french light tank Hotchkiss Even ELC 30, Airborne auto-cannon

[CaID 8,996]

 

 

I would like to suggest a pretty interesting light tank for France, the Even ELC 30

The Even ELC 30 was a French prototype of airborne tank carry two 30mm. this tank is the sort of ugly vehicles that people would overlook at first but once it see what i can offer in-game, they will adopt it. this tank is  having a weak engine, but it do not matter because it is very light. it have almost no armour, but it do not matter because it is very small. it have a bit little elevation angle for the gun but it would not matter as it have a pretty good gun and a extremely high fire-rate with his auto-loader which would be pretty much making the players love it. the track are also rubber padded to make it have reduced noise.

The concept was based on the airborne Infantry support vehicles. retaking the base of the development of the VP-90 who offered a light armoured tank with powerful armament. but the VP-90 was never adopted due to the limited protection and armament. but the concept was retaken by many competitor such as Lorraine, AMX and Hotchkiss. it was in 1954 that an Engineer going by the Name of Even working for Hotchkiss, went to propose a tank entirely designed by his own. scarifying armour for his light weight, small size and high mobility. thee tank offered good solution to many problem and offered only protection against small arms and shrapnel. the protection against heavier armament was provided by his small size and high mobility. Capable to be air-listed by helicopter, this tank was a great solution for urban combat (many french colony didn't had yet city designed for cars) and difficult road. the tank was small, light and agile which make it a perfect tank for territories that would not normally offer proper road for a vehicles. his armament placed in a oscillatory turret was mainly limited to fight the infantry in urban and forest area. but it is also capable to fight lightly armoured vehicles. the twin auto-cannon allow a high rate of fire and good suppression but there is only a limited ammo belt. the first belt is full, while the 2nd would be only 2/3 the capacity of the first. once you fire the first belt, it would need to reload and this would take quit a bit of time as the crew is limited and the space as well. this make this tank more of a hit and run after you fire a few shot. it was designed to give fire support for the infantry, reconnaissance for the armoured units, capable to be carried by air and even capable to be operational in a terrain freshly devastated by nuclear detonation. the fact that Hotchkiss had prepared handbook translated in 4 language indicate they had the intention to offer this tank on the international market. the tank was also present on Satory 1967. two prototype was tested in the end of the 50s and show satisfaction, the was armed with the 90mm turret and 30mm turret. a pre-series of 10 tank was been ordered and under assembly in 1961, however there is no clue what happen to them. the tank was never put into active services in France. likely due to budget reduction. at least 1 survive to this day and is display at Saumur Museum

 

Firepower

The armament of this tank was a pair of 30mm HSS 831 auto-cannon. each gun have a belt of 90 rounds making it have a total of 180 rounds ready to fire. additional 120 rounds are stored in the hull making it have 60 round for the 2nd magazine only. the fire-rate reaching 500 rounds per gun make it pretty quick to run out of ammo. the sight giving a magnification of 7.9x allow a decent zoom on the distance. the turret is powered by an hydraulic engine which give the decent speed of rotation of 20.3° sec allow it to fight in relatively close distance with comfort. the elevation speed of 3°sec however is a bit slow. Two 7,5mm Machine-gun are placed on the front of the turret. each feed with 850 rounds for a total of 1700 rounds ready to use. additional rounds was also carried for the LMG.

 

30 mm HSS 831 (x2)
Capacity (Belt)	Fire rate	Vertical	Horizontal	Stabilizer	Rotation speed (degree/secds)	Reload speed (seconds)
300 (180)	500	-10°/+14.3°	±180°	N/A	22.3	Unknown

Penetration statistics
Belt	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
	10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
SAP-1	53	50	39	29	21	16
HEI-T	4	4	4	4	4	4
HEI	4	4	4	4	4	4

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile Mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
SAP-I	APHE	1080	0.36	1.2	9	30.6	47°	60°	65°
HEI-T	HEI-T	1080	0.36	0.2	0.1	85	79°	80°	81°
HEI	HEI	1080	0.36	0.2	0.1	102	79°	80°	81°

 

Mobility

The moblity of this tank is not lacking. with a Sofam 4 GSdE 2 providing 150 hp at 3500 rpm, the tank is rather weakely powered. but it would not really matter as it is only weighting 7.6 tonnes. that make it still have 20.27 hp-ton. the top speed reaching 68 km/h on road (some reported 70 km/h but most likely a rounded up number). the transmission been in variable strengh can be softer or harder as the terrain could need. the gearbox offering 4 forward speed and one backward speed only give a speed of 7.4 km/h backward which is the only weakness of his mobility. the track been rubber padded allow it to climb at a slope as strong as 70%. the low weight and large track give it a low pressure and make it more capable to move in soft grounds.

Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
Forward	Reverse		150		19.74
68	7.4	7.6

 

Protection

the tank protection against damage is a bit limited. only capable to take LMG hit and shrapnel, it would be easily killed by a short burst of HMG fire or any impact of a tank gun. with a maximal protection thickness of 12mm, the tank would focus on his small size and good mobility to survive. for exemple, this tank's lenght is 0.5 m shorter, his height is  0.55 m shorter and width 0.2 m less than the AMX 13. the crew of 2 men include a commander/gunner in the turret and a driver in the hull. the engine is placed at the rear and the ammo in the front. since the tank is already unlikely to survive a hit and all the ammo is at the front (and the gun is shooting fast) it would be a better option to carry all his ammunition even if there is a risk for the ammunition explode. the tank is having no smoke or fancy armour. but it do have a total immunity against fire and NBC. test show that the tank is not affected by fire such as cocktail molotov throw right at it or by toxic environment. the tank been air-tight and the air been filtrated and decontaminated allow the tank to operate in hostile environment of the nuclear warzone without needing individual protection for the crew.

 

Armour	Front (Slope angle)	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	12 mm (55°) nose 10mm (15°) glassis	12 mm	10 mm	10 mm front and middle 7 mm rear
Turret	15 to 20 mm Turret front	10 mm	10 mm	10 mm
Cupola	10 mm	10 mm	10 mm	10 mm

 

 

Specifications
Mass	7.6 tonnes (combat ready)
Length	4.23 m
Width	1.81 m
Height	2.15 m (7 ft 9 in)
Crew	2 (Commander and driver)
Armour	10–15 mm
Main armament	2x 30mm HSS 831 (300 rounds)
Secondary armament	2× 7.5 mm (or 7.62 mm) coaxial machine gun with 1,700 Rounds
Engine	SOFAM Model Sofam 4 GSdE 2 4-cylinder water-cooled petrol engine 150 hp at 3500 rpm
Power/weight	20 hp/tonne
Suspension	Torsion bar suspension
Operational range	350 km
Maximum speed	68 km/h

 

 

source

Those source are huge inside those spoiler, be especting over 100 large picture for some of them

 

Hotchkiss bocklet (it literally have all what we need and the text is in 4 language including English)

Spoiler

Notice ELC EVEN (mention a pre-production on going)

Spoiler

 

Report of the trial with recomandation (most of the information or obsolete due to the change fallowing the recommandation)

Spoiler

 

 

Edited August 15, 2022 by CaID

[Thatz 637]

Open for Discussion 

[Milocat 4,857]

+1, looks like an amazing vehicle to add to the game.

[Valcour 1,141]

+1. Another very fun, pesky vehicle.  I want one!
 

[DukeLongTree 11]

+1 this is a well needed French AA we need in the 7-6s

[RAYhill 43]

2 hours ago, DukeLongTree said:

+1 this is a well needed French AA we need in the 7-6s

Don't think you will be doing much spaa duty with 14° of elevation

[CaID 8,996]

On 16/08/2022 at 14:27, DukeLongTree said:

+1 this is a well needed French AA we need in the 7-6s

the gun have less elevation that most tank in-game. only 14.3°. the most tank game 20° and the lowest elevation for a SPAA is 45° which is 3 time higher. that tank have no AA capacity.

this is the top elevation it could get

Edited August 19, 2022 by CaID

[JamesPond1200@psn 299]

A wacky and weird vehicle that should have been added ages ago! +1

[KilianL 865]

This will eat BMP-1s alive I want it so bad +1 (again, I think)

[Abaddon75 460]

19 hours ago, CaID said:

the gun have less elevation that most tank in-game. only 14.3°. the most tank game 20° and the lowest elevation for a SPAA is 45° which is 3 time higher. that tank have no AA capacity.

this is the top elevation it could get

22 hours ago, RAYhill said:

Don't think you will be doing much spaa duty with 14° of elevation

Except if in his coment AA stand for Anti (side) Armor X)

Edited August 17, 2022 by Abaddon75

[CaID 8,996]

as flanker and against the light tank, this tank would be fearsome. and it have all the needed quality. it's small, fast and have a lot of ammo in the belt

 

[T_rexflameche 110]

+1. Even if it's lacking in penetration (no APDS) and elevation (+ 13 is very bad not gonna lie), could be a very fun speedy meme vehicle. Plus France needs more auto-canons :p.

Edited January 6, 2023 by T_rexflameche

[Major_Shaker 2,633]

Lets goooo