Fiat M16/43
The Carro Armato M Celere Sahariano (Italian for "Saharian Fast Medium Tank") was a prototype medium tank developed by the Kingdom of Italy during World War II to defeat the speed and firepower of contemporary British cruiser tanks which were encountered by Italian forces during the Western Desert Campaign. The project was cancelled before the single prototype was completed after Axis were expelled from North Africa. Given the tank nomenclature system used by Italy at the time, the tank, if it were to have entered service would have been Medio (M), 16 (weight in metric tons), and date of introduction (originally planned for 1943). Therefore M16/43.[1] DevelopmentAfter being devastated by British cruiser tanks in 1942, Fiat and Ansaldo began developing a low profile 15 to 16 t (15 to 16 long tons) tank to counter the faster and more heavily armed A-13 series tanks exemplified by the Crusader tank. Fiat-Ansaldo first began on this new tank project by modifying a M14/41 medium tank chassis by inclining the tank's armor plates creating a glacis. The armour remained, like other contemporary Italian tanks of the period, bolted rather than welded together and generally thinner than tanks of other countries. Many different engines, including aircraft engines were tested on the chassis before development of the Sahariano tank was halted. At the time of cancellation a 275 hp gasoline engine was being tested. An elongated M14/41 turret housing a 47mm 47/40 L40 was tested on the Sahariano tank and would also be used by the M15/42 medium tank. There were plans to later use a 75mm cannon for the production model of the Sahariano tank as well. The most groundbreaking feature of the Sahariano was that it was the first Italian tank to use a modified Christie suspension system,[2] a more robust and faster suspension system than the leaf spring bogies used by previous Italian tank designs. Ansaldo based the Sahariano's suspension on British tanks encountered in North Africa and a captured Soviet BT-5 from the Spanish Civil War. By the time of the project cancellation, the design looked very similar to their British counterparts but with a notable low profile design, making the tank easy to conceal and difficult to hit. Several factors contributed to the project's demise: the concurrent development of the Carro Armato P 40 heavy tank, the strain of introducing a model of tank on the weak Italian manufacturing industry, the potential of license production of foreign tanks such as the Czechoslovakian T-21 medium tank and the most decisive reason, Italy's loss of its Libya colony and the end of Italy's need for a fast tank.[3] Notes
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