Modern Main Battle Tanks ( MBT )

The kings of the battlefield.

The tank which was served as reference " their ancestor " is the German Panther, Pz V which combines the best during WW II : power, mobility and protection the 3 main criteria for a MBT.

MBT Majors Fleet :

China : 6500 which 700 Type 99 and 2100 type 96 with many 3000 old Type-59.
Egyptia : 4700 much obsolete

USA : about 1950* M-1A2/M-1A2SEP, 2400 M-1AD and and 2,385 M1 in storage, in service about 1550 M-1A2/M-1A2SEP in active and the rest 400 for ANG which get also some M-1AD, total in service about max 2500/3000.

* 62 new and 1896 M-1A1 upgrade to this standard.


Turkey : 3800
India : 3500
Pakistan :3000
Russia : 2600 or more which 400/900 T-90
South Korea : 2400
North Korea : 3800 but almost all obsolete
Greece : 1250
Israel : 1140 active, 2180 reserve
Japan : 750 which new Type-10 and Type 90 very modern
France : 200 but very modern
UK : 227 but very modern
Germany : 250 but very modern
Italy : 200 but very modern
Spain : 260 but very modern
Poland : 700

Without too detailed, after main MBT, by ground Armies more detailed.

Trivia: The Term "Tank" came form the British Cover story used to disguise there construction and development by the British during WW1. When people saw the metal work and construction and asked what was happening the british said they were water tanks.
The modern concept Main battle tank originates around the end of the second world war. At the Start of the War the tank was divided into a almost ridiculous assortment of types and sub classes.
You had the light tanks which were thin skinned but could move.
Medium Tanks had better armor and eventually became the basis of the MBT
and the Heavy tanks, Slow lumbering beasts
Farther you had the Germans with the Super Heavy AKA "the Sorry was that your village I just drove over? I am so big I did not even notice" Tank that was under development at the end of the war.

Infantry tanks had small Howitzers and we meant to support infantry and had a slow speed, you had the Antitank tanks with Armor piercing guns and you had American and French dual gun tanks that packed one of both. you had the flame thrower tanks and command tanks and Duplex tanks and Tanketts and tank destroyers and and you get the idea.
By the end of the War a lot of this had streamlined. Failed ideas were left by the side of the Road with smoking holes punched in there hulls. super Heavy tanks were a dead end. Heavies would stick around for a while but phased out by the 60's. Flame thrower tanks would phase out by the same. Infantry support tanks and AP tank and dual gun tanks vanished when new guns came that could dual role firing HE and HEAT rounds. Duplex drive faded as weight pushed beyond the floatation systems. the light tank and tank destroyer would eventually absorb the Amphibious tank even adding the airborne tank. The MBT came about in the birth place of the Tank England. the Concept was to clean slate all the tank specialized tanks in favor of thee Universal tank. using the Proven Cromwell as a point of development with heavy redesign the British created the Centurion the First generation of MBT that is still used today by some countries.
It's closest Equivalents in the Us the M48 Patton, and the Russian T54/55 both were however called medium tanks they set the tone for the MBT's to come. A main gun over 100mm, weight over 30 tons. speed about 40MPH.

Right now we live in interesting times for MBT's. the end of the Cold war was supposed to end the tank and concepts more akin to tank destroyers in the form of feather light IFV hulls with hull MBT guns came into Vogue. along with this trend we have Tanks becoming IFV's and a third trend in the form of the "Fourth Generation MBT" tanks that are lighter between 30 and 50 tons that offer all the wants of a MBT but in a lighter package a true medium tank. like the Japanese Type 10 and Polish PL01

Too late to write anything good tonight, but this is going to be a great thread! Thanks Forbin!

FORBIN said:

The kings of the battlefield.

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MBT is not the king of the battlefield, artillery is.

Current MBT is build based upon Western mindset with direct front engagement. In real battle, it is easy to exploit MBT side armor weakness with caliber below 100mm at longer range than the main gun of the MBT.

And the tank is somewhat asymmetric, it could be easily killed by expensive missile (100k USD), and still much cheaper that way: 2 mil USD tank killed by 3-4 100k missile.

