XM803

XM803

T95E1

MBT-70

XM803

T95E1

MBT-70

USA

VI Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
8.7	9.0	9.0

Class:

Medium tank

Research:190 000

Purchase:520 000

Show in game

Description

The Tank, Combat, Full-Tracked, 152-mm Gun/Launcher XM803 is a Rank VI American light tank with a battle rating of 8.7 (AB) and 9.0 (RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.79 "Project X".

General info

Survivability and armour

Describe armour protection. Note the most well protected and key weak areas. Appreciate the layout of modules as well as the number and location of crew members. Is the level of armour protection sufficient, is the placement of modules helpful for survival in combat?

If necessary use a visual template to indicate the most secure and weak zones of the armour.

Mobility

The mobility of the vehicle is worse than that of the MBT-70. In its stock configuration, it has a horsepower/ton ratio of 21.39, while with all upgrades this increases to 24.19 HP/T. The top speed (both forward and reverse) is 64 km/h (40 mph) with 8 gears for both directions. The tank can reach its top speed quickly on flat roads, while on more difficult terrain the top speed drops by around 20 km/h. The tank has neutral steering and good turning ability on all terrains.

Armaments

Main armament

152 mm XM150E5
Capacity			Vertical guidance	Horizontal guidance	Horizontal guidance
53			-10°/+20°	±180°	Two-plane
Turret rotation speed (°/s)
Mode	Stock	Upgraded	Prior + Full crew	Prior + Expert qualif.	Prior + Ace qualif.
Arcade	34.3	__.__	__.__	__.__	__.__
Realistic	21.4	__.__	__.__	__.__	__.__
Reloading rate (seconds)
Stock	Prior + Full crew	Prior + Expert qualif.	Prior + Ace qualif.
10.00	10.00	10.00	10.00

Ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration in mm @ 90°
		10m	100m	500m	1000m	1500m	2000m
XM578E1	APFSDS	380	370	360	345	330	315
M409A1	HEAT	354	354	354	354	354	354
MGM-51C	ATGM	431	431	431	431	431	431

Shell details
Ammunition	Velocity in m/s	Projectile Mass in kg	Fuse delay in m:	Fuse sensitivity in mm:	Explosive Mass in g (TNT equivalent):	Normalization At 30° from horizontal:	Ricochet:
							0%	50%	100%
XM578E1	1,500	3.7	N/A	N/A	N/A	+1.5°	76°	77°	78°
M409A1	754	19	0.0	0.1	3,730	+0°	62°	69°	73°
MGM-51C	323	28	0.0	0.01	3,600	+0°	80°	82°	90°

Smoke characteristic
Ammunition	Velocity in m/s	Projectile Mass in kg	Screen radius in m	Screen time in s	Screen hold time in s:	Explosive Mass in g (TNT equivalent):
XM410E1	754	19	25	5	30	50

Ammo racks

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	3rd rack empty	4th rack empty	5th rack empty	Visual discrepancy
53	XX (+XX)	XX (+XX)	XX (+XX)	XX (+XX)	1 (+52)	No

Machine guns

12.7 mm M85
Pintle mount
Capacity (Belt capacity)				Fire rate (shots/minute)	Vertical guidance	Horizontal guidance
1,000 (200)				577	-9°/+65°	±180°

7.62 mm M73
Coaxial mount
Capacity (Belt capacity)				Fire rate (shots/minute)	Vertical guidance	Horizontal guidance
6,000 (250)				500	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 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:

• Has spaced armor
• Stock ammunition consists of the good MGM 51C "Shillelagh" Guided Missile, means no ammo costs for using it, plus a decent but inferior HEAT Shell.
• Has access to APFSDS Shells with 380 mm of penetrating Power on a 90° angled armour plate @ 10m.
• Extremely fast in both forwards and reverse.
• Fast acceleration.
• Top mounted 50 cal can allow you to damage low-flying aircraft

Cons:

• Long reload on the gun (10 seconds) which cannot be improved since it is an autoloader
• The spaced armor is not composite armor and cannot provide adequate protection against most guns of its rank
• Weak sides and LFP
• Ammo racks are large and can be easily hit, and does not have blowout panels
• Vulnerable to the rear due to raised engine deck
• Cramped interior, loss of more than one crew member more likely when penetrated
• Does not have access to the roof-mounted 20mm like the MBT-70 which could be very useful in certain situations

History

Once it became apparent that the MBT-70 project was doomed to fail in the early ‘70s due to high costs and reliability issues, the U.S. Congress decided to cut their losses on the project by cancelling the MBT-70, and instead, diverted funding to the development of a new project called XM803.

The XM803 was, in essence, envisioned to be a “budget version” of the MBT-70. Although the new vehicle would heavily be based on the MBT-70, inheriting many of its design solutions, it would also try to drastically reduce production costs by using more conventional and only American-made parts. Although this meant that the XM803 had to give up some of its high-tech equipment in favor of lower production costs, it was projected that the influence of these changes on the XM803’s combat performance would be minimal.

Despite showing favorable performance and being seen as a promising design by the Army, the XM803 still remained a comparably expensive tank to produce even with the applied changes over the MBT-70. Moreover, neither the MBT-70 nor the XM803 seemed to offer any substantial increase in combat performance over the already in service M60 Patton to justify the high production cost. This ultimately led to the Congress cancelling work on the XM803 only a short while after the cancellation of the MBT-70. In the late 1970s, some funding of the two failed projects would later on find its way to support the development of an entirely new, but this time around, more conventional tank project. That tank of course being the legendary M1 Abrams itself.

- From Devblog

Media

An excellent addition to the article will be video guides, as well as 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

• [Devblog] XM803: The Second Chance