M3A3 (Italy)

▄M3A3

AB 43

▄M24

▄M3A3

AB 43

▄M24

Italy

II Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
2.3	2.7	2.7

Class:

Light tank

Research:9 200

Purchase:16 000

Show in game

Description

The Carro Armato Leggero M3A3 is a rank II Italian light tank with a battle rating of 2.3 (AB) and 2.7 (RB/SB). It was introduced in Update "Starfighters".

General info

Survivability and armour

The frontal armor on the M3A3 is pretty tough for a light tank with 25mm on the front & sides of the hull, and a large, 50mm thick gun mantlet covering up most of its frontal turret. When angled correctly it can bounce off quite a few shots. However it can still be easily penetrated by average guns on its BR. From the front the 4 crews are sitting pretty close together, thus making it highly possible to get one-shotted by shells with explosives like the Soviet 45mm AP or the German short 75mm APHE. The transmission and the engine are all quite small and low, and the ammoracks are also small, reducing the chance of being immobile or ammoracked. There is also an empty area under the turret crews and in front of the driving compartment, which will absorb those shells with weak damage.

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	65	8	14.4	406	500	28.19	34.72
Realistic	59	7		232	262	16.11	18.19

One of the best aspect of the M3A3 (Italy) is its superior mobility. It has a top speed of 58 km/h and doesn't lose too much speed on soft terrains as it's tracked, making it one of the fastest tanks at the BR alongside with the famous BT series tanks. The turning ability is also amazing, since the hull is short and wide enough, allowing it to turn agilely. However, when trying to stop the tank while it is travelling at full speed, the brakes tend to be inefficient, giving it a long braking distance and making it very sluggish when stopping.

Armaments

Main armament

The M3A3 is armed with an 37 mm M6 cannon as its main armament, the same gun as the preceding M8. While being 1.3 BR higher than the M8, the M3A3's gun still packs a fierce punch if aiming at the correct area and firing at the correct distance. It is a small caliber fast-firing gun with a maximum penetration of 84mm at 100m (M51B1/B2 shell), being able to penetrate most of the opponents it will face. While it lacks the post-penetration damage to one-shot most enemy, it can quickly finish them off with its fast reload. The penetration and trajectory drops a lot beyond 500m. Note that the gun has a vertical stabiliser, giving the player a huge advantage in some cases, but keep in mind that the stabiliser only works when the tank is slower than 10 km/h.

Machine guns

The M3A3 has two 7.62 mm M1919A4 machine guns, one being coaxial to the main gun and the other roof mounted. The two machine guns can quickly incapacitate the exposed crews on some vehicles or do some serious damage to those low-passing planes. However it lacks the ability to effectively damage lightly armored vehicles due to its low penetration of only 10mm.

Usage in battles

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Modules

Tier	Mobility		Protection	Firepower
I
II
III
IV

Pros and cons

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Pros:

Cons:

History

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Media

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See also

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External links

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Italy light tanks
	Italy
L6/40	L6/40 · L6/40 (31 Rgt.)
M11/39	M11/39
Autoblindo	AB 41 · AB 43
Fiat 6614/6616	FIAT 6614 · AUBL/74 · AUBL/74 HVG
R3 Capraia	R3 T106 FA
Centauro	Centauro I 105 · Centauro I 105 R · Centauro I 120 · Centauro RGO · VRCC
Freccia	VBC (PT2) · Freccia
Dardo	Dardo · VCC-80/60 · VCC-80/30
Other	C13 T90
USA	▄M3A3 · ▄M24 · ▄M18
	Hungary
WWII	Csaba · Toldi IIA
Post	◔BTR-80A · KF41