EuropeFranceCold WarMain battle tank
AMX-30 B2
AMX-30
The purest expression of the mobility school.
Specifications
- Crew
- 4
- Combat weight
- 36 t
- Engine
- 720 hp
- hp / tonne
- 20.0
- Road speed
- 65 km/h
- Range
- 450 km
- Main gun
- 105 mm CN-105 F1
- In service
- 1966–2011 (France)
Hispano-Suiza HS-110, 720 hp
Armor: Obliquely laid but thin — 80 mm glacis. Mobility was the armor.
Secondary: 20 mm coaxial cannon, 7.62 mm AA
Briefing scores
Relative 1–10 for teaching, not a wargame rating.
- Firepower
- 6/10
- Protection
- 3/10
- Mobility
- 8/10
- Awareness
- 5/10
- Logistics
- 7/10
Ammunition natures
OCC HEATOFL APFSDSOE HE
History
Born when the Franco-German tank project split. Fought in the Gulf with the B2. Replaced by the Leclerc. The thin-skin philosophy died after 1973, when ATGMs and APFSDS made speed a weak substitute for armor.
Doctrine
French “armor by movement”: a 36-tonne tank that could choose the engagement, use a 20 mm against APCs, and fire an obstinate HEAT round that did not care about range. Opposed the German view that protection comes first.
Strengths
- Power-to-weight
- 20 mm vs light armor
- Strategic mobility
Limits
- Protection
- No composite
- HEAT as primary vs ERA
Related hulls
12 of 25 in the atlas