The ELC project was a prototype light tank project launched by the French Ministry of Defense in 1955. The purpose of the ELC (Engin Léger de Combat, Light combat vehicle) project was to develop a lightly armoured, heavily armed fighting vehicle capable of being airlifted for rapid deployment. ELC AMX series History of creation The idea behind the creation of the Engin Léger de Combat (French for «light combat vehicle») was to install powerful anti-tank weapons on a light but fully armored tankette and thus create a light tank destroyer that was mobile, inconspicuous, capable of hitting and destroying all types of enemy tanks at a distance of about 1 500 meters. Two prototypes built on the Hotchkiss tankette hull in the mid-1950s differed in their main armament; running gear, engine and mechanical components were basically the same for both machines. Design Armament The first prototypes produced by AMX had the D.914 gun loaded with 90mm Empennée HEAT rounds (French for "feathered"). Since the firing range of the D.914 gun did not meet the requirements for the French Ministry of Defense, an elongated D.915 gun equipped with a muzzle brake was developed. Especially for this cannon, a new model of the turret called 903 was designed — it had a large capacity. The standard projectile for the D.915, marked ENERGA, weighing approximately 2 kg, was meant for penetration of 350 mm of armor, but it also had an insufficiently high effective firing range — only 600-700 meters. Later, shells of the same type were developed under the name «G»: they had a larger mass (more than 7 kg) and made it possible to achieve the originally requested effective firing range of 1 000 meters, but it was not possible to increase this range to the originally requested 1 500 meters or more at that time. All versions of the tank had a coaxial 7.5 mm machine gun AAT-52, and on the ELC TC 904 modification, two pairs of smoke grenade launchers located on the sides of the turret were added. Turret A total of 4 turrets were developed for the AMX ELC. A distinctive feature of these turrets was the so-called casemate design. On the move the turret's rotation was limited to about 36°, because with more turret rotation the driver (located on the floor of the vehicle) was unable to access the tank's controls, and he might be injured