A French AMX-10 RC seen here in Paris after the parade on July 14, 2021. By Wikimedia user (Kevin.B)
The first batch of AMX-10 RC wheeled tank destroyers are en route to Ukraine from France, the Forces Operations blog reported on February 16.
“14 AMX-10 RC armored vehicles are leaving for Ukraine, in accordance with the promise of the Ministry of Defense to supply the Ukrainian military with them within two months,” the defense blog reported.
French President Emmanuel Macron made the decision to supply Ukraine with “dozens” of the wheeled tank destroyers early on in January.
Forces Operations said that Ukrainian troops were trained to operate the AMX-10RC in recent weeks at a military school in Saumur in the Maine-et-Loire department. The blog also noted that among the troops sent for training “there were specialists in armored reconnaissance, which is a reason to suspect that French vehicles will be used on the front line.”
The 6×6 AMX-10 RC was manufactured by France’s Nexter Systems in the 1980s. The vehicle’s main armament is a 105 mm F2 BK MECA L/47 medium-pressure gun that can fire APFSDS [armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot] rounds. Usually, the tank is loaded with 38 rounds of different types. Its second armament is a 7.62 mm NF1 coaxial machine gun with 4,000 cartridges.
The tank destroyer, which is powered by a Baudouin Diesel Model 6F11 SRX with 280 hp, is known for its high mobility. It has an operation range of 800 kilometers with a top speed of 40 kilometers per hour off road and up to 85 kilometers per hour on road.
However, the AMX-10 RC is poorly armored. The tank has a frontal armor resistance against 23 mm armor-piercing ammunition from 300 meters and resistance against 14.5 mm ammunition all-around with add-on armor.
The French military has more than 240 AMX-10 Rs. According to recent reports, Ukraine will be receiving at least 40 of the tank destroyer.
After the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine last year, France supplied the Ukrainian military with loads of weapons, including self-propelled howitzers, dozens of armored vehicles as well as hundreds of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.
France is now reportedly considering donating some of its Leclerc main tanks to Ukraine, to help prepare a large-scale offensive against the Russian military in spring.
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amx10 has only against 23mm rounds protection. so this “tank destroyer” will be a easy target even for all bmp1/76mm gun, bmp2/30mm gun and bmp3/ 100+30mm gun, with no need to waste any atgms. and about the amx10 main gun of this “tank dstroyer”. what russian tank can his 105mm gun destroy from the front? not any one from the t72b3 and up to t90, and maybe only older t72 types or older tanks like t64 and t62.
That configuration has been common for tank destroyers since WW2. The idea is to have something that is fast, high firepower, wheel it into position and then try to overwhelm tanks at the point of attack. It’s less expensive to build than a tank.
A tank is good for both offense and defense, the tank destroyer is for defense but much less so for defense.
My post was removed but ‘Chad’s remains? All I said was that thin armor on a tank destroyer is normal as it optimizes for speed and firepower. I never called it a wonder weapon
Veeery useful indeed in muddy terrain those heavy wheeled vehicles with little ground clearance.
large scale Kiev offensive? The war is a NATO loss. NATO will not survive the economic realities that this proxy war has unleashed.
That’s nice but it’s also a missile magnet and probably high maintenance
‘resistance against 14.5 mm ammunition all-around with add-on armor’. Useless piece of junk metal, target practice for the russian mobilized ones. Wait to see first news on how a russian HMG wrap this shit like a schwaitzer….
Being of French ancestry, I actually had some hope that France wouldn’t follow this Satan-in-DC course of action. I guess when LePen lost, that hope was obliterated. Forget the women, it seems there are no real, independent-minded men in any position of power there.
Just as in Canada with Trudeau, so in France with Macron…nothing but soulless suits. No wonder they all gravitate to Green Shirt like a gaggle of infatuated school girls. He works out between Vogue shoots, speaks with heavy accent, and has a slightly mysterious European origin story.
I didn’t know French tanks were a “Hot Wheels” product.
The Russians will make coffins out of them .
Flaming Coffins.