Modern Tanks offers a colorfully illustrated guide to the main armored fighting vehicles used since 1990 in venues ranging from the Gulf Wars to Afghanistan, Chechnya to the Crimea and Ukraine, Yemen to the Syrian Civil War. It includes battle tanks, armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, and self-propelled guns. Each profile includes authentic markings and color schemes, and every individual model features detailed specifications.
China today has by far the largest number of armored fighting vehicles in the world, and this detailed reference explores the main battle tanks, AFVs, armored personnel carriers, self-propelled guns, and missile-launching platforms in service since 1945, with an emphasis on the latest technology. They're organized historically by type, and illustrated with expert profile artworks for each entry and complete with technical specifications.
This book is an authoritative history and directory of tanks and their immediate derivatives, such as ARVs (armoured recovery vehicles), tank destroyers, command versions, bridgelayers, mine-clearers and other Funnies, and AFVs such as armoured cars, armoured personnel carriers and self-propelled artillery, covering a vast range of wheeled, tracked and semi-tracked vehicles. From the world's first tank, Little Willie , to the contemporary M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tank, the book examines a vast range of tanks and AFVs. This unique volume, with over 1200 wartime and museum photographs, brings together the most significant tanks and AFVs in military history.
Presents illustrations, historical notes, facts, and specifications for tanks, ranging from the very first combat tanks of World War I, to some of the most modern designs in use today.
Tanks and armoured fighting vehicles have revolutionised modern warfare, dominating the battlefield in conflicts all over the world with their firepower, armour and mobility. Featured in this book are over 900 tanks, armoured personnel carriers, self-propelled guns, reconnaissance vehicles and armoured cars.
Pivotal to modern warfare, tanks have dominated the battlefield for over a century. Get up close to more than 400 military colossuses with this definitive visual guide to armoured vehicles. In 1916, the British built a vehicle that could pound the battlefield impervious to enemy fire, crushing obstacles and barbed wire in its path. The first tank, or "Mother" as it was known, had arrived. In The Tank Book you can view it in detail, along with other iconic models including the German Panzer, the legendary Tiger, the Vickers Medium Mark II, the Centurion, and the Hellcat - the fastest armoured fighting vehicle ever. This comprehensive volume takes you through the most exciting story in recent military history with the development of heavy artillery, anti-tank weaponry, and the men - such as Mikail Koshkin and Sir William Tritton - who designed these awe-inspiring beasts. Produced with The Tank Museum, The Tank Book traces the tank's development in response to two world wars, Korea, Vietnam, the Cold War and many other conflicts. It shows each model in detail, highlighting details such as their performance, specification, armour, weaponry, and much more. If you are interested in modern warfare, The Tank Book is truly unmissable reading.
Tanks features 52 of the best armoured fighting vehicles from World War I to the present day. Each entry is examined over two spreads and includes a brief description of the tank's development and history, a colour profile artwork, photographs, key features and specifications tables.
Explore 300 major tanks from World War I to the present day, arranged by type--from battle tanks and tank destroyers to armored cars, amphibious vehicles, and anti-aircraft guns. Each vehicle receives a full-page entry featuring a color side-profile illustration; a detailed specifications table with country of origin, crew, weight, dimensions, armor, armament, powerplant, and performance; and information on the tank's development and history.
Conceived during World War I, tanks still play a crucial role on the modern battlefield providing excellent mobility, sophisticated communications, lethal firepower, and effective armor protection. Together, these assets provide the shock effect necessary to close with and destroy the enemy in most any condition. Modern U.S. Tanks & AFVs examines the development, capabilities, and service histories of some of the most important and interesting tanks, armored fighting vehicles (AFVs), wheeled armored firepower, and indirect armored fire-support vehicles used by the U.S. military today, including: amphibious assault vehicles (AAVP), the full range of M1 Abrams tanks, Bradleys, armored Humvees, and Strykers. Color photographs depict each type in training exercises. There will also be discussions of how the 1999 "Army Vision" transformation strategy calling for lighter and more maneuverable armed forces precipitated the development of some of the weapons covered.
Armored vehicles are essentially armed and armored high mobility off-road vehicles. While their mobility aspects are clearly very important, there are many high mobility off-road vehicles not designed for military applications. Therefore the key defining aspects of an Armored Fighting Vehicle (AFV), as the name implies, is the armament they carry to inflict damage and the armor they possess as protection against damage. There has within recent years been a great number of exciting and innovative developments in critical AFV technologies. Key among these are significant enhancements to both armament and armor. The primary armament of an AFV consists of relatively large caliber guns that fire a range of ballistic munitions, including kinetic energy penetrators, high explosive, incendiary, and shaped-charge warhead tipped rounds. Some guns are also capable of firing anti-tank guided missiles. In addition to the main weapon, many AFV's are also equipped with a range of secondary weapons including machine guns, grenade launchers, mortar tubes and missile launchers. These weapons and their capabilities in penetrating standardized armor is reviewed in detail in this volume. AFV armor is designed to protect the vehicle against both threats fired by other AFVs and threats originating from any other source, including buried mines, infantry portable weapons, air-launched missiles, artillery shells and improvised devices. Protection against each type of threat often requires a unique type of armor solution. These solutions are then layered onto the vehicle to provide the required protection. Vehicle armor systems include applique armor, spaced armor, reactive armor, cage armor, netted armor, electric armor, spall systems, dazzlers, jammers, and Active Protection Systems (APS). Each type of armor is covered in detail in this volume, both at a system level and with respect to their integration into specific AFVs. This volume covers the theory of AFV design, of armament performance and of armor design and performance. As well most modern AFVs are described and discussed. A modern AFV is considered to be one that was either designed over the last 20 years or is likely to continue to see service with front line combat troops for the foreseeable future. Main battle tanks, light tanks, reconnaissance vehicles, tracked and wheeled armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles and tank destroyers are covered.
