Carro Armato Celere Sahariano

The Carro Armato M Celere Sahariano, also known as the M16/43, was a prototype Italian medium tank of the Second World War. The Italian Army asked Ansaldo in early 1941 for a low profile tank of 15 to 16 tonnes that could match the speed and firepower of the British cruiser tanks met in the Western Desert. Ansaldo built a wooden mock-up on an M14/41 chassis, inclined the armour plates to form a glacis and tested several engines, ending with a 275 hp petrol unit. It was the first Italian tank with torsion bar suspension, which Ansaldo based on British tanks and a captured Soviet BT-5. Only one prototype was made. The project was cancelled after the Axis forces left North Africa in May 1943, and the prototype was later scrapped.