Those things above show tactics and training > system

313230 said:

MBT is not the king of the battlefield, artillery is.

Current MBT is build based upon Western mindset with direct front engagement. In real battle, it is easy to exploit MBT side armor weakness with caliber below 100mm at longer range than the main gun of the MBT.

Click to expand...

artillery is the god of war. Tanks the king of battle, and infantry the poor Sob who suffers there combined wrath.

"Current MBT is build based upon Western mindset with direct front engagement."
No. The Tank back in WW1 yes. it was meant to be a trench breaker for frontal assaults as that was all they had. Trench and trench assault had cost more lives in the first few months of WW1 than both Gulf wars combined.
by WW2 although still foggy a new mind set came in Lightning war, fire and maneuver. in modern battle a Frontal assault is a massacre. See Flanders Fields, Gettysburg, The bloody wash of Iwo Jima. large numbers of man and material charging into hell and not coming back.
Since the 1930's the aim of the Tank and mechanized infantry is maneuver, attack and maneuver. Using combined arms to flank, avoid enemy strong points and attack the rear. only when there is no other alternative is there a frontal assault. you attack you enemies supply points cut off his magazines, food and water and he has no options. additionally the vast majority of the worlds Tanks are Eastern. and those are the ones now being blown up by eastern missiles.

313230 said:

And the tank is somewhat asymmetric, it could be easily killed by expensive missile (100k USD), and still much cheaper that way: 2 mil USD tank killed by 3-4 100k missile.

Those things above show tactics and training > system

Click to expand...

Yes and sometimes, no and yes.
yes a mechanized force is at a disadvantage in some situations particularly if your enemy has gone to ground and begun fighting in a insurgent or partizan force. but then again that's basic history. Even medieval armies could be defeated by partisans.
Sometimes the missile can mission kill the tank sometimes it can kill the tank, sometimes the crew just hears a loud thud and has a good laugh. it depends on the missile and it's capabilities vs the tank and its protection. early issues in Iraq lead the US army to finally fit reactive armor to it's tanks closing the gaps on the sides, battles in the intifadas lead the israelis to develop the Trophy APC system. but even with out that in combat against AGTM's the Us Made Abrams Main battle Tanks has only really been destroyed by Us Missiles. although damaged or disabled all others have failed to terminate the vehicle and in those cases the systems in question the missile was the American Hellfire which requires a Attack helicopter.

Yes tactics and training and the top western tanks are often in the top trained armies of the world.

US M-1 numbers, production

Many answers, good.

USA : about 1950* M-1A2/M-1A2SEP, 2400 M-1AD and and 2,385 M1 in storage, in service about 1550 M-1A2/M-1A2SEP in active and the rest 400 for ANG which get also some M-1AD, total in service about max 2500/3000.

* 62 new and 1896 M-1A1 upgrade to this standard.

Click to expand...

Difficult for know exact numbers especially becauses there are 2 services and it's always the same problem also applies to aircrafts or other it does almost never specified the number per service only the total number but active don' t get all in fact/really.

Build for army : 3273 M-1, 4976 M-1A1, 62 M-1A2 : 8311, in more 221 M-1A1 for USMC a little different with amphibious kit.
Army before had 10/12000 M-60.

USMC get actualy 403 M-1A1, 221 new for him with 182 former Army which have replaced 716 M-60A1/3.

Nice videos on M-1 reconstructions allowing them to last about 50 years, programm AIM XXI, Abrams Integrated Management for the 21st Century, M-1 completely disassembled and revised defective parts replaced
and also improvements Electonics, M-1 digitalized M-1A2SEP and M-1A1D.
Aniston Army Depot mainly do it but also Lima and GDLS sites to Scranton and Muskegon helps.

M-1 Unit, organisation, structure

Before M-60 battalions have 54 tanks, 3 combat sqn's, after M-1 battalion : 58 tanks : HQ sqn 2 + 4 Sqn's with 14.

