MARS 15

MARS 15

MARS 15

Description

The MARS 15 is a rank French light tank with a battle rating of (AB), (RB), and (SB). It was introduced in Update "Ixwa Strike".

General info

Survivability and armour

At first sight, the MARS 15 might look like it lacks any real armour, thanks to its pitiful 11 mm top glacis. However, these 11 millimeters are quite adequate at stopping rounds from autocannons and lower calibre rounds, thanks to the top glacis steep angle of 80°. This is overall boosted by the internal plate that separates the crew compartment and the front of the tank. As an added protection, the transmission, engine block and the radiator are placed in front of the tank, which might help with stopping HEAT rounds.

However, all of this added protection won't help the tank survive an APFSDS round as most of the time it will have no problems penetrating the front of the tank and due to the crew placement and because only 3 members are inside of the vehicle, most APFSDS rounds will destroy the tank with a single hit. A major weak spot is the left part of the driver's optics. A shot trough these optics will result in the incapacitation of the driver and most of the time either the gunner or the loader. If the user survives a shot like this, another problem would be the 4 rounds that are kept in storage within the tank turret, however the user can bypass this issue by loading only 16 rounds. This way, only the back of the turret will have rounds stored inside, boosting the chance of survival by a tiny amount.

As mentioned above, holding more than 16 rounds might be a problem for some. But due to the overall low survivability of the tank itself, taking 20 rounds might be an optimal way to play. Take note however, that taking more than 20 rounds will result in the rounds being placed on the racks on both sides of the tank, which might make the user very susceptible to side shots.

Armour type:

• Rolled homogeneous armour (Hull, Turret, Internal plate)

Armour	Front (Slope angle)	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	11 mm (80°) Top Glacis 15 mm (40°) Bottom Glacis	5 mm (20°) Top 10 mm Bottom	10 mm (10°)	8 - 11 mm (90° - 80°)
Turret	10 - 15 mm Turret front 10 mm Gun mantlet	8 - 12 mm (0° - 30°)	8 - 10 mm	10 - 12 mm
Cupola	10 mm (5° - 90°)	10 mm (12° - 75°)	10 mm (61°)	10 mm (58° - 85°)

Notes:

• The torsion bars, suspension wheels and the tracks are 15 mm thick
• Internal plate protecting the crew compartment is 10 mm thick

Mobility

The MARS 15 is a very mobile and nimble tank, with a pretty small profile. The user should expect around 48 km/h on off-road terrain and roughly -24 km/h reverse speed. It takes roughly 13 seconds for the tank to fully do a 360° rotation with neutral steering, however if the user gets some speed before turning, it will do the 360° rotation roughly 50% faster. It is powered by a Baudouin GF12SRY diesel engine, with the power of 420 hp for roughly 75 km/h max speed.

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade				_,___		__.__	__.__
Realistic				_,___		__.__	__.__

Armaments

Main armament

Give the reader information about the characteristics of the main gun. Assess its effectiveness in a battle based on the reloading speed, ballistics and the power of shells. Do not forget about the flexibility of the fire, that is how quickly the cannon can be aimed at the target, open fire on it and aim at another enemy. Add a link to the main article on the gun: {{main|Name of the weapon}}. Describe in general terms the ammunition available for the main gun. Give advice on how to use them and how to fill the ammunition storage.

90 mm CN90 F4					Turret rotation speed (°/s)					Reloading rate (seconds)
Mode	Capacity	Vertical	Horizontal	Stabilizer	Stock	Upgraded	Full	Expert	Aced	Stock	Full	Expert	Aced
Arcade	30	-8°/+18°	±180°	N/A	__._	__._	__._	__._	__._	_.__	_.__	_.__	_.__
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
OCC 90 F2	HEATFS	320	320	320	320	320	320
OE 90 F1	HE	13	13	13	13	13	13
OFL 90 F1	APFSDS	271	267	253	235	218	201

