AMX-VCI

AMX-13 VCI

AMX-13 VTT
Type Armoured personnel carrier
Place of origin France
Specifications
Weight 15.0 tonnes
Length 5.7 m
Width 2.67 m
Height 2.41m
Crew 3 + 10 passengers
Armor 10-40mm
Main
armament
 turret mounted 20mm cannon
Secondary
armament
 12.7 mm machine gun or 7.5 mm machine gun small turret
Engine SOFAM Model 8Gxb 8-cyl. water-cooled petrol
Power/weight 16.7/tonne
Suspension Torsion-bar
Operational
range
 350 km
Speed 60 km/h

The AMX-VCI (French: Véhicule de Combat d'Infanterie) is one of the many variants of the French AMX-13 light tank. It was the front line APC of the French Army until replaced by the AMX-10P. It is still used by some countries, for example Mexico, where it goes under the name of DNC-1 and is armed with a 20mm cannon.

History

Beginning in 1957, some 3,000 vehicles were produced. It was initially produced as the AMX-13 VTT (véhicule de transport de troupe), which carried ten infantrymen and was armed with either an AA-52 7.5 mm machine gun or a 12.7 mm M2 Browning machine gun in an open mounting. The final versions had a turret equipped with a 20mm light autocannon, producing a vehicle that can be seen as an early example of the infantry fighting vehicle.

Variants

The AMX-13 VCI itself was the basis for a number of variants:

Rear view of an AMX-13 VTT

Combat history

Lebanese Civil War

A total of 30 AMX-VCI were reportedly delivered to the Lebanese Army in May 1983,[1] with a number of them being seized by the Amal Movement militia and the pro-Israeli South Lebanon Army (SLA) militia in February 1984 after the defeat of the Lebanese government forces by Shia Muslim and Druze militias. The captured vehicles were quickly pressed into service by the SLA, who used them until the collapse of the militia in the wake of the Israeli withdrawal of April 2000; those used by Amal were returned to the Lebanese Army earlier in October 1990. VCIs up-armed with US M40 106mm recoilless rifles were later employed by Lebanese Army General Michel Aoun's loyalist troops in the battles against his Christian rivals of the Lebanese Forces (LF) militia at East Beirut in February 1990.[2][3]

Operators

Map with AMX-VCI operators in blue and former operators in red

Current operators

Former operators

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Zaloga, Tank battles of the Mid-East Wars (2003), p. 54.
  2. ↑ Zaloga, Tank battles of the Mid-East Wars (2003), pp. 56 and 60.
  3. ↑ Kassis, 30 Years of Military Vehicles in Lebanon (2003), p. 10.
  4. ↑ Milpedia, AMX-13 VTT, De Belgische AMX-13 Model 56

References

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