AMX-50 (TOA100)
| This page is about the French medium tank AMX-50 (TOA100). For other uses, see AMX-50 (Family). |
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Contents
Description
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". It 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 85 mm 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 | 1,550 | 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.
Modifications and economy
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armaments
Main armament
| 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 | 48.0 | 53.1 | 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 100 mm 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 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 48° | 63° | 71° |
| 100 mm Obus explosif | HE | 1,000 | 14.8 | 0 | 0.1 | 1,400 | 79° | 80° | 81° |
Ammo racks
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| 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) | 7 (+43) | 1 (+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
| 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 manoeuvres will make the weak sides vulnerable.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- High penetration 100 mm 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 km/h)
- MAC 31 coaxial MG
- Fast turret rotation speed
- Sloped frontal armour can bounce some lower rank guns and APCR
- Very manoeuvrable
- Great flanker
- Higher velocity than the Russian 100 mm 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 45 mm 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
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 |
