This article is about the tank. For information about the aircraft, see Aerfer Ariete. For information about the Italian armoured division, see Italian 132nd Armored Division Ariete.

Ariete is a main battle tank developed for the Italian Army to meet the needs of the 21st Century, by providing a credible indigenous tank design capable of competing with other current tanks on the battlefield and in the export market. Iveco Fiat and Oto Melara combined forces to develop a new tank utilizing modern firepower, mobility, and protection technologies. A torsion spring is a ribbon, bar, or coil that reacts against twisting motion. ... The Aerfer Ariete (Italian: Ram) was a prototype fighter aircraft built in Italy in 1958. ... ARIETE Armoured Division was formed in MILAN on February 1939; marked by No. ... The US M1A1 Abrams tank is a typical modern main battle tank. ... Ariete Tanks of the Italian Ariete Tank Brigade on exercise Three Bersaglieri ride in a Dardo The Italian Army has recently become a professional all-volunteer force of 112,000 active duty personnel. ... Iveco Eurocargo Iveco is a leading European truck, bus, and diesel engine manufacturer, based in Turin, Italy. ... Fiat Punto FIAT Group, or Fiat S.p. ... Oto Melara is a Italian defence company with factories in Brescia and La Spezia. ...

Official Information

The following are directly transcribed from the manufacturer's release on army-technology.com:

The Ariete main battle tank was developed by the Consorzio Iveco Fiat - Oto Melara with headquarters in Rome. This is a consortium formed by Iveco SpA, Defence Vehicles Division and the Oto Melara Division of Alenia Difesa. Iveco Fiat has carried out the development of the tank and Oto Melara the development of the turret and weapon systems. Nickname: The Eternal City Location within Province of Rome in the Region of Lazio Coordinates: Region Lazio Province Province of Rome Mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni Area    - City 1,285 km²  (496. ...

Ariete is in service with the Italian Army. The first tank was delivered in 1995 and final delivery of the 200 tanks ordered took place in August 2002. Ariete Tanks of the Italian Ariete Tank Brigade on exercise Three Bersaglieri ride in a Dardo The Italian Army has recently become a professional all-volunteer force of 112,000 active duty personnel. ...

Armament

The Ariete can engage stationary and moving targets by day and by night, while the tank itself is stationary or on-the-move. The main gun is a 44 calibre 120mm auto-frettaged smoothbore gun manufactured by Oto Melara. The gun is fitted with a thermal sleeve, a fume extraction system and a muzzle reference system. The gun is stabilised in two axes by hydraulic servoes and can fire all available types of ammunition including APFSDS (armour-piercing fin-stabilised discarding sabot) and HEAT (high explosive anti-tank) rounds. The tank carries 42 rounds of 120mm ammunition, the turret bustle accommodating 15 rounds of ammunition and 27 rounds being stored in the hull.

The Ariete is also armed with a 7.62mm NATO standard machine gun mounted coaxially with the main gun and a 7.62mm air defence machine gun mounted on the turret roof and operated by the tank commander. The tank has the capacity to carry approximately 2,500 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition.

The turret and weapon elevation is controlled by an electro-hydraulic system with manual backup.

Self-protection

Electrically operated smoke grenade dischargers are mounted either side of the turret in the forward firing position. The tank is fitted with the RALM laser warning receiver produced by BAE Systems Italia. The RALM sensor head is mounted on the forward part of the turret and gives 360° coverage.

The hull and turret are of all welded steel construction with enhanced armour protection over the frontal arc. The crew is protected from nuclear, biological and chemical NBC warfare by an NBC protection system developed by Sekur SpA in Rome. NBC is an initialism used to indicate nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. ...

Ariete with composite up-armour were used by the Italian contingent in Iraq. Image:Arietelate013ihd

Fire control and observation

The tank's fire control system is the TURMS FCS produced by Galileo Avionica (formerly Officine Galileo) of Firenze, Italy. It includes a day/night stabilised commander's panoramic periscope sight, gunner's stabilised sight with thermal imager and laser rangefinder and digital fire control computer. The digital fire control computer downloads data from the tank's meteorological and wind sensors, together with the tank attitude, barrel wear characteristics, ammunition and target data. The computer calculates the fire control algorithms and is used to control the gun, the sighting systems and the laser rangefinder.

The commander's station on the right of the turret is equipped with the panoramic stabilised sight and a television monitor displaying the thermal image from the gunner's sight. The commander's sight, mounted on the roof of the turret, has a 360° traverse and an elevation range from -10° to +60°.

The driver's station on the right front of the hull is equipped with three periscopes, one of which has passive night vision capability.

Propulsion

The Ariete is powered by a Fiat V-12 MTCA turbo-charged, 12 cylinder, diesel engine developing 937kW (Roughly 1250hp). The automatic transmission system, licensed from the German company ZF, has four forward and two reverse gears, and incorporates the steering system and hydraulic retarder. The final drives are epicyclic.

The running gear consists of seven dual rubber-lined road wheels, plus four return rollers on each side with connector type tracks. The double pin track was designed by the German company Diehl. The suspension system consists of a torsion bar and hydraulic bumper on each suspension arm.

The Ariete is capable of a maximum speed in excess of 65km/h and the maximum gradient is 60%. The fording depth is 4m with preparation and 1.25m without preparation.

See also

• List of tanks