Progetto 46 is a tier 8 Italian premium medium tank. Its unique feature is its inverse auto-reloader gun, with great accuracy, DPM, and burst damage. The tank also features good mobility but poor armour.
- Armour
- Gun
- Mobility
- Equipment, provisions, & consumables
- Gameplay advice
- Overall
- Is it worth getting?
- Most recently sold for:
- Camo cost:
- Historical note:
Armour
(The Progetto 46 in the images is using Improved Assembly)
vs 192mm AP
When flat and facing head-on:
Upper plate 95mm
Lower plate 100mm
Turret 80-140mm
Gun mantlet 100-200mm
VS tier 7-9:
Against any tank the Progetto faces it will be easily penetrated by any AP, APCR, and HEAT shells. The only area that might receive bounces is the gun mantlet, however this is not reliable.
The tank can withstand HE from the front, however its hull side armour is only 35mm. If enemies aim above the tracks and spaced armour, its very easy for any tank to penetrate HE (even 75mm guns).
Gun
The Progetto 46 has a 90mm inverse auto-reloader, note that this means that the more it unloads, the better its DPM becomes. It has 3 firing modes (you won’t notice in battle, but it helps to understand the gun better).
Single shot mode:
(Where you shoot one shell, reload, shoot….)
-The best DPM in “single shot mode” is on shell 3
-Shell 3* has a 6.2s reload, giving the tank 2323 DPM in this mode.
Autoloader mode:
(Where you just unload the entire magazine)
-Reload time from having no shells in the clip to having 3 shells in the clip takes 15.96s
-Intra clip is 2.5s with 3 x 240, giving the tank 2061 DPM if it shoots like an autoloader would: fires 3 shells, reloads fully, then fires 3 shells, etc. etc.
Autoreloader mode:
(A combination of the first two. Only shooting until you need.)
-Reload time for each shell is:
Shell 3* – 6.2s
Shell 2* – 4.9s (+ 2.5s)
Shell 1* – 4.9s (+ 2.5s)
Gun stats:
-Alpha damage is 240, 3 shells in the clip. Intra-clip reload is 2.5s, so in 5s it can deal 720 damage.
-Penetration is 180mm on AP, 259mm on APCR, and 45mm on HE
-Aim time is 2.7s/2.9s
-Dispersion is 0.310/0.279
–Gun handling is 0.12/0.12/0.12, or 0.1/0.1/0.1 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -9 degrees
*Shell 3 is the first shell you start to reload from empty/the last shell you shoot when unloading the magazine.
Shell 1 is the last shell that gets loaded into the magazine when you reload/the first shell you shoot when fully loaded.
Overall the gun of the Progetto 46 is superb, and by far one of the better tier 8 90mm guns. It has higher alpha, good reload time, great aim time, dispersion, and good gun handling. It also sports great premium penetration and gun depression.
Of course, along with this it has arguably the best gun system, which can be both an autoloader and a regular gun, without having any of the downsides of either of those.
Mobility
-Top speed is very good, 55km/h forwards, and -20km/h in reverse
-Traverse speed is 69.4 deg/s on hard terrain, and 57.8 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 23 hp/t, it has an strong 805hp engine for its 35 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 23.7 hp/t on hard terrain, and 19.2 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are decent, having 1/1.2/1.5
The mobility of the Progetto 46 is very good. It feels very agile, mainly due to a good combination of all 3: top speed, acceleration, and traverse speed. Not at all a slow tank.
Equipment, provisions, & consumables
The Progetto 46 does not have access to any special consumables or provisions.
Calibrated Shells/Improved Ventialtion:
Either equipment piece can work. Technically neither is needed, as the Progetto has both good penetration, and overall good gun and mobility stats.
If you take improved ventilation, it makes the gun all round better, giving each shell a faster reload, better aim time, better dispersion, along with better traverse speeds and view range.
If you take calibrated shells, penetration increases from 180mm to 189mm on AP, 259mm to 272mm on APCR, and 45mm to 49mm on HE.
Improved Assembly:
The Progetto 46 has no armour at all, so there is no reason to use enhanced armour on this tank. Instead use improved assembly, which will increase this tank’s pretty good 1400 base HP up to 1484 HP.
Vertical Stabilizer:
The Progetto 46 does not need to use refined gun, it already has great base accuracy, but also has an active medium playstyle, so it will be always moving around.
Other than constant movement in gameplay, the Progetto also has to rapidly fire off shells in quick succession, and it has relatively poor dispersion on turret traverse, and vertical stabilizer will improve all of these aspects. It will make the gun more accurate after each shot, especially important when unloading the magazine; and it will make the tank more accurate while its moving and after its stopped moving.
Gameplay advice
The Progetto plays somewhat between the support medium role and the regular medium role. Its a fragile tank due to its lack of armour, so it cant just play like regular mediums which have better turret or hull armour. It sometimes can also play rather aggressively, just due to that perfect gun which can fully unload a clip then continue to shoot.
At the start of the battle you can rush to vital holding positions on the map (such as the hill on Mines). The Progetto is definitely mobile enough for such plays, and has a gun advantage. If there is an enemy to contest that position, you can unload your whole magazine of 720 damage, then continue to output 2.3k DPM just firing that 3rd shell.
Its something that very few enemies can counter, which makes it quite good at taking early positions.
However, note the lack of armour. If enemy players are good players, or there are multiple of them, the Progetto will get shredded apart quickly.
