Quote:
Originally Posted by dragoon500ly
Actually the AMX-13 is a perfect example of a light tank from the post WWII era.
When you consider a tank design, picture a triangle, one point is maneuverability, the second is firepower and the third point is protection.
The AMX-13 has excellent maneuverability and decent firepower, protection is poor. But it was designed for a reconnaissance role. When I was stationed in Germany, during the maneuvers that light tank could run rings around a M-60A1, and if it could get close enough it's cannon was a decent threat against flank armor. The turret also gives this tank an advantage, the cannon is mounted fairly high, and from the front it is a narrow design. This allows the AMX-13 to occupy a hull down position and reveal very little of its turret, coupled with good camouflage, makes the blasted thing very hard to detect.
It's ability to pour a burst of 3-6 rounds and then run away, does make it a threat.
But remember, it was designed for the European battlefield.
During the Six Day War, the IDF fielded three battalions of AMX-13s, due to the shortage of MBTs, they used the -13s as main battle tanks and they suffered heavy losses when used outside their designed role.
So the Mexican Army buying light tanks, very possible, equally possible is their suffering heavy losses, especially when going up against TOW/Dragon/Tank Breaker/Hellfire. Toss in M-48A5/M-60A3/M-1, and you have a nasty little surprise for the Guard and Reserve units, but one that would be quickly worn away by battlefield and maintenance losses.
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The tank design philosophy of the 1950's and 1960's was for tanks to be designed with the firepower of a heavy tank, the speed and mobility of a light tank and the protection of medium tank. These tanks were known as the universal tank or the MBT, a trend opposed to the heavy tanks of the Second World War and early post-war years. Light tanks such as the AMX-13 were still in fashion as they acted as scouts for the heavier tanks. The Leopard 1, AMX-30 and most Soviet tanks were built to this design philosophy. The U.S. also went with this philosophy and developed the M47, M48 and M60 from the Second World War era M26 Patton with a bigger gun and a more powerful engine.
The British Army who had plenty of negative experiences against heavy German tanks in the Second World War didn't follow this philosophy. In 1966 they introduced the Chieftain tank which was the first newly designed mass produced British tank since the Second World War. The Chieftain was built like a block of iron with a 120mm rifled gun. All of the fast mobile tanks could outrun it, but they could not outrun the range of its rifled gun and the second this English bruiser got you in its gun sight you were dead and there was nothing your tank could do about it.
Then the Yom Kippur War broke out in 1973, and the Soviet supplied the Arabs with AT-3 Sagger anti-tank missiles and nearly shot the Israeli tank fleet to pieces through destroying or damaging 800 Israeli M48's, M60's and Centurions, as well as many other light tanks. The Israelis who know a thing or two about tank warfare wanted to buy hundreds of Chieftain tanks from Britain and even licence build it, as it was the only Western tank that new Soviet anti-tank missiles could not defeat and it was greatly superior to every tank in the world. The Israelis never got the Chieftain because the Arabs would likely cut off oil supplies to Britain. North Sea Oil had not yet come on line. But the next generation of Western tanks (Challenger 1/II, Leopard 2, LeClerc, M1 Abrams and the Israeli Merkava and Japanese Type 90) closely followed the attributes of the Chieftain because on the battlefield the heavy tank is king
The Soviet uniquely kept with their baseline MBT design, but did so out of necessity and not because they wanted to. Soviet tanks were transported by railway over vast distances, and the rail gauge of Soviet railway tunnels restricted the dimensions of Soviet tank design. They can't make them any wider, which is why later Soviet and Russian tanks look longer and have remained lighter in weight than Western tanks as they cant increase the tonnage or protection without making the tank wider. Earlier Chinese tanks also followed this philosophy as they are basically copies of Soviet tanks.