Ariete (P)
| This page is about the Italian MBT Ariete (P). For other vehicles of the family, see Ariete (Family). |
.jpg)
Contents
Description
The C1 Ariete (Preserie) is a rank VII Italian medium tank with a battle rating of 10.7 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.87 "Locked On".
General info
Survivability and armour
The Ariete Preserie is one of the least armoured MBTs in the game, but it can surprisingly withstand a lot of damage from enemies at its battle rating. The hull is one large weak spot with a huge LFP consisting of just one angled 50 mm plate that won't stop anything fired at you, while the UFP is made out of spaced armor that can only stop auto-cannon rounds or 105 mm APDS shells. Like most MBTs, you really don't want to be shot from the sides, as exposing that part of your tank will more than likely lead to a swift end. Unlike some Soviet or American tanks you'll face, you cannot rely on your armour to absorb shots, as a rule of thumb its best to keep your distance and pick off enemies that cannot severely damage you. In conclusion, it is advised to play this tank away from the front lines, and sniping whenever possible and peaking from behind cover to maximize the use of your turret armour.
Armour type:
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | Spaced Armor Upper glacis
50 (50°) Lower glacis 35 (60°) Sponson front |
10-20 mm Top 35 mm Bottom |
20 mm | 35 mm Crew compartment
20 mm Engine compartment 5 mm Exhaust radiators |
| Turret | Composite armor Turret front Spaced armor + 90 mm Gun mantlet |
Spaced armor | 20 mm + 10 mm | 40 mm Front portion
20 mm Rear portion |
Notes:
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 | 73 | 52 | 54 | 1,761 | 2,480 | 32.61 | 45.93 |
| Realistic | 65 | 47 | 1,150 | 1,300 | 21.3 | 24.07 | |
Modifications and economy
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Armaments
Main armament
| 120 mm OTO Breda 120/44 | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Capacity | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| Arcade | 42 | -10°/+20° | ±180° | Two-plane | 38.1 | 52.7 | 64.0 | 70.8 | 75.3 | 7.80 | 6.90 | 6.36 | 6.00 |
| Realistic | 23.8 | 28.0 | 34.0 | 37.6 | 40.0 | ||||||||
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 | ||
| DM12A1 | HEATFS | 480 | 480 | 480 | 480 | 480 | 480 |
| DM23 | APFSDS | 410 | 408 | 401 | 393 | 384 | 376 |
| DM33 | APFSDS | 481 | 478 | 470 | 461 | 450 | 440 |
| 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% | |||||||
| DM12A1 | HEATFS | 1,140 | 13.5 | 0.05 | 0.1 | 2,150 | 65° | 72° | 77° |
| DM23 | APFSDS | 1,640 | 4.3 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 78° | 80° | 81° |
| DM33 | APFSDS | 1,640 | 4.3 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 78° | 80° | 81° |
Ammo racks
.png)
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 42 | 16 (+26) | 1 (+41) | No |
Notes:
- Shells are modeled individually and disappear after having been shot or loaded.
- Rack 2 is a first stage ammo rack. It totals 15 shells and gets filled first when loading up the tank.
- Simply not firing when the gun is loaded will move ammo from rack 1 into rack 2. Firing will interrupt the restocking of the ready rack.
Machine guns
Offensive and anti-aircraft machine guns not only allow you to fight some aircraft but also are effective against lightly armoured vehicles. Evaluate machine guns and give recommendations on its use.
