The AMX-10RC is a French made vehicle by GIAT (Now ‘Nexter’), the vehicle is classed as a ‘tank destroyer’ (TD) weighs in at 15 tonnes and France at current has 300 of these in service and has had these vehicles in service since 1980. However its main role is reconnaissance to which it is armed heavily for this role in comparison to other reconnaissance vehicles around the world in forces today. The vehicle is also a four crewed vehicle. There have been several upgrades to this vehicle throughout the generations. It is a variant of the AMX-10P (IFV), with a notable change of the 105mm cannon mounted on top of the vehicle. The vehicle is also amphibious as well has having hydro-pneumatic suspension system. Which means it can essentially hull-down or find angles dependant on the position that the hydro-pneumatic suspension system places it. The vehicle has been deployed in numerous places during Op. Manta in Chad during 1983 to 1984, during Kosovo and also in Op. Desert Storm (Iraq) in 1991.
Armaments
It carries the GIAT 105 mm as its main gun to which effect can fire ‘Armour-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot’ (APFSDS), ‘High-Explosive’ (HE) and ‘High explosive anti-tank warhead’. (HEAT) The gun is specialised in only firing French ammunition made by Nexter. (Then GIAT Industries) However there was discussion about replacing the gun-turret with a NATO 105 mm so it could support NATO ammunition. The turret also supports a 7.62 mm coaxial machine gun, which it carries 4,000 cartridges of. While also having 4 smoke generators.
Other
The AMX 10RC is also NBC (Nuclear/Biological/Chemical) protected featuring compartment over-pressurisation along with air filtering. Upgrades over the life-time of the vehicle include ‘EADS Defence Electronics Eirel infrared jammer’, which helps jams anti-tank missiles guided by infrared from hitting its target. The upgrades include from Nexter and EADS a fire control system which enables this vehicle to shoot on the move, as well as being able to target vehicles on the move.
