AMX-50 Surbaisse
| This page is about the French heavy tank AMX-50 Surbaisse. For other versions, see AMX-50 (Family). |
Contents
Description
In the early 1950s, France started the development of a 120 mm-armed AMX-50 in response to the perceived Soviet threat of heavy tanks like the IS-3 and T-10. The vehicles was heavily armoured, with armour increased to 90 mm in the front, and equipped with a 120 mm gun. The project faced challenges with weight and mechanical reliability, leading to adjustments in design (from 59.2 metric tons to 57.8 metric tons). Additionally, a tank destroyer variant named AMX-50 Foch was developed. The project eventually resulted in the construction of five complete AMX 50 prototypes. Recognizing the weight issues, a parallel medium tank project called Lorraine 40t was started in 1952. The same 120 mm cannon was later used in the development of the AMX-50 Foch, a heavy tank destroyer intended to support the medium tanks from long ranges.
It was introduced in Update 1.75 "La Résistance". On the battlefield, the vehicle is very easy to recognize due to its shape which simply cannot be mistaken for another French tank. The AMX-50 Surbaissé differs from every heavy tank in its general playstyle. Since it has rather thin armour which will not protect it against incoming enemy fire, you have to use its medium tank-like mobility to perform deadly flank attacks which will often prove very catastrophic for the enemy team. Indeed, since you can keep up with most medium tanks and even outpace some, especially the British medium tanks, many enemies will find themselves completely caught off guard and at the mercy of your autoloading 120 mm gun which will allow you to fire one shot every 6 seconds. The tank is also a great long-range sniper (1,500 m and beyond) as it comes equipped with a rangefinder that will allow you to quickly range very distant targets and deliver accurate shots upon them. At such distances, your armour will start to become difficult to penetrate for most lower rank guns you'll encounter. Overall this tank, while being a heavy tank, is not meant to be played like one. You must use your mobility and your accurate fast-firing armament to prove effective against the enemies you'll come across.
General info
Survivability and armour
Armour type:
- Cast homogeneous armour
- Rolled homogeneous armour (Hull sides, Hull rear, Hull roof)
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 60 mm (30-85°) Front glacis 100 mm (8-57°) Joint plate 60 mm (21-74°) Bottom glacis |
30-60 mm (0-23°) Top 30 mm Bottom |
30 mm (0-50°) | 20 mm |
| Turret | - | 60 mm Turret 40-60 mm (0-12°) Turret base |
40 mm (0-30°) Turret bustle 20 mm (21-31°) Pivot ball 10 mm (69-76°) Turret underside |
20 mm |
| Cupola | 60 mm | 60 mm | 60 mm | 20 mm |
Notes:
- Suspension wheels are 15 mm thick while tracks are 30 mm thick.
- Wheels are interleaved to offer stacked protection values.
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 | 57.8 | 1,097 | 1,622 | 18.98 | 28.06 |
| Realistic | 52 | 6 | 752 | 850 | 13.01 | 14.71 | |
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 | Autoloader |
| Arcade | 38 | -8°/+14° | ±180° | N/A | 24.3 | 33.6 | 40.8 | 45.1 | 48.0 | 6.00 |
| Realistic | 17.9 | 21.0 | 25.5 | 28.2 | 30.0 | |||||
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 explosif | HE | 39 | 39 | 39 | 39 | 39 | 39 |
| 120 mm Obus de rupture | APBC | 301 | 298 | 286 | 272 | 258 | 245 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (kg) |
Ricochet | |||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| 120 mm Obus explosif | HE | 762 | 22.84 | 0 | 0.1 | 4.65 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| 120 mm Obus de rupture | APBC | 1,067 | 23.1 | - | - | - | 47° | 60° | 65° | |||
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 |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 38 | 36 (+2) | 34 (+4) | 32 (+6) | 30 (+8) | 25 (+13) | 20 (+18) | 1 (+37) | Yes |
Notes:
- Shells are modeled individually and disappear after having been shot or loaded.
- The visual discrepancy concerns the crossed out racks: they are modeled but always empty.
- Rack 7 (autoloader magazine) is a first stage ammo rack. It totals 19 shells.
- This rack gets filled first when loading up the tank and is also emptied first.
- As the AMX-50 Surbaisse 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 6 into rack 7. Firing will interrupt the restocking of the ready racks.
- The depletion order at full capacity is: 7 - 1 - 2 up to 6.
Machine guns
| 7.5 mm AAT-52 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Coaxial | 3,000 (200) | 900 | N/A | N/A |
Usage in battles
Playing the AMX 50 Surbaissé requires 2 things:
- Good map knowledge
- Gunnery discipline
As mentioned previously, the AMX 50 Surbaissé is not heavy, that probably is something you'll learn the hard way while playing your first matches in this tank. You have to play it like a medium tank and you always should try to look for a good flanking route that will eventually get you to a spot where you'll be able to decimate several tanks of the enemy team from the side of from behind. As a result, this tank requires a lot of forethinking before deciding which way to go and this decision must be taken in accordance with the map but also in accordance with what nation you face. The tank can also be used as a very effective long-range sniper especially in down tiers. The combination of fast-firing 120 mm gun and rangefinder can prove very effective especially at a range over 1,500 m where your armour will start to matter especially against a lower-ranked opponent such as Tiger IIs. To turn this vehicle into a deadly sniping machine, it is very much advised to bind rangefinding keys and sight adjustment that are intuitive to you. In this way you will be able to range targets and adjust the gun very accurately in such a way that, with practice and discipline will grant you the ability to deliver shots in a "Point aimed, Point hit" fashion.
Every enemy you can encounter which do not result from deliberate up tiers from the enemy can and will easily get through your armour. The tank's armour cannot withstand guns that are more powerful than the German 7.5 cm KwK 42 or the US 90 mm M3 gun
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Powerful 120 mm gun
- Reload of just 6 seconds
- Large autoloader magazine (19 shots)
- Very good AP round with high penetration power
- Extremely fast turret rotation speed when upgraded, especially for a heavy tank (characteristic of oscillating turrets)
- Good acceleration
- Average top speed of about 48 km/h
- 4 Smoke Grenades
Cons:
- Gun elevation & depression angles are poor
- Ammunition rack in the back of the turret is a weak spot from any angle
- Armour values are inadequate against expected opponents
- Smoke grenades will often leave a gap in the smoke screen
- Very large tank, making it hard to hide
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
- Related development
External links
| Ateliers de construction d'Issy-les-Moulineaux (AMX) | |
|---|---|
| Light tanks | |
| AMX-13 | AMX-13-M24 · AMX-13 (FL11) · AMX-13 · AMX-13 (SS.11) · AMX-13-90 · AMX-13 (HOT) |
| Armoured cars | AMX-10RC |
| Medium tanks | AMX M4 · AMX-50 (TOA100) |
| MBTs | |
| AMX-30 | AMX-30 · AMX-30 ACRA · AMX-30 (1972) · AMX-30B2 · AMX-30B2 BRENUS · AMX-30 Super |
| AMX-32/40 | AMX-32 (105) · AMX-32 · AMX-40 |
| Heavy tanks | AMX-50 Surbaissé · AMX-50 Surblindé |
| Tank destroyers | ELC bis · AMX-50 Foch |
| SPAAGs | AMX-13 DCA 40 · AMX-30 S DCA |
| Export | AMX-13 |
| 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 |
