Despite the AMX-30 being sold to all its exported clients by the time the AMX-32 was at the prototype stage, France felt the need to introduce the new vehicle for export, possibly to compete against Germanys new Leopard 2 which was about to enter production. Like the Leopard 2, the AMX-32 was a new 3rd generation tank which was also equipped with a new 120mm smoothbore main gun.
At the time no other country except for the Dutch Army purchased the new Leopard 2 and the AMX-32 was also failing to attract any interest. Where as the German Army was purchasing the Leopard 2 to replace the Leopard 1 (almost identical attributes as the AMX-30) the French Army decided to retain the 2nd generation AMX-30 and to not purchase the 3rd generation AMX-32.
The first prototype was seen in 1979 with a new all welded turret. The Second prototype shortly followed mounting a Rh-V-120 120mm smoothbore (which could fire all standard NATO rounds), replacing the CN-105 F-1 105mm rifled on prototype one. The vehicle retained the same COTAC Fire Control System which included a laser range finder used on the AMX-30B2. The commander had a M-527 Hydro-Stabilized Panorama Sight whilst the gunner operated the M-581 Telescopic Sight. For night fighting the DIVT-13A Thomson-CSF Thermo Vision Camera was fitted to the left of the main gun. Despite the AMX-30 being fitted with a main gun stabilisation system since the early 1970, the AMX-32 wasn’t and could possibly be one of the reasons it failed to attract any sales.
It was equipped with a M-693 20-mm Coaxial Automatic Gun and the commander had a 7.62mm MG mounted on his cupola. 38 rounds of 120mm could be stored in the vehicle (17 in the turret and 21 front side of the hull), 160 rounds of 7.62mm and 480 of 20mm. It was equipped with 6 smoke grenade launchers (3 either side of the turret). It was also fitted with an NBC protection and automatic fire suppression system in the fighting compartment.
The hull of the vehicle was pretty much identical to that of the AMX-30’s, but had a small number of modifications. The added weight of the welds in the new turret and the introduction of a basic composite like armour covering the front of the vehicle increased its weight by 4 tons compared to the AMX-30 and weighted in at 40 tons.
The vehicle could be equipped with the old AMX-30 AMX 5-SD-200D manual transmission and Hispano-Suiza's HS-110 diesel engine generating 720hp or the AMX-30B2’s semi-automatic SESM ENC200 transmission and Hispano-Suiza HS-110-S2 diesel engine generating 780hp. The cooling system and suspension was also improved.
With the lack of sales, France moved on to the development of the AMX-40 and the AMX-32 project ended around 1980-1 with no sales.