20 mm to the hull's lower side.

Cons:

  • Armour will not protect the tank from rank 4/5 guns
  • No explosive filler in shells, one hit KOs from the side are rare.
  • One choice of shell. No APHE, no HEAT, no APDS/FS.
  • Less penetration than the Russian 100 mm APCBC, with less post penetration damage.
  • Same turret as the Lorraine 40t: only 45mm thick
  • Elevation angle is only 15°: it sometimes is a problem.
  • Gun elevation speed is slow due to oscillating turret design.
  • Large, Panther-like hull, hard to hide.
  • Incapacitated loader will disable this tank from shooting its coaxial MG.
  • Weak LFP
  • High repair cost

History

Design

In the late 1940s, the French Army was looking to replace the medium tanks Panther and ARL 44 that were becoming obsolete with a new 50t medium tank. The new tank was to be the future spearhead of French armoured divisions. The French company AMX started working on a proposal which was essentially an improved Tiger II on the drawing board. The project evolved and later resulted in the AMX-50 tank. The AMX-50 present in the game is the second prototype of the project.

Development

In order to save weight from the Tiger II's initial weight of 70 tons, the first AMX proposal was an underarmoured version of the Tiger II with only 30 mm armour plates. The French Army quickly indicated that such a thickness was too weak for the intended purpose. The armour of the hull was increased to 80 mm frontally and 40 mm for the sides and the weight-saving measures were then applied to other components. The original turret was changed for an oscillating turret whose design was already available and the suspension wheels were redesigned to get rid of the interleaving wheels. The new version was approved and a first prototype dubbed M4 was produced at the end of 1949 with a 90 mm SA 45 gun and a weight slightly above 50 tons. The second prototype called AMX-50/100 was produced 1 year later with the 100 mm SA 47 L/50 gun, a slightly modified turret and a weight close to 55 tons. After testing in 1952 and 1953, the French Army reclassified the AMX-50 as heavy tank as it could not reach more than 50 km/h on roads and 20 km/h off-road due to an insufficient output of the powerplant. The tank had a ratio of 15 hp/ton against the 20 expected. The availability of the more modern M47 medium tank through NATO cooperation made the need for the AMX-50 obsolete. Following its reclassification, there were several attempts to transform the AMX-50 in a real heavy tank like the AMX-50 surbaissé or the AMX-50 surblindé. But the need for heavy tanks would gradually disappear with the appearance of shaped charges (HEAT projectiles and missiles).

Combat usage

The AMX-50 never saw either service or combat action with the French Army.

Media

Skins
Videos

See also

Vehicles equipped with the same chassis
Vehicles equipped with the same gun

External links


France medium tanks
M4 Derivatives  M4A1 (FL10) · M4A4 (SA50)
AMX-50  AMX M4 · AMX-50 (TOA100) · AMX-50 (TO90/930)
AMX-30  AMX-30 · AMX-30 (1972) · AMX-30B2 · AMX-30B2 BRENUS · AMX-30 ACRA · AMX-30 Super
AMX-32/40  AMX-32 · AMX-32 (105) · AMX-40
Leclerc  Leclerc · Leclerc S2 · Leclerc SXXI · Leclerc AZUR
Other  D2 · S.35 · Lorraine 40t
Germany  Panther "Dauphiné"
USA  ▄M4A1 · ▄M4A3 (105) · ▄M4A4 · ▄M26