AMX-13 DCA

     Notes: This is the hull of the AMX-13 light tank topped with a large turret housing an antiaircraft gun system.  They are generally used in concert with SP antiaircraft missile systems to provide a layered mix of weapons.  They are fairly light vehicles with halfway decent armor (especially against civilians and under-equipped partisans) and good maneuverability. They were operated only by France, and had no export sales despite determined marketing; some 60 were built.  They entered service in the mid-1960s and retired at the end of the Cold War.

     The AMX-13 DCA uses a standard AMX-13 hull, topped with a large cast turret which is dome-shaped. There is a driver’s hatch on the front left deck, and commander’s and gunner hatches on the turret deck. The armor is decent for its type of vehicle, but still relatively, mainly stopping small arms bullets and shell splinters.  There is a wave deflector to protect the driver during fording (fording limit is about 60 centimeters), and generally a spare roadwheel was kept on the glacis. The engine, a SOFAM 8Gxb 250-horsepower gasoline engine, was coupled to a manual transmission. The suspension had five roadwheels and three return rollers in addition to a drive sprocket and an idler wheel. Armament consisted of twin 30mm autocannons, and there were no coaxial machineguns or commander’s or gunner’s weapons. The turret also had an Oeil Noir doppler radar which had a detection range of 12 kilometers, though the autocannons themselves had a maximum effective range of five kilometers. The autocannons are stabilized up to 45 degrees elevation, and non-stabilized from +46 to +85 degrees; depression limit is -5 degrees. The guns could target via radar or manual sights; the manual sights are faster but not as accurate. The autocannons may fire at full cyclic rate (about 300 rpm), in bursts of 5 or 15 rounds, or semiautomatically. The turret can rotate at 80 degrees per second to follow fast moving aircraft. The sides of the turret have rails for fastening crew and vehicle equipment; the rear of the turret has an access panel for a large bin, where spent rounds from the autocannons are collected.

     The hull can use the same appliqué armor as the standard AMX-13 light tank.

     Twilight 2000 Notes: In the Twilight War, the AMX-13 DCAs were used to grisly effect in the Middle East and the Dead Zone against personnel in the open and in soft skinned vehicles, and used to terrorize and kill refugees in the Dead Zone along the Franco-German border, as well as against partisans in Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. 

*The guns have this stabilization until elevated up to 45 degrees; Stabilization is Basic if elevated beyond this point.

Roland 2/AMX-30

     Notes: Also known as the AMX-30R, this is the same Roland SAM turret as on the Roland SPAA, but mounted on a heavily modified AMX-30 tank chassis.  It is used by France, Iraq, Qatar, and Spain. Intended to be a NATO-wide missile launcher, high costs and overruns meant that it did not reach anywhere its deployment goals. Retirement for most countries was by 2006, but some African countries still use the Roland/AMX-30.

     The AMX-30 tank chassis was greatly modified for its role as a missile launcher.  The sides were built up, almost forming a superstructure.  The glacis was barely sloped, unlike its AMX-30 base.  This gave the necessary room for the radar system, crew, operative systems, and missile reloads. The turret held the missile launcher and radar dish; a computer to process radar returns was below the turret in the hull. The crew sits in the front of the vehicle behind the glacis, with the gunner and commander having downlinked controls for the radar and missiles, and all three crewmembers having overhead hatches and vision blocks.

     There are two missile launchers, one on each side of the turret. Missile launchers are automatically reloaded when empty, or a dud missile can be ejected by manual control and a fresh missile loaded onto the launch rail.  The Roland system has both night vision and self-contained radar for the missiles and may be fired by optical tracking in a heavily jammed environment.  The sights consist of a telescopic sight and thermal imaging, as well as radar direction. The radar has the equivalent of ECCM 1. No supplemental weapons are provided, though the crew has space for its countries’ issue small arms and grenades.

     The Roland/AMX-30 uses a simpler and more reliable version of the HS-110 engine of the AMX-30 (called the HS-110-2), it develops 730 horsepower at 2600 rpm.  The driver’s station has an infrared vision block, and a conventional driver’s yoke and brakes rather than using the laterals of the AMX-30.  The new transmission is fully automatic.  The suspension uses improved torsion bars, increasing off-road mobility; improved tracks make the Roland/AMX-30 quieter. The heavy armor of the AMX-30 is mostly removed and replaced by thinner armored steel sheets.

     The Roland/AMX-30 uses a collective NBC system rather than the individual system of the AMX-30.  An inertial land navigation system is installed.  Appliqué armor is added to the glacis. Lugs for ERA are added to the same glacis, as well as the sides.  The Roland/AMX-30 does not normally wear the side skirts of its tank brethren.  In addition to two banks of six smoke grenades on either side of the vehicle, the Roland/AMX-30 can lay a smoke screen by injecting diesel fuel into its exhaust.

Shahine

     Notes: Also known as the AMX-30C1, this is a self-propelled SAM launcher built by France.  The system consists of Crotale 2000 SAMs mounted on a modified AMX-30 main battle tank chassis. The Shahine saw combat service with the French and Saudis in Desert Storm and also saw anti-drone activities with the Saudis recently. It was supplied to the Ukrainians starting in 2022. In addition to the French, the Shahine was or is used by Chile, Egypt, UAE, Portugal, Finland, Greece, Libya, Morocco, Pakistan, South Korea (where it was developed into the Chung-Ma), and China, where it was reserve-engineered into the HQ-7, and then supplied to Iran.

     The Shahine is mostly a standard AMX-30 chassis with a new turret mounting six missile launchers and a radar unit. The missiles are in shipping container tubes and launched from those tubes: the tubes are mounted directly to the missile launchers. The system has radar that can track 18 targets at once and engage two of them at a time with missiles. The monopulse Doppler J-Band radar has a detection range of 17 kilometers. The Crotale missiles may be launched in pairs against a single target, and the radar on the Shahine has a rating of ECCM 1. The Shahine has a 10kW APU for use while the vehicle’s engine is off. The launcher vehicle is similar in design and concept to the chassis of the Roland 2/AMX-30.

     The Shahine is normally followed by a number of heavy trucks equipped with extra missiles and a crane for reloading the launcher.

     The second part of Shahine is a target acquisition unit.  This is a radar vehicle using a modified AMX-30 chassis.  The radar vehicle can track up to 40 targets at once at a range of 18.5 km, using a Doppler E/F Band radar.  It feeds data to the Shahine firing unit through a frequency-agile radio link, and may be up to four kilometers from the missile vehicle. It may network with other Shahine radar units at a range of seven kilometers.  It has an ECCM rating of 1. An improved system, Shahine-2, has a radar detection range of 19.5 kilometers, and is usually paired with Shahine missile units modified to use Crotale 4000 (Crotale NG) missiles. Shahine-2 has an ECCM rating of 2.

     Twilight 2000 Notes:  The French did not use this system before the Twilight War, but it was instead used only by Saudi Arabia; shipments were diverted when the Foreign Legion deployed to the Middle East, for use by those forces.