Description
The AMX-30 is a French main battle tank designed by Ateliers de construction d’Issy-les-Moulineaux (AMX, then GIAT) and first delivered to the French Army in August 1966. The production version of the AMX-30B weighed 36 metric tons, and sacrificed protection for increased mobility. The French believed that it would have required too much armour to protect against the latest anti-tank threats, thereby reducing the tank’s maneuverability.
In June 1979, the French Army decided to both build new and modernize existing AMX-30s with an improved fire control system and a new transmission, and designated them AMX-30B2s. The first new production vehicles were taken into service in January 1982. Improvements to the COTAC APX M-508 fire control system included the installation of a laser rangefinder and a low-light TV (LLTV). The main gun’s lethality was improved with the introduction of a new armour piercing fin stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS). The original engine was exchanged for an improved variant, known as the HS-110.2, producing 680 horsepower (510 kW). The poor transmission was replaced with the semi-automatic SESM ENC200 transmission, with a torque converter. The suspension was improved by adopting new torsion bars and shocks, which increased the vertical deflection range of the road wheels, thereby improving the tank’s off-road mobility.
Set consists of 15 fine metal 1:600th/3mm scale miniatures.
Producer: ‘Oddział Ósmy’ sc Marcin Kaźmierczak i Tomasz Kołuda, ul. Piotrkowska 107, 90-425 Łódź, Poland
