AMX-50 (TO90/930)
This page is about the premium French medium tank AMX-50 (TO90/930). For other versions, see AMX-50 (Family). |
Contents
Description
The AMX-50 program started in 1945 as a requirement called NOM 141 (Project 141) as a 30 ton weight class medium tank. NOM 141 was to replace the then-new ARL-44 as the next generation of indigenous French tanks, but development was protracted and went through many design iterations. The AMX-50s received their signature oscillating turrets in 1949 as the AMX M4, equipped with a 90 mm cannon which was deemed inadequate by that point which led to an upgunning program. This resulted in two 100 mm equipped AMX-50s being produced, one being a conversion of the AMX M4 and the other being a new vehicle built from the ground up to AMX-50 (TOA100) standard. The AMX-50 (TO90/30) is an AMX-50 with the turret of the Char 25t - developed in 1950 and still retaining the 90 mm gun. An intermediate step, it unfortunately did not make it far into development as the French were looking towards a larger caliber and longer gun - something which eventually led to the development of the AMX-50 Surblinde and [[AMX-50 Surbaisse].
The AMX Char Moyen de 50 tonnes (TO90/930) is a premium gift rank V French medium tank with a battle rating of 8.0 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced during Update "Apex Predators" as a reward for Battle Pass: Season X, "Royal Guard". Veterans of the French tree will quickly notice that this vehicle shares a turret with the Char 25t, an extremely potent light tank, which is sure to spark a smile for anyone in the know. The TO90 fires M82 APHE like the Char 25t does, but unlike American M82 fired from the US 90 mm the 90 mm on the French tanks has a longer barrel, meaning they penetrate over 20 mm more armor and break the 200+ threshold in penetration. Alongside the slightly faster shell velocity and 4 second autoloader of the turret and using your extreme mobility you can shred the flanks of an unaware enemy team with ease. The only things to note are your lack of armor against anything above autocannon fire and the fact that too much firing at once can empty your ready racks - if you can compensate for both, this vehicle is a beast that offers one-shot potential unlike any other tank in the tree down to its APHE round with high filler while also being incredibly nimble.
General info
Survivability and armour
Though not thick, the armour is highly angled and can bounce some hastily placed shots. It will not bounce APDS or HEAT rounds, so be wary of enemy tank fire. However, it may be preferable to be hit by APDS or HEATFS over APHE, as APHE will usually kill you instantly while rounds like APDS can sometimes only knock out a single crew member. It is recommended to stay out of enemy line of fire if possible using your excellent mobility, as your strengths are in fast flanking maneuvers, not bouncing shells.
Armour type:
Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
---|---|---|---|---|
Hull | ___ mm | ___ mm Top ___ mm Bottom |
___ mm | ___ - ___ mm |
Turret | ___ - ___ mm Turret front ___ mm Gun mantlet |
___ - ___ mm | ___ - ___ mm | ___ - ___ mm |
Cupola | ___ mm | ___ mm | ___ mm | ___ mm |
Notes:
Mobility
The AMX-50 (TO90/30) has excellent mobility. It is only around ~1 HP/t worse than the M18 in terms of horsepower per ton despite the vehicle weighing nearly three times as much, meaning it exhibits near light-tank levels of agility and reactivity. Its reverse gear is also more than adequate, with a -20 km/h reverse speed allowing for quick repositioning. This is the vehicle's strongest asset, so use it wisely.
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 | 46.1 | 1,550 | 1,908 | 33.62 | 41.39 |
Realistic | 52 | 20 | 884 | 1,000 | 19.18 | 21.69 |
Modifications and economy
Armaments
Main armament
The D.911 APX (90 mm) is a cannon capable of firing the M82 APHE round. Unlike on American vehicles using the same shell, this gun is longer and adds another 20 mm to the penetration and around 80 m/s to its velocity, making it even more lethal. The cannon may not go through every tank's frontal weakspots, especially Soviet MBT designs and heavy tanks, but you have the mobility to flank around them and lay an ambush. The 4 second autoloader leaves much wiggle room in case of a missed shot, which also means you can go for a disabling shot first if in a pinch.
