XM803
Contents
Description
The Tank, Combat, Full-Tracked, 152-mm Gun/Launcher XM803 is a rank VI American medium tank with a battle rating of 8.7 (AB) and 9.0 (RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.79 "Project X".
General info
Survivability and armour
The XM308's frontal armour is only effective versus full-calibre AP and APHE rounds and certain APDS rounds. Almost all large calibre (76 mm and up) have no trouble slicing through it, even when hitting the frontal armour at an angle. Large calibre HEAT-FS too has no problem going through, although the large fuel tank behind the frontal hull armour can sometimes absorb most damage. Because the armour has a layer of air in it, it is very effective against HESH rounds. All the spalling generated by the HESH round when it hits the first plate will get absorbed by the plate behind it. One big weak spot on the turret it the left (when facing it) turret cheek. This is because this part of the turret is not protected by spaced armour and only consists of 177.8 mm thick CHA plate, which most chemical and kinetic energy projectiles can penetrate with ease.
Armour type:
- Spaced armour (Hull front, Turret front)
- Rolled homogeneous armour
- Cast homogeneous armour
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 38.1 mm (64°) Front glacis 76 mm (63°) Lower glacis |
35 mm Top 25.4 mm Bottom |
25.4 mm (12°) Top 25.4 mm (67°) Bottom 5 mm (13°) Engine exhaust |
25.4 mm Front 5-12.7 mm Engine deck |
| Turret | 38.1-203 mm (0-75°) | 12.7-38.1* mm (29-34°) | 12.7* mm (27-84°) | 25.4-76 mm Front 12.7 mm Rear turret |
| Armour | Sides | Roof | ||
| Cupola | 25.4 mm | 25.4 mm | ||
| Spaced armour* | Front | Sides | Rear | Roof |
| Hull | 250 mm Kinetic 240 mm Chemical |
N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Turret | 270-300 mm Kinetic 220-350 mm Chemical |
38 mm sections: 200 mm Kinetic 220 mm Chemical 12.7 mm sections: 50 mm Kinetic 60 mm Chemical |
30 mm Kinetic 40 mm Chemical |
N/A |
Notes:
- Road wheels are 20 mm thick and tracks are 30 mm thick.
- A 6.35 mm RHA plate separates the engine from the crew compartment
- The crew is protected by a 6.35mm thick turret basket
- Hull spaced armour configuration is 38 mm RHA + 127 mm air + 51 mm RHA.
- Turret spaced armour configuration is 38 mm RHA + 127 mm air + 127 mm CHA.
- Turret rear side spaced armour configuration is 12.7 mm RHA + 38 mm air + 25.4 mm RHA
- Turret rear spaced armour configuration is 12.7 mm RHA + 38 mm air + 12.7 mm RHA.
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 | 72 | 33 | 51.7 | 1,937 | 2,385 | 37.47 | 46.13 |
| Realistic | 64 | 30 | 1,106 | 1,250 | 21.39 | 24.18 | |
The mobility of the XM803 is worse than that of the MBT-70. In its stock configuration, it has a horsepower/ton ratio of 21.39, while with all upgrades this increases to 24.08 HP/t. The top speed (both forward and reverse) is 64 km/h (40 mph) with 8 gears for both directions. The tank can reach its top speed quickly on flat roads, while on more difficult terrain the top speed drops by around 20 km/h. The tank has neutral steering and good turning ability on all terrains.
Modifications and economy
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Armaments
Main armament
| 152 mm XM150E5 | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Capacity | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| Arcade | 53 | -10°/+20° | ±180° | Two-plane | 34.3 | 47.4 | 57.6 | 63.7 | 67.8 | 7.50 | 7.50 | 7.50 | 7.50 |
| Realistic | 21.4 | 25.2 | 30.6 | 33.8 | 36.0 | ||||||||
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 | ||
| XM578E1 | APFSDS | 346 | 343 | 334 | 323 | 311 | 300 |
| M409A1 | HEAT | 380 | 380 | 380 | 380 | 380 | 380 |
| MGM-51C | ATGM | 431 | 431 | 431 | 431 | 431 | 431 |
| 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% | |||||||
| XM578E1 | APFSDS | 1,478 | 3.7 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 76° | 77° | 80° |
| M409A1 | HEAT | 754 | 18.9 | 0 | 0.1 | 3,730 | 62° | 69° | 73° |
| MGM-51C | ATGM | 323 | 27.8 | 0 | 0.1 | 3,600 | 80° | 82° | 90° |
| 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) |
| XM410E1 | 754 | 18.9 | 25 | 5 | 30 | 50 |
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
4th rack empty |
5th rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 53 | 48 (+5) | 46 (+7) | 34 (+19) | 27 (+26) | 1 (+52) | No |
Notes:
- Rack 5 is a first-stage ammo rack, meaning it depletes first but refills from the other racks in the order they are listed. As such, it is the last rack to deplete.
