AMX-13 (Israel)
| This page is about the Israeli light tank AMX-13 (Israel). For other versions, see AMX-13 (Family). |
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Contents
Description
The AMX-13 was employed by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967. A total of 400 tanks were acquired from France between 1956 and 1967 with three battalions being formed and ready to be deployed. The AMX-13 was used in an unconventional way, since the IDF lacked proper modern MBTs due to the arms embargoes imposed over them, it was decided to use the AMX-13 in frontline duties and not in the usual roles of light tanks, like reconnaissance. Thus, the AMX-13 sustained heavy casualties during the war, and was promptly retired after the war.
Introduced in Update "Wind of Change", the AMX-13 is best used in flanking manoeuvres using its good speed and agility against heavier opponents in uptiers, or sniping from medium to long ranges with its decent gun in downtiers. Like all light tanks, the AMX-13 is not suited to urban environments since it can get ambushed and destroyed easily. The AMX-13 lacks any sort of HEAT or APHE and it relies only on APCBC with no explosive filler, making it very hard to use to one-shot enemies. It is recommended to aim for the gunner or the barrel of enemy tanks in close quarters. That is because the AMX-13 has a 5-second reload autoloader, allowing it to reload faster than most tanks at its BR except for IFVs or APCs with autocannons like the Marder IFV or the BTR-80A.
General info
Survivability and armour
Armour type:
- Rolled homogeneous armour (hull, turret roof, side and rear)
- Cast homogeneous armour (turret base, turret front, gun mantlet, cupola)
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 40 mm (38-40°) Turret base 20 mm (66°) Upper glacis 40 mm (cylindrical) Transmission carter 20 mm (51°) Lower glacis |
20 mm (14°) Turret base 20 mm Sides |
20 mm (32-34°) Turret base 15 mm (1°) Top 15 mm (44°) Bottom |
20 mm (24°) Front glacis 10 mm Centre 10 mm (5°) Rear 5 mm Vents |
| Turret | 40 mm (32-47°) Turret front 60 mm (conical) Gun mantlet 40 mm (15-75°) Barrel shroud |
20 mm (0-30°) Turret | 20 mm Turret bustle 20 mm (17-22°) Pivot ball 10 mm (77-90°) Turret underside |
10 mm |
| Cupola | 20 mm (conical) Base 10 mm (spherical) Dome |
20 mm (conical) Outer ring 10 mm (spherical) Centre | ||
Notes:
- Suspension wheels and tracks are 15 mm thick.
- Belly armour is 10 mm thick.
- Storage boxes and mudguards are 4 mm thick.
Mobility
The AMX-13 is not the fastest for the BR, mostly losing to wheeled vehicles. However, the AMX-13 keeps a consistent speed regardless of the terrain, making it able to reach off-road positions much faster. On top of that, the excellent power-to-weight ratio also helps when trying to reach elevated positions.
The main drawback to remember is the sub-optimal reverse speed. The AMX-13 can only partially expose itself, a fully exposed AMX-13 will not be able to reverse back into cover in time.
| Game Mode | Max Speed (km/h) | Weight (tons) | Engine power (horsepower) | Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forward | Reverse | Stock | Upgraded | Stock | Upgraded | ||
| Arcade | 68 | 8 | 14.5 | 418 | 515 | 28.83 | 35.52 |
| Realistic | 61 | 7 | 239 | 270 | 16.48 | 18.62 | |
Modifications and economy
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armaments
Main armament
| 75 mm SA50 L/57 | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Capacity | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| Arcade | 36 | -6°/+13° | ±180° | N/A | 28.6 | 39.5 | 48.0 | 53.1 | 56.5 | 5.00 | 5.00 | 5.00 | 5.00 |
| 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 | ||
| POT-51A | APBC | 182 | 178 | 162 | 143 | 127 | 113 |
| OE Mle 1951 | HE | 15 | 15 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 10 |
| PCOT-51P | APCBC | 202 | 198 | 180 | 159 | 141 | 125 |
| 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% | ||||||||||
| POT-51A | APBC | 1,000 | 6.4 | - | - | - | 47° | 60° | 65° | |||
| OE Mle 1951 | HE | 753 | 6.2 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 675 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| PCOT-51P | APCBC | 1,000 | 6.4 | - | - | - | 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 |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36 | 32 (+4) | 28 (+8) | 23 (+13) | 18 (+18) | 13 (+23) | 7 (+29) | 1 (+35) | No |
Notes:
- Shells are modeled individually and disappear after having been shot or loaded.
- Racks 6* and 7* (autoloader magazines) are first stage ammo racks. They total 12 shells.
- These racks get filled first when loading up the tank and are also emptied first.
- As the AMX-13 (Israel) 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 with at least 1 shell.
- The restocking time is longer than the normal reload time of the gun (about 15 seconds). Take this into account when playing.