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%
OCC 90 F2	HEATFS	950	8.95	0.05	0.1	877.7	65°	72°	77°
OE 90 F1	HE	750	10.45	N/A	0.1	945	79°	80°	81°
OFL 90 F1	APFSDS	1275	2.33	N/A	N/A	N/A	78°	80°	81°

Smoke shell characteristics
Ammunition	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile Mass (kg)	Screen radius (m)	Screen deploy time (s)	Screen hold time (s)	Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g)
OFUM 90 F1	750	10.2	13	5	20	50

Ammo racks

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	3rd rack empty	4th rack empty	5th rack empty	6th rack empty	Visual discrepancy
30	__ (+__)	__ (+__)	__ (+__)	__ (+__)	__ (+__)	__ (+__)	No

Machine guns

The A-A-F1N is largely ineffective at taking out any armored target and its only real use comes to play against vehicles with exposed crew members. Thanks to the large fire rate, one can dispatch such tank with relative easy. It can also be used to "ping" enemy targets for your teammates or to destroy environmental objects such as fences.

7.62 mm A-A-F1N
Mount	Capacity (Belt)	Fire rate	Vertical	Horizontal
Pintle	2,000 (100)	900 shots/min	-8°/+18°	180°

Usage in battles

The MARS 15 is effective as a scout vehicle. Because of the good mobility and low profile, it is easy to flank the enemy and scout them for your team. Engaging in brawls is not recommended as the mediocre armour won't provide adequate protection against other vehicles that the MARS will face. Focusing on flanking the enemy and/or engaging the enemy from vantage points from the sides is an adequate way of playing the MARS. If for some reason the user finds themselves in a tough spot, the MARS can have 4 smoke grenades equipped that can provide a reliable way of escaping danger and repositioning.

Although the user has access to an APFSDS round, using it is rather questionable and situational. The power of it is rather average at best, but on the flipside, it provides quite a boost to the round velocity. A good tactic is to take both HEAT-FS and APFSDS if the user plans on sniping but also flanking. The APFSDS should be used at longer ranges where the target might be moving too fast for the HEAT-FS to be reliable, or incase environmental objects such as bushes are in-front of the user as hitting these with HEAT rounds will most likely detonate them, giving away the user's position.

If the user prefers to snipe crew members or the enemy tank's ammo racks, the APFSDS is good enough to fulfill that role, but spare HEAT-FS should always be carried incase the user needs some extra penetration power.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Low profile
• Good mobility
• Access to a laser rangefinder

Cons:

• No gun stabilization
• Very light protection
• No night vision devices
• Because of the OFL 90 F1 rather weak penetration power and below average spalling, one hit kills are unreliable

History

Devblog

In the early 1980s, the French Creusot-Loire Industrie company began work on developing a new family of tracked combat vehicles which share a common chassis. Initiating work under a private venture, Creusot-Loire Industrie aimed to produce the vehicles for customers on the export market who already used the widely used AMX-13 light tank.

Full-scale development only began in 1988 and several variants of the vehicle were developed, ranging from light tank modifications over APCs and IFVs to SPAAs and SPHs as well as a number of other variants. However, many of these planned variants never passed the drawing board stage. Of the few that did, the light tank modification stood out as it aimed to build upon the popular characteristics of the AMX-13 and expand upon them by incorporating modern technologies.

This light tank modification featured a small and extremely nimble chassis while being armed with a 90 mm cannon and promising low maintenance efforts. The first and only prototype of this variant was shown off in 1990, along with the IFV modification. After its reveal, the vehicle received the designation MARS 15. 

In 1991, another prototype armed with a 105 mm cannon was shown off which would also become the last of the series. In fact, the expected response from potential foreign customers never materialized as the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s diminished the demand for new tanks while simultaneously surplus MBTs were being taken out of storage and sold. As a result of this development, the MARS vehicles never left the prototype stage and were ultimately abandoned.

Media

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

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

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

External links

• [military-today.com] MARS 15