AMX-50 Surblinde
Contents
Description
The AMX-50 Surblindé is a gift rank V French heavy tank with a battle rating of 7.7 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.89 "Imperial Navy" and has the distinction of being the first gift vehicle of the French tech trees. Member of the French AMX-50 tanks family, it is very similar to the AMX-50 Surbaissé. Compared to it, it is lower, has a more protected turret armour and has a 20mm MG 151 canon at the top, which is very efficient against aircraft and lightly armoured targets. Anyway, it is also heavier and hasn't smoke grenades launchers compared to the Surbaissé.
It could be obtained as the highest reward of the first season "Recon under Fire" of the World War mode, but can also be bought on the War Thunder Market.
General info
Survivability and armour
Armour type:
- Rolled homogeneous armour (hull, suspended part of the turret, turret roof)
- Cast homogeneous armour (turret base and front, gun mantlet, driver's hatch, cupola, exhaust pipe cover)
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 110 mm (48°) Front glacis 50 mm (71°) Driver's hatch 100 mm (59°) Lower glacis 100 mm (40°) Front cheeks |
75 mm (12°) Top 60 mm Bottom |
60 mm (1°) Upper plate 60 mm (31°) Lower glacis |
30 mm 5 mm Radiator vents |
| Turret | 85 mm (47-52°) Turret front 100 mm (cylindrical) Turret base 300 mm Barrel base |
100 mm (cylindrical) Turret base 85 mm (cylindrical) Barrel base 60 mm Turret pivot link 40 mm (cylindrical) Turret pivot underside 40 mm Suspended part 30 mm (72°) Suspended part underside |
20 mm (1-34°) Suspended part 40 mm (cylindrical) Turret pivot underside 30 mm (78°) Suspended part underside |
20 mm |
| Commander cupola | 110 mm (cylindrical) Base 40 mm (spherical) Dome |
40 mm (7-12°) | 40 mm (11-20°) 40 mm (spherical) Dome | |
| MG cupola | 40 mm (58-61°) | 40 mm (spherical) | 40 mm (2-32°) | |
Notes:
- Suspension wheels are 15 mm thick while tracks are 30 mm thick. Suspension wheels are interleaved and thus overlap in some areas.
- Hull undersides above tracks are 20 mm thick.
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 | 55 | 7 | 70 | 1,291 | 1,908 | 18.44 | 27.26 |
| Realistic | 52 | 6 | 884 | 1,000 | 12.63 | 14.29 | |
The AMX-50 Surblinde has a very good speed (around 40 km/h on flat land when fully upgraded) for a super heavy tank, which allows a fast deployment on the battlefield aside medium and modern tanks. The manoeuvrability is also good and allows the player to drive easily in an urban environment.
Modifications and economy
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armaments
Main armament
| 120 mm SA46 | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Capacity | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| Arcade | 50 | -6°/+10° | ±180° | N/A | 19.4 | 26.9 | 32.6 | 36.1 | 38.4 | 6.00 | 6.00 | 6.00 | 6.00 |
| Realistic | 14.3 | 16.8 | 20.4 | 22.6 | 24.0 | ||||||||
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 | ||
| 120 mm Obus de rupture | APBC | 301 | 298 | 286 | 272 | 258 | 245 |
| 120 mm Obus explosif | HE | 39 | 39 | 39 | 39 | 39 | 39 |
| 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% | |||||||
| 120 mm Obus de rupture | APBC | 1,067 | 23.1 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 47° | 60° | 65° |
| 120 mm Obus explosif | HE | 762 | 22.84 | 0 | 0.1 | 4,650 | 79° | 80° | 81° |
Ammo racks
| 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 |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | 47 (+3) | 43 (+7) | 39 (+11) | 34 (+16) | 29 (+21) | 23 (+27) | 19 (+31) | 1 (+49) | Yes |
Notes:
- Shells are modeled individually and disappear after having been shot or loaded.
- The visual discrepancy concerns the crossed out shell: it is modeled but can't be fired.
- Rack 8 (autoloader magazine) is a first stage ammo rack. It totals 18 shells.
- This rack gets filled first when loading up the tank and is also emptied first.
- As the AMX-50 Surblinde is equipped with an autoloader, manual reloading of the gun is not possible.
- Once the autoloader magazines have been depleted, you can't shoot until the loader has restocked the autoloader. The restocking time is longer than the normal reload time of the gun. Take this into account when playing.
- Simply not firing when the gun is loaded will move ammo from racks 1 to 7 into rack 8. Firing will interrupt the restocking of the ready racks.
- The depletion order at full capacity is: 8 - 1 - 2 up to 7.
Machine guns
| 20 mm MG 151 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Pintle | 500 (250) | 700 | -5°/+80° | ±180° |
| 7.5 mm MAC 31 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Coaxial | 3,000 (150) | 551 | N/A | N/A |
Usage in battles
Describe the tactics of playing in the vehicle, the features of using vehicles in the team and advice on tactics. Refrain from creating a "guide" - do not impose a single point of view but instead give the reader food for thought. Describe the most dangerous enemies and give recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of the game in different modes (AB, RB, SB).
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Powerful 120 mm gun, a shot can pen a target protected with an armour of about 300 mm
- Loading time is very short (6.0s), thanks to the autoloader
- Probably the most mobile super-heavy tank of the game, a careful commander can perform
- Very fast, can reach to 51 km/h on flat terrain
Cons:
- One shot in the turret can make the tank explode: up to 18 shells are stored at the back of the turret
History
Start of the project
In July 1945, in the aftermath of liberation, the general staff of the French armed forces expressed the need for a heavy tank of national design. In view of the rise of tensions with the USSR and with the balance sheets drawn from the last world conflict, the French Army presented a precise specification of what was to be the future main tank of the army. The tank was to be comparable on several points to already existing machines. Indeed, it was requested armament of a minimum power equivalent to the gun of 88 mm German Tiger II. It was also asked for a shield equivalent to that of the Panther and mobility close to that of the T-34.
The AMX-50 Surblindé
In 1955, an AMX 50 Surblindé (over-armoured) is produced, able to measure itself against the most powerful machines then in service. A variant of the AMX-50 Surbaissé with a reinforced armour, the front armour shape is inspired by Russian tanks IS-3 or T10. The weight of this prototype reached about 60 tons.
Abandonment of the project
The tests carried out indicated a tank superior to its American and Soviet counterparts that were M26 Pershing and IS-3 respectively. But the Americans did not want to finance a project that would not be adopted. It was, therefore, necessary that the two countries, France and West Germany, adopt the tank so that its development continues. If France seemed ready to accept the project, it was not the case of West Germany which was inspired by the doctrines of the former general Heinz Guderian, a supporter of lighter and faster tanks. In addition, the development of new technologies and capabilities in the field of missiles and hollow-shell shells would render the massive tank armour obsolete and unsuitable for future large-scale conflict.
Media
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
See also
Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the vehicles;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
| France heavy tanks | |
|---|---|
| B1 | B1 bis · B1 ter |
| 2C | 2C · 2C bis |
| ARL-44 | ARL-44 (ACL-1) |
| AMX-50 | Somua SM · AMX-50 Surbaissé · AMX-50 Surblindé |
| USA | ▄M4A3E2 |
