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ELC project
Light tank, tank destroyer From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The ELC project was a prototype light tank project launched by the French Ministry of Defense in 1955. The purpose of the ELC (Engin Léger de Combat, Light combat vehicle) project was to develop a lightly armoured, heavily armed fighting vehicle capable of being airlifted for rapid deployment.[2]
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ELC AMX series
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History
The idea behind the creation of the Engin Léger de Combat (French for «light combat vehicle») was to install powerful anti-tank weapons on a light but fully armored tankette and thus create a light tank destroyer that was mobile, inconspicuous, capable of hitting and destroying all types of enemy tanks at a distance of about 1500 meters.[3] Two prototypes built on the Hotchkiss CC2 tankette hull in the mid-1950s differed in their main armament; running gear, engine and mechanical components were basically the same for both machines.
Tank destroyer design
Armament
The first prototypes were equipped with low-pressure 90mm D.914 gun, capable of firing specially-designed Empennée (French for feathered, meaning fin-stabilized) HEAT rounds. Since the firing range of the D.914 gun did not meet the requirements for the French Ministry of Defense, an elongated D.915 gun equipped with a muzzle brake was developed. Especially for this cannon, a new model of the turret called 903 was designed — it had larger capacity. The new standard round for the D.915, designated ENERGA, weighed approximately 2 kg and was capable of penetrating up to 350mm of rolled homogenous steel armor, but it also had an insufficiently low effective firing range — between 600 and 700 meters. Later, shells of the same type were developed under the designation «G»: they had larger mass (above 7 kg) and made it possible to achieve the effective firing range of up to 1000 meters, but at that time it wasn't possible to increase this range to the originally requested 1 500 meters or more.[4]
All versions of the tank had a coaxial 7.5 mm tank-adapted AAT-52 light machine gun, and, within the ELC TC 904 variant, two pairs of smoke grenade launchers located on the sides of the turret were introduced.
Turret
A total of 4 turrets were developed for the two ELC prototypes. First prototype had carried TC 901 and TC 902, the second had carried TC 903 and TC 904. A distinctive feature of these turrets was the so-called casemate design (French: tourelle casemate). On the move the turret's rotation was limited to about 36°, because with more turret rotation the driver (located on the floor of the vehicle) was unable to access the tank's controls, and he might have been injured by the breech of the rotating gun. To fully rotate the turret and aim at the target, the tank had to stop, for driver and commander to move around the available space inside the tank. Despite such a disadvantage, this layout made the tank destroyer have very low profile and high mobility.[5] The close location of both crew members in the turret ensured a high concentration on gun control - while the driver loaded ammunition, the tank commander fired.
Model 902 and 904 turrets were equipped with a rangefinder for more effective engage of the enemy targets. The tank was equipped with AN/VRC.7 or AN/GRC.4 radio stations. The initial prototypes of the ELC AMX did not have automatized ammo rack, which was widely used on French tanks at that time, such as AMX-13. However, interior photos of the TC 904 turret had shown the presence of first-stage ammo rack with four-round capacity. It's presence in the rear of the turret made reload process easier and quicker.[6]
Mobility
With an average weight of all prototypes of 6.7 tons and a 164-horsepower four-cylinder SOFAM engine, the tank reached a speed of 68 km/h on the highway and 25 km/h on the rough terrain with a specific power of 26 h.p./t. The volume of the fuel tank was 360 liters, and the cruising range on the highway was 580 kilometers. The tank had excellent off-road abilities for its size — the suspension allowed it to overcome vertical obstacles up to 0.6 m high and trenches 1.50 m wide.
Anti-air variant
A mock-up of anti-air self-propelled gun variant of ELC AMX was built, featuring 30mm Hispano-Suiza in a TC 30 turret.
