M3A3 (Italy)

▄M3A3

AB 43

▄M24

▄M3A3

AB 43

▄M24

Italy

II Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
2.3	2.7	2.7

Class:

Light tank

Research:9 200

Purchase:16 000

This page is about the light tank M3A3 (Italy). For other variants, see M3 Stuart (Family).

Description

The Carro Armato Leggero M3A3 is a rank II Italian light tank with a battle rating of 2.3 (AB) and 2.7 (RB/SB). It was introduced in Update "Starfighters".

General info

Survivability and armour

The frontal armour on the M3A3 is pretty tough for a light tank with 25 mm on the front & sides of the hull, and a large, 50 mm thick gun mantlet covering up most of its frontal turret. When angled correctly it can bounce off quite a few shots. However it can still be easily penetrated by average guns on its BR. From the front the 4 crews are sitting pretty close together, thus making it highly possible to get one-shotted by shells with explosives like the Soviet 45 mm AP or the German short 75 mm APHE. The transmission and the engine are all quite small and low, and the ammoracks are also small, reducing the chance of being immobile or ammoracked. There is also an empty area under the turret crews and in front of the driving compartment, which will absorb those shells with weak damage.

Armour	Front (Slope angle)	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	___ mm	___ mm Top ___ mm Bottom	___ mm	___ - ___ mm
Turret	___ - ___ mm Turret front ___ mm Gun mantlet	___ - ___ mm	___ - ___ mm	___ - ___ mm
Cupola	___ mm	___ mm	___ mm	___ mm

Notes:

Mobility

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	65	8	14.4	406	500	28.19	34.72
Realistic	59	7		232	262	16.11	18.19

One of the best aspect of the M3A3 (Italy) is its superior mobility. It has a top speed of 58 km/h and doesn't lose too much speed on soft terrains as it's tracked, making it one of the fastest tanks at the BR alongside with the famous BT series tanks. The turning ability is also amazing, since the hull is short and wide enough, allowing it to turn agilely. However, when trying to stop the tank while it is travelling at full speed, the brakes tend to be inefficient, giving it a long braking distance and making it very sluggish when stopping.

Armaments

Main armament

The M3A3 is armed with a 37 mm M6 cannon as its main armament, the same gun as the preceding M8. While being 1.3 BR higher than the M8, the M3A3's gun still packs a fierce punch if aiming at the correct area and firing at the correct distance. It is a small caliber fast-firing gun with a maximum penetration of 84 mm at 100 m (M51B1/B2 shell), being able to penetrate most of the opponents it will face. While it lacks the post-penetration damage to one-shot most enemy, it can quickly finish them off with its fast reload. The penetration and trajectory drops a lot beyond 500 m. Note that the gun has a vertical stabiliser, giving the player a huge advantage in some cases, but keep in mind that the stabiliser only works when the tank is slower than 10 km/h.

37 mm M6					Turret rotation speed (°/s)					Reloading rate (seconds)
Mode	Capacity	Vertical	Horizontal	Stabilizer	Stock	Upgraded	Full	Expert	Aced	Stock	Full	Expert	Aced
Arcade	106	-10°/+20°	±180°	Vertical	__.__	__.__	__.__	__.__	__.__	_.__	_.__	_.__	_.__
Realistic					__.__	__.__	__.__	__.__	__.__

Ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
M74B1	AP	79	76	65	54	45	37
M51B1/B2	APCBC	87	84	73	60	50	41

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%
M74B1	AP	883	0.87	N/A	N/A	N/A	47°	60°	65°
M51B1/B2	APCBC	883	0.87	N/A	N/A	N/A	48°	63°	71°

Ammo racks

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	3rd rack empty	4th rack empty	5th rack empty	6th rack empty	Visual discrepancy
106	__ (+__)	__ (+__)	__ (+__)	__ (+__)	__ (+__)	__ (+__)	__

Machine guns

The M3A3 has two 7.62 mm M1919A4 machine guns, one being coaxial to the main gun and the other roof mounted. The two machine guns can quickly incapacitate the exposed crews on some vehicles or do some serious damage to those low-passing planes. However it lacks the ability to effectively damage lightly armoured vehicles due to its low penetration of only 10mm.

7.62 mm M1919A4
Mount	Capacity (Belt)	Fire rate	Vertical	Horizontal
Pintle	3,000 (250)	500	-10°/+70°	-60°/+15°
Coaxial	3,200 (250)	500	N/A	N/A

Usage in battles

The M3A3 Stuart is best used as a point-capper and a hit-n-run tank. Its extreme mobility gives the player uncountable ways to play with the enemy. At the start of a battle, it can quickly cap a nearby point first, but note that some wheeled vehicles, like the Sd.kfz.234 series in a mixed battle, can still outrun the M3 on-road, therefore posting a great threat. Or it can get to an ambush position near the point and wait til the prey comes. With its reliable gun, the M3 should be able to destroy the first wave of enemy easily and quickly.

