The tank-killing armored automobile that France is sending to Ukraine is ‘a bit of an oddity,’ but don’t get in touch with it a tank

• France mentioned on January 5 that it would send the AMX-10RC armored car or truck to Ukraine.

• French and Ukrainian officials and some others have referred to the AMX-10RC as a “mild tank.”

• It won’t very qualify as a tank, but it will be a worthwhile addition to Ukraine’s arsenal.

France’s selection to ship the AMX-10RC to Ukraine sparked pronouncements that the West is ultimately offering tanks to Ukraine.

The “tank” vs. “armored auto” discussion is a prolonged and usually contentious one particular, but AMX-10RCs are armored reconnaissance cars and not tanks, which normally have substantial-caliber principal guns, heavy-responsibility armor, and tracks.

While the symbolism of delivering it to Kyiv is essential, it stays to be seen how practical a thinly safeguarded, 1970s-classic armored car will be on the battlefield in Ukraine.

That France and Ukraine have explained the AMX-10RC as a “gentle tank” is major. Irrespective of Ukraine’s pleas, the US and other international locations have refused to send initially-line tanks this sort of as the M1 Abrams.

This has still left Ukraine reliant on a motley selection of Soviet-intended tanks obtained ahead of the war, Russian tanks captured in struggle, or refurbished models furnished by nations these as Poland and the Czech Republic.

The AMX-10RC is actually a six-wheeled armored motor vehicle. Designed in the early 1970s and 1st deployed by the French Army in 1979, it is a 16-ton vehicle able of traveling 50 mph.

Its wheeled layout indicates it can move speedy on streets and smooth terrain — and involves significantly less maintenance — than a weighty, tracked vehicle such as the 70-ton Abrams.

The AMX-10RC’s slender armor protects from smaller arms and shrapnel but not significant-caliber tank rounds or anti-tank missiles. When its maker, Giat Industries, does supply an incorporate-on kit with extra armor and missile countermeasures, the AMX-10RC is a lot more suited for locating the enemy — and beating a hasty retreat if needed — rather than going cannon-to-cannon with key battle tanks.

France operates 245 AMX-10RCs and has deployed the car or truck in Operation Desert Storm and in counterinsurgency functions in Africa. Morocco, Qatar, and Cameroon also function the AMX-10RC, even though the French navy is replacing it with the Jaguar, a 25-ton armored scout auto armed with a 40 mm immediate-fire cannon and two anti-tank missiles.

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Wheeled armored scout vehicles are not uncommon. Russia, for instance, nevertheless utilizes the 1960s-period 7-ton BRDM-2, Japan the 15-ton Variety 87, and the US the 19-ton M1127 Stryker scout variant.

But what is actually putting about the AMX-10RC — and probably why it’s been known as a “light-weight tank” or “tank destroyer” — is that it packs a 105 mm cannon alternatively than the normal small cannon or heavy machine gun.

Whilst lesser than the superior-velocity 120 mm cannons located on most important battle tanks, the AMX-10RC’s gun is impressive more than enough to acquire out a tank at shut assortment and would be fatal from lighter armored vehicles and infantry.

“The US Army was by no means quite fond of” wheeled armored preventing automobiles, claimed Steven Zaloga, an author and specialist on armored cars, who compared the AMX-10RC to the US’s now-retired M551 Sheridan and M3 Bradley cavalry battling car or truck, both of which have tracks.

The AMX-10RC also resembles the US’s M1128 Mobile Gun Program, the fire-help variant of the wheeled Stryker armed with a 105 mm gun, which the US Military has made the decision to discard.

The AMX-10RC is a “little bit of an oddity,” in accordance to Olivier Schmitt, a professor at the University of Southern Denmark’s Center for War Scientific studies.

“It was conceived for recon and fireplace help, and, in the 1980s, was the heaviest armored automobile assigned to the ‘rapid action force'” established up by France to hurry across Germany in reaction to a Soviet attack, Schmitt tweeted this week.

In other words, the AMX-10RC was built to be section of a mild mechanized force that rides to the rescue of NATO forces desperately defending in opposition to a Soviet blitzkrieg. Which is not the situation in Ukraine now. Battling there has come to be trench warfare, with incremental gains rather than sweeping armored offensives in which quickly, armored scout cars excel.

Certainly, Ukraine has demonstrated that fashionable reconnaissance relies on drones and satellites. Armored autos are still critical on the battlefield, but an armored motor vehicle may well have minimal utility against swarms of anti-tank missiles, assault drones, and clever artillery shells.

Yet the armed forces price of the AMX-10RC just isn’t actually the position. What is actually crucial is that the West is sending armored battling cars.

France’s announcement was immediately followed by the US saying that it would deliver M2 Bradley infantry battling automobiles and Germany asserting that it would mail Marder infantry fighting autos to Ukraine. Both of those autos are tracked and heavier than the AMX-10RC but have smaller sized main weapons, although they also carry anti-tank missiles.

Tank or not, if the AMX-10RC boosts Ukrainian morale — and reminds Russia that heavier Western armor may be coming — than it is really a worthwhile weapon.

Michael Peck is a protection writer whose get the job done has appeared in Forbes, Protection Information, Overseas Plan magazine, and other publications. He retains a master’s in political science. Abide by him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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