Ariete
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| C1 Ariete | |
|---|---|
| General characteristics | |
| Crew | 4 |
| Length | 9.76 m |
| Width | 3.42 m |
| Height | 2.50 m |
| Weight | 54 tonnes |
| Armour and armament | |
| Armour | Classified, steel/composite blend |
| Main armament | 120mm smoothbore tank gun
42 rounds |
| Secondary armament | 7.62mm coaxial machine-gun, 7.62mm AA machine-gun 2,500 rounds |
| Mobility | |
| Power plant | V-12 turbocharged diesel FIAT MTCA 1,247 hp (937 kW) |
| Suspension | torsion-bar |
| Road speed | 65 km/h |
| Power/weight | 23 hp/tonne |
| Range | 550 km |
- This article is about the tank. For information about the aircraft, see Aerfer Ariete. For information about the Italian armoured division, see Italian 132nd Armored Division Ariete.
Ariete is a main battle tank developed for the Italian Army to meet the needs of the 21st Century, by providing a credible indigenous tank design capable of competing with other current tanks on the battlefield and in the export market. Iveco Fiat and Oto Melara combined forces to develop a new tank utilizing modern firepower, mobility, and protection technologies.
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[edit] Official Information
The original Ariete was designed, constructed, and tested by the Iveco Fiat - Oto Melara Syndicated Company, headquartered in Rome. This company is a business merger consisting of two separate defense contractors:
- Iveco's Defence Vehicles Division, responsible for the development of the chassis and support systems, and
- Oto Melara, responsible for the turret and fire-control system development.
The Ariete is currently in service with the Italian Army, which began with the first tank's delivery in 1995. The final delivery completed 7 years later in August of 2002.
An upgraded version, with modular armor, auto-loader and 55-calibre gun, was displayed in 2005 and ready for production.
[edit] Armament
Typical of the modern day main battle tank, the Ariete can engage targets in a variety of conditions. It can engage stationary or moving targets; It can attack opponents whether or not the Ariete is on-the-move; Finally, it can engage targets day or night with the factory-installed thermal imager and laser rangefinder.
The standard load-out consists of three primary weapons systems:
- A 120-mm main gun,
- A 7.62-mm coaxial machine gun (manned by a crew member), and
- A 7.62-mm anti-aircraft (manned by the track commander).
Its primary weapon is the 44-calibre 120-mm main gun produced and manufactured by Oto Melara. The gun's barrel is of a smoothbore design, and is autofrettaged and stress-hardened to increase durability over extended periods of fire. Its implementation allows for the use of a combined load-out of armour-piercing, fin-stabilized, discarding sabot (APFSDS) and high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) rounds.
[edit] Crew and Tank Protection
The primary defense system protecting any contemporary tank is its armor plating. While the exact specifications of the armor are government and trade secrets, the manufacturer states that it is a steel and composite blend, similar to the British Challenger tank and the American M1 Abrams.
Also important to the tank's defense are two laterally-mounted grenade launchers. Each launcher is electronically-fired, and consists of four barrels which can be intermixed with either smoke or chaff grenades. The smoke grenades are capable of shrouding the tank from visual or thermal detection. The chaff grenades are useful for dispersing the tank's radar cross section.
Finally, the crew cabin is protected by an elaborate anti-NBC system designed by Aero Sekur. It is capable of protecting the crew for a period of time from any modern nuclear, radiological, biological, or chemical attack.
[edit] Fire Control and Target Acquisition
The tank's fire-control system is of Italian manufacture, produced by [Galileo Avionica] (now a part of Selex SAS). It is designated the TURMS Fire-Control System, and includes, among other features:
- Day- and night-capable panoramic commander's scope for increased visibility,
- Stablized gunner's platform including thermal optics and a laser range-finder to increase accuracy and expidite target detection and targeting.
- Digital fire-control mini-computer
The most important aspect, the fire-control computer, is capable of measuring meteorological and physical conditions to optimize accuracy. Primarily, it monitors wind speed, humidity, and exterior weather conditions, combining them with the turrent's angle of elevation, attitude, and the barrel's physical wear to acheive absolute accuracy.
[edit] Powerplant and Drivetrain
The Ariete's powerplant is powered by a turbo-charged Fiat 12-cylinder engine. Its rated output is 937 kilowatts (equivilent to 1250-HP).
It has an automatic transmission, licensed from the German automobile engineering firm ZF, and has four forward gears and two reverse, allowing for a top cruising speed of 65 km/h. The transmission allows it to climb grades rated up to 60%, and can ford waterways of up to 1.25-m on-the-fly.
The caterpillar tracks are fairly standard, composed of seven road wheels and four drive rollers, and designed by another German engineering firm, the Diehl Group.
[edit] See also
| Ariete | Arjun | Challenger 2 | Ch'onma-ho | K1 | Leclerc | Leopard 2 | M1 Abrams | M-84 Merkava | PT-91 Twardy | T-80 | T-84 | T-90 | Type 90 | Type 96 | Type 99 |