Now Combined Arms Battalion in fact half armored and half Mech unit, 2 Sqn's with 14 M-1 and 2 Sqn's with 14 M-2.

Armored Cavalry Rgt have also M-1 but special organisation for this heavy recc units ( as German Recc bat with Léopard / Luchs ).
Divided in sqn's, Cavalry designation equivalent to a battalion for size in fact, which divided in troops equivalent to a Sqn/company in Armor, Infantry.
By Rgt 3 Armored Cavalry sqn's each have 36 M-3 and 27 M-1, troops of 12 M-3 and 9 M-1. Also Helicopter, artillery sqn's.

Actually Armored 2th and 3th Cavalry Rgt have no M-1 they are Stryker Brigades, SBCT. 11th Rgt OPFOR training get 2 Combined Arms Battalion with also 1 ANG.

M1 Abrams family of Main battle tanks is a really really successful show case of how one Concept can evolve.
When the XM1 is developed it was rather bold for a US tank. it took lessons learned form the MBT70 program developed by the Germans and US. the German Leopard 2 Also has this aborted elder sibling in it's make up. MBT 70 Was supposed to use the XM150 Cannon a long barreled 152mm gun that fired ATGM's but the Germans also used to to trial the 120mm Rheinmetall smooth bore gun this would more or less become the NATO standard gun and be used on both the M1A2 and Leopard 2 tanks. MBT 70 had a Remote controlled Machine gun. although in this case the gun was a 20mm Autocannon this can still be seen as a ancestor to the Current Commanders Remote weapons station. and a 7.62mm Coax. The Tank was lower to the ground compared to the American M60 one of the Tallest Tanks ever built and the M1 although still taller then the MBT70 absorbs this lower height.
When the partners killed the MBT70 They took the best of it and then designed there new tanks although there were a few misteps along the way. The First XM1 Abrams developed by Chrysler Defense, had a 105mm gun British L7, M68 rifled gun, still used to day on the Stryker MGS.
Chrysler Defence sounds funny to us today and the whole thing was sold to General Dynamics in 1992 but it was competing against a . Chrysler had aces in there corner though. the GM offering was very much a conventional American tank.

The Chrysler had the edge in innovation, critical to it was that Chrysler was hot and bothered by the Idea of Gas Turbine engines on ground vehicles. they had even tested it on cars in a unique sports car in the 60's. this combined with a Fire control system that allowed firing on the move and Licencing of British Chobham making a potent mix of fire power, Mobility and armor.
First Gen production Abrams were quickly produced in 1979 and then updated in 1984 with the introduction of the long turret followed with the A1 upgun to the current issue Smooth bore L44 M265A1 main gun. there hull and a major portion of the design was used in the basis of the South Korean K1 88. it's line has remained state of the art and battle proven in combat. variants are used for obstacle clearing, Bridging, Opfor (11th ACR M1A1KTV M1A1KVT Krasnovian Variant Tank)
It's in service with the Australians, Saudis, Iraqi's, Islamic state ( blame the Iraqi's small number and dwindling) Kawaiti's and Egyptians.
Current Us stock are being fitted with the TUSK upgrade including remote or shielded commanders weapons station, Reactive armor, infantry phone, Slat armor other updates.
Of all the Tanks I know of post WW2 Abrams is the only one that in the modern era has 3 Machine guns 2 M240 MG's one as the coax the other for the loader. and the commanders M2A1. most only have the commanders MG and the Coax.
As we Speak Abrams is under going a major rebuild again with the planed M1A3

Thus far known improvements putting Abrams on a Diet, replacing the Existing gun, Fiber optic wiring, modifications to the suspension, updated optics, a new track, A new engine. and Possibly a Autoloader. Hopefully a APS
[video=youtube_share;zCKDV8_DfJ0]http://youtu.be/zCKDV8_DfJ0[/video]
[video=youtube_share;8rsML92PLbU]http://youtu.be/8rsML92PLbU[/video]

Armored Rgt and batalion by countries

Other Customer Qatar for 62.

German Army have about 270 Léopard 2A6 in 6 bat of 44 each.