The announcement of the delivery of French AMX-10RCs to Ukraine causes major turmoil in Europe

The announcement made by French President Emmanuel Macron following an hour-long meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, about the upcoming delivery by France of AMX-10RC light tanks and armored transport vehicles of Bastion troops in Kyiv, in support of the Ukrainian war effort against the Russian invasion, could well have far greater consequences than the armored vehicles delivered by France themselves. Indeed, since this announcement, social networks, but also the European media, are in turmoil, and two controversies have apparently focused the interest of Europeans on this subject, as have articles from the specialized and generalist press.

The first of the polemics is relatively sterile, and has little interest beyond the very restricted circles of armor specialists. Indeed, due to its mass of only 20 tons in combat, relatively thin armor to protect only against 25 mm shells, and a 6×6 configuration, debates are raging, especially on the networks. social, to know whether or not, the AMX-10RC can be qualified as a light combat tank as the French president did. The fact is, tank or not, the armored vehicle that will be delivered by France to Ukraine will be the first Western-built front-line armored vehicle, with offensive capability and high firepower to be delivered to the Ukrainian armies, whereas until here, apart from artillery systems, only Western-made armored personnel carriers were delivered to the armies of Kyiv.

Because if the 10RC is indeed lightly armored, it is nonetheless endowed with significant offensive capabilities, thanks in particular to its 105 mm low pressure gun F2 BK Meka of 48 caliber designed specifically to equip an armored vehicle of this mass, while with remarkable power, especially when it uses the OFL 105 F3 arrow shell capable of piercing up to 365 mm of steel at a 60° inclination. Thus equipped, the armored vehicle is capable of piercing almost all Russian armored vehicles, including in the frontal sector, at less than 1000 m. The other advantage of the tank is its extreme mobility, often implemented in overseas operations and which was admired by the allies of France, especially during the Gulf War when the 10RC of the 1er REC performed feats in the hands of the legionnaires . Finally, even if the cells are worn by time, French light tanks have been regularly modernized, and now have advanced multispectral vetronics, hunter-killer type automated fire control, and communication tools , command and digitization of the advanced battlefield. In other words, tank or not, the AMX 10RCs that the Ukrainians will receive will be valuable assets in the hands of the Ukrainian riders.

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