90 mm D.911 APX | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mode | Capacity | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Autoloader |
Arcade | 52 | -6°/+11° | ±180° | - | 34.3 | 47.4 | 57.6 | 63.7 | 67.8 | 4.00 |
Realistic | 21.4 | 25.2 | 30.6 | 33.8 | 36.0 |
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 | ||
T33 shot | APBC | 198 | 195 | 182 | 168 | 155 | 143 |
M71A1 shell | HE | 19 | 19 | 18 | 16 | 16 | 16 |
M82 shot | APCBC | 209 | 207 | 195 | 182 | 170 | 158 |
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% | ||||||||||
T33 shot | APBC | 930 | 10.91 | - | - | - | 47° | 60° | 65° | |||
M71A1 shell | HE | 800 | 10.55 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 1,210 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
M82 shot | APCBC | 930 | 10.91 | 1.2 | 14 | 137.2 | 48° | 63° | 71° |
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 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
52 | 49 (+3) | 42 (+10) | 35 (+17) | 28 (+24) | 21 (+31) | 17 (+35) | 13 (+39) | 1 (+51) | No |
Machine guns
7.5 mm MAC 31 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
Coaxial | 4,800 (150) | 551 | - | - |
Pintle | 1,200 (150) | 551 | -5°/+20° | ±180° |
Usage in battles
The AMX-50 (TO90//30) is in a way a light tank in a medium tank's clothing; With the acceleration and mobility of something more akin to a M18 than any other medium tank in its weight class of 46 tons. Playing the TO90 is fairly straightforward - you have a 4 second autoloader and incredible mobility and adequate gun depression for what your gun is capable of, and as such the best tactic is usually to pick a flank and pick apart the enemy team from their vulnerable sides.
The higher penetration M82 round compared to its American contemporaries means that some weakspots are more easily penetrated (the best example being the ability to go through the entire turret face of the Tiger II (H) at closer ranges compared to the single, mostly inconsistent speck of armor the US M82 round has to hit accurately. One thing to note is the 12-round ready rack in the style of a drum magazine; in longer engagements you can very much run out of ammunition in the rack, so be wary when firing continuously. Retreat to a capture point or relocate if you're running low on ammo, both to reduce your chances of dying due to being unable to fire back and to confuse your enemies even more.
Vehicles you may want to be wary of are heavily armored behemoths such as the Maus or IS-4M. Ironically the higher BR T-10M has more frontal weakspots than the IS-4M against your gun; against the 4M you can't really do much frontally outside of nicking the commander, so barreling it is highly recommended. Against the other heavily armored tanks however the advice is fairly straightforward; disable them or get on their flanks without them noticing, then shoot into their much thinner side armor to bypass that protection to begin with.
With this vehicle positioning is key, but unfortunately this is an acquired skill and not an advantage you can easily exploit like armor or firepower. Pick either an excellent flanking route or a route most people avoid because it gets them less kills (a good example being near the bottom side of Poland as people funnel into the town for kills), and you'll generally find success. If you see an enemy ahead, try and ambush them instead of immediately cresting the hill only to get shot in the lower plate and exploding like a firework, as oscillating turrets are generally horrible fits for gun stability and even the 4 second reload would be insufficient if they see you coming. Be more patient, peeking out only when they're distracted or if you are confident you can win the gun fight, and the enemy team will be wondering why they're being pushed back to spawn as their entire front line collapses to your side flank push. It is also to note to try and avoid shooting upwards - oscillating turrets generally allow gun depression but are not so kind when the turret wishes to elevate, in part due to the drum style loader sticking out the back of the turret.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Excellent mobility
- M82 APHE round has devastating post-penetration damage
- Armour can help bounce some poorly placed shots
- Turret rotation speed is good
- 4 second autoloader with 12 rounds in the rack is excellent for most engagements
Cons:
- Raw penetration power is somewhat lacking compared to the enemies it can face
- The armour is inadequate for consistent protection
- Pintle mounted machine gun is rifle caliber, and can only raise 20°
- Prolonged combat can run the ready racks dry, which take a while to reload
History
Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the vehicle in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main
template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>
, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />
. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===
, also if applicable).
Media
- Skins
- Videos
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 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 |
France premium ground vehicles | |
---|---|
Light tanks | AMD.35 (SA35) · H.39 "Cambronne" · LVT-4/40 · AMX-13 (SS.11) · AMX-13-M24 · E.B.R. (1954) · E.B.R. (1963) · VBCI-2 (MCT30) |
Medium tanks | M4A1 (FL10) · Panther "Dauphiné" · AMX-30 · AMX-30 Super · AMX-50 (TO90/930) |
Heavy tanks | B1 ter · 2C bis · Somua SM |
Tank destroyers | Lorraine 155 Mle.50 |