C1 Ariete
Type	Main battle tank
Place of origin	Italy
Production history
Produced	1995 - Present
Specifications
Weight	54 tonnes
Length	9. Tank classification is a Taxonomy of identifying either the intended role or weight class of Tanks The classification by role was used primarily during Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Year 1995 ( MCMXCV) was a Common year starting on Sunday. Events of 1995 67 m (7. 59 without gun)
Width	3. 42 m
Height	2. 50 m
Crew	4
Armor	Classified, steel/composite blend
Primary armament	120mm smoothbore tank gun 42 rounds (15 rounds inside Turret magazine with additional 27 rounds in the chassis)
Secondary armament	7. For body armour see Armour, for armoured forces see Armoured warfare, for other uses see Armour (disambiguation. A tank gun is the main armament of a Tank. Modern tank guns are large- Caliber high-velocity guns capable of firing Kinetic energy penetrators 62mm coaxial machine-gun, 7. 62mm AA machine-gun 2,500 rounds
Engine	V-12 turbocharged diesel FIAT MTCA 1,247 hp (937 kW)
Power/weight	23 hp/tonne
Suspension	torsion-bar
Operational range	550 km
Speed	65 km/h

The C1 Ariete is a main battle tank developed for the Italian Army by Iveco Fiat and Oto Melara. A torsion bar suspension, also known as a Torsion spring suspension or incorrectly torsion beam, is a general term for any Vehicle suspension Tank classification is a Taxonomy of identifying either the intended role or weight class of Tanks The classification by role was used primarily during The Italian Army (Esercito Italiano is the ground defense force of the Military of Italy. Iveco is an Italian Truck, Bus, and Diesel engine Manufacturer, based in Turin, Italy. Fiat SpA (an Acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (Italian Automobile Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer Oto Melara is an Italian defence company with factories in Brescia and La Spezia.

Official information

The original Ariete was designed, constructed, and tested by the Iveco Fiat - Oto Melara Syndicated Company, headquartered in Rome. Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2 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. Iveco is an Italian Truck, Bus, and Diesel engine Manufacturer, based in Turin, Italy. Oto Melara is an Italian defence company with factories in Brescia and La Spezia. Note the term " fire control " may also refer to means of stopping a fire such as sprinkler systems A fire-control system

The Ariete is currently in service with the Italian Army. The Italian Army (Esercito Italiano is the ground defense force of the Military of Italy. 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. A coaxial weapon is a weapon system that is mounted side-by-side with the main weapon system usually on a Tank. 62-mm anti-aircraft (manned by the tank commander). Anti-aircraft warfare, or air defense, is any method of engaging hostile military Aircraft in defence of ground objectives, ground or naval forces

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. Smoothbore refers to a Firearm or Cannon which does not have a rifled barrel. Autofrettage is a metal fabrication technique in which a pressure vessel is subjected to enormous Pressure, causing internal portions of the part to yield and resulting 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. A sabot (ˈseɪboʊ "saybow" or /ˈsæboʊ/ "sabbow" is a device used in a Firearm or Cannon to fire a Projectile, such as a A kinetic energy penetrator (also known as a KE weapon) is a type of Ammunition which like a Bullet, does not contain Explosives and uses

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 2 tank and the American M1 Abrams. Steel is an Alloy consisting mostly of Iron, with a Carbon content between 0 Composite armour is a type of Vehicle armour consisting of layers of different material such as Metals Plastics, Ceramics or Air The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located FV4034 Challenger 2 is a Main battle tank (MBT currently in service with the armies of the United Kingdom and Oman. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The M1 Abrams is a main battle tank produced in the United States.

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. Chaff, originally called Window by the British, and Düppel by the World War II era German Luftwaffe, is a 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. Radar cross section (RCS is a measure of how detectable an object is with a Radar.

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 anti-NBC system designed by Aero Sekur. A weapon of mass destruction ( WMD) is a weapon which can kill large numbers of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures (e 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 Galileo). It is designated the TURMS Fire-Control System, and includes, among other features:

• Day- and night-capable panoramic commander's scope for increased visibility,
• Stabilized 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. wiki stranglesnakejpg|thumb|Thermographic image of a Snake held by a human]] Infrared Thermography, thermal imaging, or thermal video, is a type of

The most important aspect, the fire-control computer, is capable of measuring wind speed, humidity, and exterior weather conditions, combining them with the turret's angle of elevation, attitude, and the barrel's physical wear to increase accuracy. Wind speed is the Speed of Wind, the movement of air or other gases in an atmosphere Humidity is the amount of water vapor in the air In daily language the term "humidity" is normally taken to mean Relative humidity. For other senses of this word see Elevation (disambiguation. In Ballistics, the elevation is the Angle between the

Powerplant and drivetrain

The Ariete's powerplant is powered by a 25. 8 litres turbo-charged Fiat-Iveco 12-cylinder diesel engine. A turbocharger, or turbo, is an air Compressor used for forced-induction of an Internal combustion engine. Its rated output is 937 kilowatts (equivalent to 1250-HP) at 2. 300 rpm, with a max torque of 4. 615 Nm at 1. 600 rpm^[1].

It has a 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. An automatic transmission (commonly "AT" or "Auto" is an Automobile Gearbox that can change Gear ratios automatically as the vehicle 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. Continuous tracks are large (modular tracks used on the so-called caterpillar Tanks construction equipment and certain other off-road vehicles

Developments

During the first years of adoption, the Ariete MBT showed some deficiency, especially regarding the powerplant and the armour. The original V12 1,250 hp FIAT-Iveco MTCA (Modular Turbo-Charged Aftercooler) engine has the advantage of being a modular unit, practically a doubling of the V6 engine used by several vehicles of the Italian Army (such as the Centauro tank destroyer and the Dardo IFV) but had less power output than the most advanced units adopted by other western design in the same years. Fiat SpA (an Acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (Italian Automobile Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer Iveco is an Italian Truck, Bus, and Diesel engine Manufacturer, based in Turin, Italy. The Centauro is a wheeled Tank destroyer designed for light to medium territorial defense and tactical reconnaissance A self-propelled anti-tank gun or tank destroyer, is a type of Armoured fighting vehicle designed specifically to engage enemy armor forces and not produced for an infantry The Dardo is a Infantry Fighting Vehicle designed for the Italian Army as a replacement for the M113 APC The Ariete engine had to function at high rpm to give a good power performance thus reducing the operating time between failures.

Moreover, to have a good power to weight ratio, the total weight of the tank had to be maintained well under the 60 ton. The relatively light weight of the Ariete helped lower consumption and facilitated the transport and mobility of the MBT (especially over bridges). This was obtained partially at the expense of the thickness of the armour that, only partially compensated by the good ballistic shape of the vehicle, raised some doubt about its ability to survive in the most harsh environments.

To fix the deficiencies, Iveco developed a new version of the MTCA engine. The displacement was enhanced to 30 litres increasing the stroke, while a new common rail direct fuel injection system was adopted, along with a new double turbocharger, thus increasing the power output to 1,600 hp at 1,800 rpm (with an electronically reduced torque of 5,500 Nm, maintained from 1,100 to 1,800 rpm to reduce damage to the transmission) and further reducing the fuel consumption. The new engine will be adopted during the first general revision of the existing vehicles. As for the armour, Oto Melara developed two different sets (with different thickness) of adjunctive armour, shown for the first time at Eurostatory 2002. Oto Melara is an Italian defence company with factories in Brescia and La Spezia. With these developments it is possible to adapt the power to weight ratio.

Operators

•  Italy - 200^[2]

References

See also

• List of tanks