| 7.62 mm Beretta MG42/59 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Coaxial | 4,500 (200) | 1,200 | N/A | N/A |
| Pintle | 2,000 (200) | 1,200 | -8°/+60° | ±120° |
Usage in battles
When playing the Ariete (P), there are 2 main ways to maximize your effectiveness. First, if you are playing at your actual batte rating, your armour can actually withstand a lot of shots if played right. Knowing that, play aggressively and surprise the enemy where it does not expect you, an enemy taken by surprise might shoot by reflex without taking the time to aim carefully, giving you enough time to make a clean shot and move onward to the next target. Remember that in Arcade Battles, enemies can easily find out where you are with your name tag and where your weak spots are. Second, in the occurrence of an up-tier, it puts you at a severe disadvantage, since you cannot rely on your armor anymore. It also means you'll have trouble actually picking off enemies as your ammunition will also lack penetration power. So the best play-style would be more supportive: try flanking maneuvers, stick with your better armored teammates who can withstand hits, try your best to attack from the sides as they are always a weak spot, even for the most armored of MBTs. Doing this will help you stay alive longer and be a useful asset to your team.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Powerful 120 mm gun
- Decent frontal armour, thanks to the use of composites
- DM33 is a 10.7 round at a full BR lower - can penetrate all tanks at its own BR and can easily penetrate weak spots in an uptier
- No ammo rack in the turret - a penetration in the turret rarely destroys the tank in one shot
- Front of the turret is immune to 105 mm HEAT-FS and lower tier 105 mm, 120 mm and 125 mm APFSDS
- Generation 1 thermals for the gunner
- High reverse
- High turret rotation speed
- Can make good use of hull down positions, though not as effectively as some contemporaries
- Decent mobility at medium and high speeds
- Fantastic gun handling characteristics
- All-round capable and fun tank to use
Cons:
- Low reactive mobility at low speed
- Armour is thin and should not be relied upon - a trait shared by all versions of the Ariete
- Huge ammo rack in the front
- The front armour of the turret can be pierced by higher tier 105 mm, 120 mm and 125 mm APFSDS
- The 2 rifle calibre machine guns are not very effective against enemy helicopters or aircraft
- Weak spot beneath the gun always knocks the gun out
History
The C1 Ariete preserie was one of the first pre-production batches of the C1 Ariete MBT. The preseries lacked a lot of details and modifications that the production C1 Ariete would end up having. But before we get into that, the C1 Ariete was born out of the need of the Italian army to modernize their fleet of tanks they had during the cold war. The Italian army utilized several tanks through the years, but the ones that they had in service would not longer be advanced enough to compete with what the rest of the world was doing in terms of tank development. What the Italian army sought was a new main battle tank that could completely replace and finally put out of service their Leopard and M60 tanks. For this, 2 Italian companies would take the lead in making the new tank, Iveco and OTO Melara. Iveco would primarily deal with the hull, transmission and engine, while OTO Melara would deal with the turret, cannon and the installation of sights. After a few iterations, and mock up tanks, the first time they'd be shown to the public, would be at a presentation inside of La Spezia in 1987, which also included another new Italian vehicle, the B1 Centauro. The C1 Ariete would have many new up to date additions, such as having access to the TURMS 3rd generation LTFCS made by Officine Galileo, which gave the capability to the Ariete to fire on the move, both day and night. It is not known how many preseries would actually be made, however we do know there would be more than one. One of the preseries Arietes would for example be tested alongside the Italian M60s and Leopard tanks to see how it fared against them in a competition, not surprisingly, the Ariete surpassed them by a long shot, which further propelled itself into being bought and put into official service inside of the Italian army. Now what were the differences between the preserie C1 Ariete and the current production ones? The preseries for starters differed heavily design wise, if you'd compare the preserie to the Production you can already spot some of the more obvious ones, such as on the turret, the preserie turret was more ''clean'', the production one had additional bolts which more than likely were there to allow the Ariete to easily install add on armour in the future if needed, which did end up happening, with the C1 Ariete ''WAR'' package. Speaking of of which, it also does not have access to the PSO kit, which alongside the WAR, would only be available to the production models of the C1 Ariete.The preseries also lacks commander thermals, which the production ended up having due to an upgrade which took place for the last 50 C1 Arietes produced. The preseries also lacks one of the more powerful APFSDS shells that the production model uses, which is called CL3143. It is good to note that the cannon the C1 Ariete uses, can shoot all Nato standard rounds if needed. Lastly, besides that the preseries just lacks the overall aesthetic design choices that the production model would have. Once the production models of the C1 Ariete started entering in service, the preseries would eventually be moved into the Italian military vehicle graveyard at Lenta, it is not known if they are still there, but that was the last known places that they were found in.
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
Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:
- topic on the official game forum;
- encyclopedia page on the tank;
- other literature.
| Italy medium tanks | |
|---|---|
| Italy | |
| M13/40 | M13/40 (I) · M13/40 (II) · M13/40 (III) |
| M14/41 | M14/41 · M14/41 (47/40) |
| M15/42 | M15/42 |
| M16/43 | Celere Sahariano |
| P26/40 | P40 · P40 "G.C. Leoncello" |
| OF-40 | OF-40 · OF-40 Mk.2A · OF-40 (MTCA) |
| Ariete | Ariete (P) · Ariete · Ariete PSO · Ariete AMV |
| Germany | ▄Pz.III N · ▄Pz.IV G · ▄Leopard 1A5 |
| Allied powers | ▄Sherman I Composito · Sherman Ic · ▄Sherman Vc · ▄Sherman V · M26 "D.C.Ariete" · M26A1 · M47 (105/55) · M60A1 "D.C.Ariete" |
| Hungary | |
| Turán | Turan I · Turan II · Turan III |
| Germany | ◔Leopard 2A4 · Leopard 2A7HU |
| USSR | ◔T-72M1 |