- Simply not firing when the gun is loaded will move ammo from racks 1 to 5 into rack 7* then 6*. Firing will interrupt the restocking of the ready racks.
Machine guns
| 7.5 mm MAC 31 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Coaxial | 4,950 (150) | 551 | N/A | N/A |
Usage in battles
How the AMX-13 can be used largely depends on what BR and nations it is facing. At a full down-tier, against 5.3/5.7 (AB/RB), the AMX-13 can be used at medium to long range as a travelling sniper. The main threats at that BR are heavies such as the American T34, the German Tiger II (H) and the Russian IS-2 (1944). These can all be penetrated in their respective weak spots at 500 m, however the further you are, the narrower the weak spots get, and there is no guarantee to disable them in a single shot.
In an up-tier, against up to 7.7, the AMX-13's long-range capabilities are greatly diminished. Most medium tanks become tough to deal with. Heavies like the IS-3, T32, M103 and Maus are a no-go, T-54s are particularly tough as well, the only mediums still easy to deal with at long range are the Leopard 1 and AMX-50. In this situation, the AMX-13 can still shine as a flanker, where you can use your rounds on the less-armoured sides and at a closer range.
It is important to remember that the AMX-13's round is a 75 mm APCBC with no explosive filler to speak of. The round struggles against any form of angled armour, and the post-penetration damage is not always sufficient, even destroying light vehicles from the side may prove difficult (the BMP-1 and Marder A1- being the toughest to deal with). The 5 seconds autoloader can alleviate that, but you will still need to aim strategically. When facing a medium or heavy tank frontally, the best option is sometimes to shoot the barrel and disengage (or, provided they are alone and close enough, get on their sides to finish them off). It will usually take more than one round to destroy an enemy vehicle (against large vehicles, even a direct shot to the ammo may not detonate it due to poor post-penetration damage), so disabling them with the first shot should always be your first priority.
Particularly when getting on the side of multiple enemies at once, focus on disabling all the enemies before attempting to finish them off. A shot to the side turret to destroy their cannon breech is usually the most optimal. This is particularly true for the American T34s and T32s. As for the IS-3, due to the angled turret, the easiest method is a shot to the rear turret, otherwise, a shot in between the hull and the turret is the only place that can be penetrated. On the side, it is possible to penetrate the Maus' armour, however it is a lengthy and dangerous process, and it is usually better to simply destroy its guns and let your team finish it off.
Finally, remember to pro-actively use the scouting ability, it can often save you in a pinch.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- 75 mm APCBC has high penetration and high velocity, can penetrate even heavy tanks' weak spots (e.g. Tiger II (H))
- Autoloader reloads the cannon at an impressive speed
- Fast on most terrains, can effectively perform flanking
- Small profile, easy to conceal the tank and ambush others
- Autoloader means that injured crew or fire-extinguishing will not impact the reload time which can be a life-saver
Cons:
- Poor survivability, thin armour can be penetrated by any gun including that of any SPAA like Falcon
- Narrow tracks negatively affect its start-up agility on loose surface
- Autoloader holds 12 shells, reload time significantly lengthens after those
- APCBC isn't explosive, requiring accurate shots on crew or other components
- -7 km/h reverse is very low, severely limiting its tactical agility
History
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The AMX-13 was employed by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War against Egyptian and Syrian forces. It was Israel's only choice to acquire a modern tank in a period when France was the only global power willing to sell weapons to Israel. Israel first acquired a batch of 180 units of the AMX-13 light tank from France in 1956. This was part of an agreement to increase the strength of the Israeli army, and to maintain in the region after arms purchase agreements between Egypt and Czechoslovakia.
Because of a shortage of tanks in the IDF's inventory, Israel employed this vehicles as main battle tanks in some units and thus, they were not used as light tanks or reconnaissance vehicles. Israel later acquired several more units of the AMX-13, with a total of 400 units ready to be deployed by 1967, thus, before the war, 3 battalions were formed to participate in the Six-Day War.
The three battalions participated in all the fronts of the war, one of them being deployed in the West Bank area against Jordan, another in the Golan Heights against Syria and the last one was deployed in the Gaza Strip and in the north of the Sinai Peninsula against Egypt.
Though the tank had decent performance, it proved unsatisfactory. The AMX-13 was a light tank employed in a frontline role, thus, it sustained very heavy casualties throughout the entire war but specially during the Rafah Crossing and the Jiradi Pass. Most of these tanks were destroyed by Soviet-made tanks like the IS-3 and T-54/55. Because of these bad results, the tanks were rapidly retired from service after the war, and sold to the Singapore Army between 1968 and 1969.
Media
- Skins
See also
- Related development
External links
Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:
- topic on the official game forum;
- other literature.
| Israel light tanks | |
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