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ELC AMX bis
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In 1956, it was decided to increase the armor of the ELC AMX hull and strengthen the chassis, as the chassis of the CC.2 armored personnel carrier was becoming unusable due to the significantly increased weight of the vehicle (for example, the second prototype had experienced issues with broken idler wheel). The development of the new chassis has been going on since the year of 1957. In 1961, a new hull was designed and manufactured with armor up to 40 mm thick in front, which was located at rational obliquity (up to 80 degrees). The new chassis was provided with five pairs of smaller diameter rollers and three return rollers. The mass of the machine has been increased – it had reached 8,92 tons. The new hull contained 34 projectiles, another 19 were located in the TC 904 turret. The fuel capacity of the tank, however, has slightly decreased to 340 liters as well as the cruising range – down to 500 km.
The armament and turret were inherited from the latest ELC AMX TC 904 prototype – the tank gun fired «G»-rounds. Later, the ammunition choice may have expanded to utilizing the obus à charge creuse OCC 90-62 high-explosive anti-tank fin-stabilized tracer projectile, the obus explosif OE 90 F1 high-explosive fin-stabilized projectile, and obus fumigène PH90-F2 smoke projectile. The AAT-52 light machine gun, four smoke grenades (in two grenade launchers per turred side) and 1.2 meter-wide optical rangefinder were also featured on the TC 904 turret. In case of power malfunction, commander-gunner could traverse the turret manually: per two rotation cycles, turret turned by 6 degrees, the gun elevated or depressed by 2 degrees. Left part of the rangefinder served as a gunner sight for driver, helping the tank commander to aim. Other optics consisted of five driver viewports and eight commander viewports, the latter ones offering panoramic view. The tank had a gasoline 4-cylinder SOFAM Type 4 GSr engine, capable of reaching 180 horsepower at 3500 RPM, which, with a specific power of 20 h.p./t., allowed the vehicle to reach 80 km/h of max speed, a record for ELC project tanks.[7] The average speed, however, was about 60 km/h. In total, the tank had six forward and four reverse gears (three forward gears and two reverse gears paired with a reduction drive).
At the end of development in 1961, the Engin Léger de Combat program was recognized as not promising, and the work on the project was discontinued in favor of improving the AMX-13 light tank, and the ELC AMX bis was on display as an exhibit in the Museum of Armored Vehicles in Saumur until the second half of the year of 2017, when it was moved to the museum's military reserve and hidden from public eyes.
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ELC Even series
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The ELC Even was a series of light tanks created in competition with AMX's proposals.[8] These prototypes featured an oscillating turret with a cupola for the gunner located along the turret centerline. The turret itself was offset to the left in order to make room for a driver's compartment in the hull.
ELC Even 30
The ELC Even 30 was armed with twin 30mm Hispano-Suiza autocannons with fluted barrels mounted on either side of the turret, with two machine guns mounted slightly inboard of these weapons.
ELC Even 90
The ELC Even 90 featured a turret very similar to that of the ELC Even 30, but replaced both 30mm guns and the right-side machinegun with a single low-pressure 90mm D919 gun using 700m/sec HEAT rounds type G, on the right side of the turret.
ELC Even 120
The ELC Even 120 featured four 120 mm recoilless rifles arranged in horizontal pairs on either side of the turret. These weapons were to be reloaded by the driver either by rotating the turret so that the driver could open his hatch and insert new projectiles without leaving his seat, or by having the driver climb out and reload the weapons from a standing position next to the tank. It was also suggested that the rear ends of the 120mm weapons' barrels be cut so that the rear sections could be rotated into the turret, allowing the gunner to reload the weapons without opening his hatch.
Another version of the tank featuring two 120mm weapons, each with a five-round revolver-type autoloader, was suggested but not constructed.
ELC Even – Nord-Aviation missiles
A vehicle armed with either four SS-11 ATGMs or two SS-12 SSMs mounted on arms on either side of a purpose-built welded plate turret, with an armored glass observation window on its front. A prototype featuring a combination of these weapons (two SS-11 on the right side of the turret and one SS-12 on the left) was built.
References
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