page_title: AMX-30
section_title: Modernization
hierarchical_section_title: AMX-30 / Development history / Modernization
caption_attribution_description: English: A French AMX 30B2 Brennus tank at Saumur
context_page_description: The AMX-30 is a main battle tank designed by Ateliers de construction d'Issy-les-Moulineaux and first delivered to the French Army in August 1962. The first five tanks were issued to the 501st Régiment de Chars de Combat in August of that year. The production version of the AMX-30B weighed 36 metric tons, and sacrificed protection for increased mobility. The French believed that it would have required too much armour to protect against the latest anti-tank threats, thereby reducing the tank's maneuverability. Protection, instead, was provided by the speed and the compact dimensions of the vehicle, including a height of 2.28 metres. It had a 105 mm gun, firing a then advanced high explosive anti-tank warhead known as the Obus G. The Obus G used an outer shell, separated from the main charge by ball bearings, to allow the round to be spin stabilized by the gun without affecting the warhead inside. Mobility was provided by the 720 horsepower HS-110 diesel engine, although the troublesome transmission adversely affected the tank's performance.
context_section_description: During the production run, many improvements were implemented. These included gun stabilization from 1971, and from 1972 replacing the original coaxial heavy machine gun with a dual purpose 20-millimeter (0.79 in) autocannon against light armour and helicopters, with the ability to depress to −8 degrees and elevate to 40 degrees. All French army vehicles were eventually brought to this newer standard; the designation remained AMX 30B.
  Beginning as early as 1973, only seven years after the beginning of production, the French began a research program for a future modification of the tank. The project was to result in a  AMX 30 Valorisé ("upgraded AMX-30"). In June 1979, the French Army decided to both build new and modernize existing AMX-30s with an improved fire control system and a new transmission, and designated them AMX-30B2s. The first new production vehicles were taken into service in January 1982. Improvements to the COTAC APX M-508 fire control system included the installation of a laser rangefinder and a low-light TV (LLTV). The main gun's lethality was improved with the introduction of a new armour piercing fin stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS). The original engine was exchanged for an improved variant, known as the HS-110.2, producing 680 horsepower (510 kW). The poor transmission was replaced with the semi-automatic SESM ENC200 transmission (now RENK France), with a torque converter. The suspension was improved by adopting new torsion bars and shocks, which increased the vertical deflection range of the road wheels, thereby improving the tank's off-road mobility. From 1998, the French army started to replace the engines of its remaining AMX-30 tanks and variants with 500 Renault Mack E9 750 hp engines.
  In the nineties, a reactive armour package, named BRENUS or Brennus, was developed for the AMX-30B2, but was issued only to two tank regiments, which in peacetime were combined into the 1er/ 2e Chasseurs, that were part of France's rapid reaction force; the other two regiments using the AMX-30, the 2e/5e Dragons, only had their tanks adapted for a possible relatively quick upgrade, in case of an emergency. The BRENUS system used 112 GIAT BS (Brique de Surblindage) G2 explosive reactive boxes with a total weight of 1.7 metric tons (1.9 short tons), offering a protection equivalent to 400 millimeters (16 in) of steel at 60° versus shaped charges and more than 100 millimeters (3.9 in) of steel versus kinetic energy projectiles such as APFSDS. During the 1990s, the AMX-30 has also been used as a testbed for several stealth technologies, including air cooling of hull surfaces and the use of visual camouflage. This prototype is known as the Démonstrateur Furtif à Chenille. Its hull and turret are fully covered by a superstructure built of angled plates made of radar absorbent material.
caption: An AMX-30B2 BRENUS, note the number of ERA blocks mounted on the turret.
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