ARIETE

'C1 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.

Contents

Official information

Armament

Crew and tank protection

Fire control and target acquisition

Powerplant and drivetrain

Operators

References

See also

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. It began with the first tank's delivery in 1995. The final delivery completed 7 years later in August 2002. An upgraded version, with modular armor, auto-loader and 55-calibre gun, was displayed in 2005 and ready for production.

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 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.

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.
In addition it provides War Kit And PKO Kit it will be able to reinforce the Front armor and the side Armor with an optional package.
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.

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 expedite 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 achieve absolute accuracy.

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 ZF LSG3000 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.

Operators

★ : 200^[1]

References

1. http://www.army-technology.com/projects/ariete/

See also

★ List of tanks