Machine guns
| 12.7 mm M85 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Pintle | 1,000 (200) | 626 | -9°/+65° | ±180° |
| 7.62 mm M73 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Coaxial | 6,000 (250) | 500 | N/A | N/A |
Usage in battles
The XM308, like the MBT-70, is a very good flanker. To get the most out of this tank you must use its high speed and acceleration to flank the enemy or set up ambushes. Its gun and ammunition are good enough to penetrate most lower BR tanks with ease, although when up-tiered you will have to resort to aiming for the weak spots of opponents. The HEAT round you get is free, and will easily penetrate tanks with plain steel armour, but it's lacking when facing tanks with composite armour, and it has a rather mediocre muzzle velocity, making aiming and leading at longer ranges more difficult. The APFSDS round has decent penetration and will penetrate most opponents with relative ease. It also has very high muzzle velocity, almost 1.5 km/s, making aiming even at longer ranges easy. The ATGM is very useful and free, it's very good at long ranges, and is very effective against stationary or slow-moving helicopters.
While the armour may seem impressive at first, it won't protect you against most guns at and around its battle rating. Most tanks at this rank have access to powerful APFSDS and HEAT-FS rounds, which have no trouble penetrating you. Knowing this, you mustn't rely on your armour to protect you.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Stock ammunition consists of the good MGM 51C "Shillelagh" Guided Missile, means no ammo costs for using it, plus a decent but inferior HEAT Shell.
- Can fire ATGM without restriction, even when moving on full speed
- Somehow has better ergonomics than the MBT-70
- Has access to APFSDS Shells with 346 mm of penetrating Power on a 90° angled armour plate @ 10m
- Good mobility and acceleration, high speed both forwards and backwards
- Top mounted 50 cal can allow you to damage low-flying aircraft
- Frontal Fuel tank behind the spaced armour which can sometimes absorb enemy chemical energy rounds
- Since this tank has an autoloader, losing a crewmember will not impact the reload speed, and it still functions when putting out a fire
- Has smoke grenade launchers
- Very versatile tank once all ammo types are researched
- Turret mantlet is strong, can resist even certain APFSDS rounds
- Has hydropneumatic suspension
- Excellent dual zoom of 8x and 12x
- Is not considered to be a threat by most players
- Can occasionally bounce some shots due to the many angles of the vehicle
Cons:
- Slower reload on the gun (7.5 seconds) than the Kpz-70, which cannot be improved since it is an autoloader
- The spaced armour is not composite armour and cannot provide adequate protection against most guns of its rank
- Frontal armour can be penetrated even by some APHE rounds
- Weak sides and LFP
- Hydropneumatic suspension only works for up and down
- Weaker engine than the MBT-70, noticeable decrease in top speed and overall performance
- Ammo racks are large and can be easily hit, and does not have blowout panels
- Vulnerable to the rear due to raised engine deck
- Only single use of smoke grenades is permitted before having to reload
- Cramped interior, loss of more than one crew member more likely when penetrated
- Poor roof armour protection on the ammo and engine section
- Does not have access to the roof-mounted 20 mm like the MBT-70 which could be very useful in certain situations
- HEAT and ATGM will struggle a lot due to being chemical rounds at an battle rating where vehicles with ERA is more than common, especially on Russian vehicles
History
Once it became apparent that the MBT-70 project was doomed to fail in the early '70s due to high costs and reliability issues, the U.S. Congress decided to cut their losses on the project by cancelling the MBT-70, and instead, diverted funding to the development of a new project called XM803.
The XM803 was, in essence, envisioned to be a "budget version" of the MBT-70. Although the new vehicle would heavily be based on the MBT-70, inheriting many of its design solutions, it would also try to drastically reduce production costs by using more conventional and only American-made parts. Although this meant that the XM803 had to give up some of its high-tech equipment in favour of lower production costs, it was projected that the influence of these changes on the XM803's combat performance would be minimal.
Despite showing favourable performance and being seen as a promising design by the Army, the XM803 still remained a comparably expensive tank to produce even with the applied changes over the MBT-70. Moreover, neither the MBT-70 nor the XM803 seemed to offer any substantial increase in combat performance over the already in service M60 Patton to justify the high production cost. This ultimately led to the Congress cancelling work on the XM803 only a short while after the cancellation of the MBT-70. In the late 1970s, some funding of the two failed projects would, later on, find its way to support the development of an entirely new, but this time around, more conventional tank project. That tank, of course, being the legendary M1 Abrams itself.
- From Devblog
Media
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
| USA medium tanks | |
|---|---|
| M2 | M2 |
| M3 | M3 Lee · ▃Grant I |
| M4 | M4 · Calliope · M4A1 · M4A1 (76) W · M4A2 · M4A2 (76) W · M4A3 (105) · M4A3 (76) W · M4/T26 |
| M26 Pershing | T20 · T25 · M26 · M26 T99 · M26E1 |
| M46/47/48 Patton | M46 · M46 "Tiger" · M47 · M48A1 · T54E1 · T54E2 |
| M60 | M60 · M60A1 (AOS) · M60A1 RISE (P) · M60A2 · M60A3 TTS · M728 CEV · 120S |
| MBT-70 | MBT-70 · XM803 |
| M1 Abrams | XM1 (Chrysler) · XM1 (GM) |
| M1 Abrams · M1 KVT · IPM1 | |
| M1A1 · M1A1 HC · M1A1 Click-Bait | |
| M1A2 Abrams · M1A2 SEP · M1A2 SEP V2 | |
| Other | T95E1 |
| Australia | M1A1 AIM |
| Canada | M4A5 |
| Israel | ▃Magach 3 (ERA) · ▃Merkava Mk.1 · ▃Merkava Mk.2B · ▃Merkava Mk.3D |
| Turkey | M60 AMBT |
