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Ratings: 7.84/10 from 19 users.

Battle TankThe three traditional factors determining a tank's effectiveness in battle are its firepower, protection, and mobility. Since the Second World War, the economics of tank production governed by the ease of manufacture and cost, and the impact of a given tank design on logistics and field maintenance capabilities, have also been accepted as important in determining how many tanks a nation can afford to field in its force structure.

No tank design has ever been fielded in significant numbers that proved to be too complex or expensive to manufacture, and made unsustainable demands on the logistics services support of the armed forces. The affordability of the design therefore takes precedence over the field performance characteristics.

Firepower is the ability of a tank to identify, engage, and destroy. Protection is the tank's ability to resist being detected, engaged, and disabled or destroyed. Mobility includes tactical (short range) movement over the battlefield including over rough terrain and obstacles, as well as strategic (long range) mobility, the ability of the tank to be transported by road, rail, sea, or air to the battlefield.

Tank design is a compromise; it is not possible to maximise firepower, protection and mobility simultaneously. For example, increasing protection by adding armour will result in an increase in weight and therefore decrease mobility; increasing firepower by installing a larger gun will force the designer to sacrifice speed or armour to compensate for the added weight and cost. Even in the case of the Abrams MBT which has good firepower, speed and armour, these advantages are counterbalanced by its notably thirsty engine, which ultimately reduces its range and in a larger sense its mobility.

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18 Comments / User Reviews

  1. Vim de Zim

    What happened to the original Battle Tank doc with the Swedish Turetless tank. It was old school but I loved it. :(

  2. Glen Hale

    Next war will be USA attacking Americans in the streets watch for the military in your suburb soon.
    Federal Reserve Bank which is NOT run by the Feds but Big banks will control it all.

  3. damir tica

    great documentary!

  4. Dag_Sabot

    Nice Vintage Video, Most of those models are obsolete, or withdrawn. I do love this video.

  5. Dag_Sabot

    It doesn't look like they will go over what happens to the unfortunate crew trapped inside

    1. zaphodity

      Like when a DU round burns a hole through the tanks armour like a hot knife through butter, incinerating everything inside ? It looks like a garbage bage of puke someone microwaved for 3 hours then set fire to with a jet engine on afterburner. That's what it looks like.

    2. Dag Sabot

      Great Response! lol

  6. Petar Vitanovich

    Japan's Type 10 MBT and of coarse my country's own M-84AS(Serbia) It's basically best compared to a Russian T-90 except the M-84AS is quicker and more maneuverable, and T-90 slower but with thicker armor, while having the same fire control systems and munitions.

    1. Petar Vitanovich

      I meant to put "Are my two favorite tanks"

  7. Tomislav Stankovic

    Great documentary. Great tanks for all purposes.

  8. Ragz

    Can`t believe billions of $$$ are being spent on building such things and then the governments and companies pit one country against another to make sure a market place exists for these systems. Really sad for humanity.
    If only we can shut down such companies and banish the politicians supporting them...

  9. Comedian

    Germany still makes the best tanks...but in this day an age, tanks are probably obsolete. Swedish tanks are a joke...a country that last fought a war with muskets can't be even considered in the modern world.

  10. Jimmy

    I'd like to see more about tank tactics.

  11. Epicurean_Logic

    Blah. En-ger-land suck. Thankfully my moneys on Brazil!

  12. eireannach666

    Epi_Log!
    Long time no see!

    What happened with Ageria? Seems like they had one of these.

  13. Epicurean_Logic

    Yep. I would also like to see one of those bad boys run right through the manchester united midfield. Wayne Rooney. Drrrrrr. splat.

  14. Allan

    Shame we never got to see them in action against the Reds....

  15. roy

    wow, need one of these for miami