Alternatively at the start of the battle, you can play a more laid back role. Rather than rushing positions, you can take a position to get early shots into enemies who do try to rush those early positions, and then progress the gameplay from there.
Later in the battle you should always be trying to support your team by providing covering fire, or flanking and causing distractions. The Progetto is a perfect tank to farm damage while enemies are distracted with shooting at your allies, so take advantage of such moments.
Try to always keep the hull faced front. Though the tank doesn’t have armour, the front is strong enough to stand up to any regular HE (not HESH or HEP) shells. Comparatively, the side armour can be HE penetrated by every enemy you face against, and it has a engine compartment that is fairly easy to hit.
Flank enemies. Its the gameplay that medium tanks are based around. Always be looking for ways to create a new line of fire on the enemies, for ways to get around behind them, or for ways to catch their camping TDs off guard. The Progetto is perfectly suited to singling out enemies; even if they have more HP than your clip can deal in damage, you can just reload each shot one-by-one after unloading on the enemy.
If you have played support tanks before, or relatively fast tanks without armour (tanks like the Leopard 1, Lorraine 40 t, AMX CDC, etc), then this tank should feel quite comfortable. Its basically the same gameplay, just with an added automatic gun system.
Overall
Overall the Progetto is a superb tank in all aspects other than armour. It has an amazing gun with literally no downside; good penetration, DPM, gun depression, accuracy, aim time, handling, and even the inverse auto-reloader mechanism.
It has great mobility, with good top speeds, great traverse speed, and good acceleration. All it lacks is armour, and as long as you can get around that, the Progetto 46 is a near perfect tank
Is it worth getting?
The only reason you should avoid getting this tank is if you are a completely brand new player who is buying their first ever premium; a tank with no armour is just not a good idea for newer players.
Progetto 46 is worth getting for almost every single player. If you have played quick and armourless mediums before, then this tank will allow you to propel medium gameplay to a new level. There is never any point when you aren’t ready with a shell, and you can stack up the damage with a clip when you aren’t firing.
Even if you have never played an autoloader or auto-reloader before, the Progetto 46 is the perfect vehicle to learn the gameplay as the inverse auto-reloader gun allows you to gradually transition into playing autoloaders, while still keeping the flexibility and safety of having a cyclic (regular) gun.
The Progetto 46 (and P 44 Pantera) will allow you to learn the more complicated gameplay of tanks like the Bourrasque, Škoda T27, Progetto 65, TVP T50/51, Lorraine 40t, Astron Rex, or Defender Mk.I.
Progetto 46 is worth 11,000 gold. Its a near perfect tank. If you know how to play tanks with no armour, then it is a perfect tank. Its an extremely strong tier 8 tank, and due to its ability to just constantly shoot its whole clip and continue to use its gun as a single-shot gun with no penalty to its DPM, its one of the best damage farming tier 8 medium tanks.
Most recently sold for:
£/$11.99-14.99 (Full bundle) – November 2022
Blitzfair Auction – December 2022
8,500 gold (Tank only) – May 2023
Draw – March 2024
Camo cost:
“Seeker” camo: 3D, not available to buy.
“Reborn” camo: 2D, not available to buy.
Obtainable during Autumn Tournament Season 2021.
Historical note:
Progetto M35 mod.46 is a fake tank. The design (shape, angles of armour, turret,) is fabricated by Wargaming, the overall shape and look of the tank is fully fake as there was never any actual plan for this tank. It was just an idea which was noted by an Italian general, and his opinion of the “ideal tank”.
The main issue is the supposed date that this tank was “thought up” by Italy. Wargaming states 1946, which would not only be completely wrong, given the parts used on the tank; but its also highly unrealistic, considering this was directly after the end of WW2, and Italy wasn’t really in the state for tank building.
Gun:
It mounts the T119E1 gun, which looks similar to the guns of the T69 and Chieftain/T95. The reason for that is, the T119E1 gun is American, and it was only produced in 1950. This gun was built 4 years after the proposed date of the Progetto, and definitely not a gun made to immediately be exported. This same gun was later also used on the M56 Scorpion tank destroyer.
Tracks:
The tracks of the tank may look familiar too, in game, they are also on the GSOR 1008. These are British Centurion tracks, the reason they aren’t on any Centurion tanks in game is because they were only fitted to Centurions after 1960, again far too late for the date the Progetto was meant to have been thought up.
These two are the only real parts of the tank, other than the engine (which too was only built decades after the proposed date, and of course is incorrect in weight and power). The tank is somewhat real, but its still unfortunately made quite unrealistic by just having the incorrect date.
Highly unrealistic…
Wargaming tries to link this tank to General Rossi’s idea of a medium tank in 1946, but there was no need to do this and it makes the tank just even more unrealistic. The tank is far too modern of a design for its supposed 1946 date, even if Italy had all the wealth and resources they needed to mass produce this, it would have been impossible just due to the components of the tank literally not existing at that time.
The only basis in reaility that the Progetto M35 mod. 46 has in reality is this quote from General Francesco Rossi:
“Fast tank, well armoured, not of mammoth proportions (as in size and weight), as it needs to keep within the limits allowed by our railways and works of art (as in bridges, tunnels, and other infrastructure related to transport), but able to keep up with the most advanced foreign tanks: weight from 30 to 35 tons, cannon of calibre around 75 mm, 500 to 600 horsepower engine, specifically injection type due to lower risk of fire compared to a gasoline engine.
A self-propelled gun can be made from the same hull of the tank for a 90mm gun, or a large caliber howitzer.”
GuidesBlitz 