The French AMX-40 Main Battle Tank

The French AMX-40 Main Battle Tank

The AMX-30 Tank  had been a great success for the French Arms industry as an export model, but for some reason they decided to launch an up-graded vehicle based on the AMX-30 for the export market called the AMX-32 Tank. It failed to attract any clients and was later replaced with the AMX-40 as the new export vehicle.

The French AMX-40 Main Battle Tank development began in 1980 and by 1985 four prototypes had been built. It was displayed at arms industry conventions, but never attracted any sales. By 1990 it had been withdrawn from the market as the AMX-56 AKA Leclerc was in development at this stage.

Protection

The AMX-40 was a completely new design compared to the AMX-30 & 32. It was more heavily armoured with new frontal laminated armour and perforated plate like the Leopard 1 A3, increasing the vehicles weight by 5 tons to 43, despite remaining almost as small as the AMX-32.

Mobility

It was given a beast of a diesel engine generating 1100hp called the Poyaud V12X. It gave a top road speed of 70km/h and a range of 530km. To take full advantage of the increased hp the number of road wheels was increased to 6 which also reduced the ground pressure.

Firepower

The vehicle packed some serious firepower. It had a coaxial 20mm F2 auto-cannon and a 120mm smoothbore main cannon with a modern COTAC FCS with a built laser range finder and a commanders independent sight, giving the vehicle a hunter killer capability.