In the middle stages of a battle, the M3 can utilise its excellent mobility and get to wherever needs help while carefully looking around. If the M3A3 unexpectedly encounter an enemy in its path, don't panic! Circle around the enemy and try to force it to turn, this way it usually cannot aim at the M3A3 accurately, then reduce the M3A3's speed down under 10 km/h and keep moving. Now the M3A3's stabiliser will give the tank a great chance to hit while on the move as it stabilises the gun when the tank is under 10 km/h, making it easier time to put the gun on target while moving compared to the enemy.

The frontal armor of this tank is also quite good at a distance. Find a building or a big rock as cover and angle the hull for about 40 degrees. When ready to fire, go out of cover and stop once the 37 mm gun is exposed, don't go out too much or the thin side armor will be exposed to be hit. Keep in mind that with this tactic the player should only engage the low-penetrating enemies at more than 400m, as their penetration will drop significantly at that distance while the M3 can still penetrate 73mm of armor, which is enough to go through most of its opponents like the T-50, SU-76 or Crusader.

Heavily armored opponents

It is likely that the M3 will encounter some rough heavies, like the Matilda III and the B1 bis. The best tactic against this type of targets is to use the M3A3's fast speed, get within 200m from then and attack, with shooting at point-blank range being the most effective way. Before conducting an attack, check the M3A3's and the enemy's surroundings to make sure no one will ambush the M3A3. While charging, use the M3A3's quick turns to suddenly change direction to avoid being shot if they are aiming and firing at the M3A3. Once the tank is at the ideal distance, maneouver so that the gun is vertical to their armor. Do not shoot if the enemy is angling! The small caliber 37mm gun is very likely to bounce off or not penetrate against sloped armor.

For the Matilda III, shoot at the middle of the near-vertical frontal plate to knock out the driver first, since the 37mm shell is not enough to knock out the gunner after penetrating. Once it is immobile, go to its side and finish it by shooting its hull sides. Or, shoot the right side of the gun mantlet to disable its gunner. For best chance of penetration, do not shoot its turret side.

For the B1, either aim for the near-vertical frontal armor plate at the right side of the hull, or the turret ring to incapacitate the commander/gunner. Or simply move to its side and knock out the crews one by one by hitting its flat side armor.

Modules

Tier	Mobility		Protection	Firepower
I	Tracks		Parts	Horizontal Drive	M51B1/B2
II	Suspension	Brake System	FPE	Adjustment of Fire	Airstrike
III	Filters		Crew Replenishment	Elevation Mechanism
IV	Transmission	Engine		Artillery Support	Improved optics

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Great firepower: cannon has good penetration, excellent rate of fire and gun depression of -10 degrees. This allows the M3 to maneuver to any terrain and adapt it well
• Excellent acceleration, top speed and turning ability on all terrains. Easily outruns common opponents like the Pz.III, Crusader
• Access to a vertical stabiliser which most tanks don't have, giving it an advantage in a sudden encounter
• Respectable sloped armor that, if angled, might bounce some shells from a distance. For example it can bounce the 37mm M6 on other M3 Stuarts
• Small turret profile makes it harder to get hit

Cons:

• Weak armor against high-penetration shells like the 76mm F-34 / ZiS-5
• Its shells do not have explosive filters, severely limiting the post-penetration effect. Large targets like the LVT(A) are harder to kill
• Inefficient brakes when trying to stop the tank at full speed
• Hull is fairly high for a light tank and the crews are closely packed, reducing its survivability
• While fast, it is still slower than the Sd.kfz.234 series on road

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the vehicle in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

See also

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• reference to the series of the vehicles;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

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• topic on the official game forum;
• encyclopedia page on the tank;
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Italy light tanks
	Italy
L6/40	L6/40 · L6/40 (31 Rgt.)
M11/39	M11/39
Autoblindo	AB 41 · AB 43
Fiat 6614/6616	FIAT 6614 · AUBL/74 · AUBL/74 HVG
R3 Capraia	R3 T106 FA
Centauro	Centauro I 105 · Centauro I 105 R · Centauro I 120 · Centauro RGO · VRCC
Freccia	VBC (PT2) · Freccia
Dardo	Dardo · VCC-80/60 · VCC-80/30
Other	C13 T90
USA	▄M3A3 · ▄M24 · ▄M18
	Hungary
WWII	Csaba · Toldi IIA
Post	◔BTR-80A · KF41