SOMUA SM

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SOMUA SM was a French experimental medium tank, developed by SOMUA between 1946 and 1953 for the 50-ton tank project, along with AMX-50. The prototype has not survived to this day. On 11 April 1946, the military armaments manufacturer DEFA (today, a part of KNDS France) asked SOMUA to design and manufacture two prototypes of a tank in armoured and non-armoured steel. The contract was processing slowly, and in May 1948 the order was simplified to just one armored prototype and a set of spare parts for it. In March 1950, welding work was underway at Decauville Établissements to create the hull for the tank, designated "SM", but there was a delay in delivering the engine for the prototype. In October 1951, the SM tank was delivered to AMX (another subsidiary of modern KNDS France) proving grounds for testing, but the required 1 000 hp engine was not received until June 1952. The first tests began in late January 1953 and were completed on 6 July 1953; at the same time, AMX was already experimenting with new hulls and mounting more powerful turrets for their AMX-50 tank, and they did not experience such delays. SOMUA could not cope with the competition and stopped further work on the SM. When developing the SM, SOMUA engineers borrowed the design from German tanks like the King Tiger tank. The tank's large hull was welded from rolled homogenous steel armor plates positioned at high obliquity.