An armored vehicle is a personnel carrier that moves on wheels and is reinforced to withstand armed attacks. Some types of armored vehicles are fitted with weapons, but the main purpose of an armored vehicle is to protect its occupants. A tank is a self-propelled armored vehicle that moves on tracks and mounts one or more weapons. Its distinguishing features—tracks for cross-country mobility and armor to protect the crew inside against attack—enable the weapons to be used more effectively.
History
The forerunners of armored vehicles were built as early as the Boer War (1899–1902), when the machine-gun-carrying four-wheel vehicle and the armored steam traction engine were devised. The first vehicles to combine weaponry and armor were built between 1902 and 1904 by Vickers, Son and Maxim Ltd. in England; Société Charron, Girardot et Voigt in France; and Austro-Daimler in Austria.
The outbreak of World War I in 1914 prompted the hasty development and construction of armored cars in Belgium, Britain, and France. Because the first models ran on wheels, they were practically useless for trench warfare. The solution lay in the tracked carriages that had recently been developed for agricultural tractors to be able to move across fields.
Tank technology began with the problem of attacking enemy trench lines that were protected by barbed wire and defended with machine guns. The solution appeared to be a machine that could surmount obstacles and that would be immune to bullets. For security reasons, the prototype tank was developed by groups who worked separately on the track and hull components. Those engaged in building the hull referred to it as a "tank," believing it to be a water carrier for desert regions. Thus the military tank acquired its name.
The earliest tanks were developed almost simultaneously in Britain and France. In Britain, their development was initiated by the Admiralty Landships Committee created by Winston Churchill, who was First Lord of the Admiralty. A prototype was built in September 1915, and one year later the first British tanks went into action near the Somme River in France.
By the end of World War I, Britain had produced 2,600 heavy tanks, while France had produced 3,870 tanks of a more lightweight type.
Between the end of World War I and the outbreak of World War II, tank design made great progress. The ponderous assault machines of World War I, which moved at no more than 5 to 6 mph (8–10 km/h), were replaced by versatile fighting vehicles capable of 30 mph (48 km/h) or more. By 1939, tanks were being produced in quantity in several countries. The British had more than 1,000 tanks, the Germans 3,000, and the Soviets 20,000.
Organized armored tank divisions became a decisive factor in all the major campaigns of World War II. Tanks were built in increasing numbers: by the end of the war, the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had each produced around 90,000 tanks, for example. Tanks continued to be of importance in the coldwar period after World War II. In the 1980s, NATO armies maintained some 10,000 tanks in Europe to counter the 26,000 tanks of the Warsaw Pact.
There are two main categories of tanks: light tanks and main battle tanks, or MBTs. Light tanks remain popular in some armies for reconnaissance duties and because they are easily transported by air, but the majority of tanks built today are MBTs. Unlike other armored vehicles, such as infantry carriers or self-propelled guns, the MBT has no other function than as a protected maneuverable weapons platform. It is designed entirely for combat. As such, MBTs are designed to be a good compromise between protection, maneuverability, and firepower. Since effective armor and sophisticated weaponry are heavy items, maneuverability calls for powerful engines that can accelerate the weight of a battle-ready tank—up to 62 tons (56 tonnes) in some cases—at an acceptable rate. Most of the MBTs developed in the 1980s—the U.S. M1 Abrams, the British Challenger, the German Leopard 2, and the Soviet T-80—have noticeably similar resources of firepower and motive power.
