The tank (also called tank of battle , tank or tank ) is a Arme consisted of a gun assembled on a armor-plated Motor vehicle.

Fast description

History

The need for a mobile weapon protecting its occupants is old like the war, the Greek , the Assyrian , the Romains had already thought of it, but the majority of these ideas were deployed within the framework of the seats where the tactical displacement and operations had less importance. The tank which one knows today, i.e. an armored vehicle armed any ground, takes its form at the time of the First World War.

See also: History of the tank

Tanks in the current world

World armor-plated park

The full number of operational tanks in 2002 would be of 106.000.

Manufacturers of military vehicles

The price of a new tank is very variable, it depends on its sophistication and the number of specimens to be produced. Indeed, in this medium the development costs being exorbitant, each manufacturer seeks to export his model to deaden it.

In France, the unit price of the Tank Leclerc, produced by GIAT industries, was evaluated to 8,6 million dollars.

The United States, a Tank M1 Abrams, built by General Motors and Chrysler, would cost 5,3 million dollars.

See also the List of the manufacturers of military vehicles

Design

The three traditional factors determining the effectiveness of a tank are its firepower , its protection and its mobility . The psychological effect on the soldiers (negative effect for the enemies, positive for the friends) of the imposing presence of a tank on a battle field is also a big factor.

• the firepower is the capacity of a tank to identify, take with part, and to destroy an objective.

• protection is the capacity of the tank to resist detection, with neutralization or destruction by enemy fire.
• mobility includes tactical mobility, on all the grounds of the battle field, but also strategic mobility, namely its capacity with being transported (by the road, train, sea or even plane) on the battle field.

The design of a tank is thus traditionally resulting from a compromise between these three factors. For example, by reinforcing the shielding, one increases protection but also the weight and one thus decreases maneuverability. A higher firepower, obtained by using a gun of larger gauge, decreases maneuverability and protection.

Firepower

Being translated

Fire control system

Historically, the aiming for the shootings of the first tanks was carried out with simple reflector view finders, an estimate speed and direction of the wind made by the gunner, or using simple tools. The distance to the target was estimated using the sight (indents aligned in the sight framing the target of known size). Consequently, the precision was limited for the shootings to long range and to ensure a blow the goal while drawing moving concerned almost the impossible one. This time ended with the appearance of the stereoscopic rangefinders, and later by rangefinders Laser.

In the armies of the industrialized countries, the majority of the modern tanks use rangefinders laser, but the optical rangefinders and with reticle are always in service in older and less sophisticated vehicles. The modern tanks have a panoply of modern systems to make their shootings more precise. Gyroscope S are used to stabilize the principal weapon; the computers calculate the altitude and the suitable point of aiming; probes measure the speed of wind, the temperature of the air, moisture, the temperature of the gun, its deformation, the speed of the target (calculated by taking at least two successive measurements with the rangefinder), and the movement of the tank. The Infra-red , the amplification of light, or the thermal equipment of Vision of night generally equips the modern tanks. Indicators of laser target can also be employed in order to illuminate targets for the guided ammunition. Consequently, the modern tanks can make fire with a reasonable precision all while moving.

Ammunition

There exist several types of Munition S conceived to bore a shielding, such as for example the powerful explosive heads (HESH: Explosive High squash head, also called Powerful explosive plastic HEP : high explosive plastic), the penetrants anti-tank device (HEAT) and penetrants with kinetic energy (KEP: Kinetic Energy Penetrators , or APDS: Armor-Piercing Discarding Shoe ). To increase the precision of the shootings, these shells are put in rotation by grooves dug in the body of the gun, or the aileron-stabilizers.

Some tanks, including the M551 Sheridan, T-72, T-64, T-80, T-84, T-90 and PT-91 can draw from the anti-tank missiles guided with their principal gun or additional launchers. This functionality can largely increase their possibilities of combat beyond the usual range of the conventional shells. That also provides to the tank a weapon useful against the slow air targets evolving/moving at low altitude like helicopters. The United States gave up this concept, withdrawing M551 and the M60A2 of their forces, in favor of the helicopters and the plane for the anti-tank device roles, but the countries of the Communauté of the independent States continue to use systems of gun-missile in their tanks.

Protection

The protection of a tank is the combination of its capacity to prevent detection to avoid being struck by enemy fire, and of the capacity of sound Blindage to resist and box the effects of enemy fire in order to protect its crew and achieving his mission.

To avoid detection

In the timbered sectors, motionless tanks can be camouflaged well, returning detection and the difficult air attack. On the other hand, in an opened surface, it is very difficult to hide a tank. In both cases, a tank moving can be much more easily detected, thanks to heat and with the noise released by its engine. The traces of the caterpillars of the tanks can be located since an aircraft and, in the desert, their movements can create very important clouds of dust, them also easily locatable by the enemy.

The high power of the modern engines of tanks (typically above 750 kilowatts, that is to say 1.000 horses) make that they produce a distinct thermal signature. The exceptionally compact mass of the metal of the hull of the tank concentrates the heat in a way very contrasted compared to the other objects in the countryside. It is thus relatively easy to locate a tank moving by good terrestrial or air infra-red tools for sweeping. One of the reasons of the combat of night during the war of the Gulf was that the tanks as M1 Abrams see almost four times best the infra-reds than the T-72 employed by the Iraqi army. Another factor in the war of the Gulf that, of night, was even camouflaged and not moving, the Iraqi tanks cooled less quickly than their environment, facilitating thermal detection.

A motionless tank, but recently stopped after one working life, preserves a thermal signature considerable. Thus, even if the tank itself is hidden (for example behind a hill), it is still possible that a skilful operator detects it by the column of hot air which it generates above him. This risk can be slightly reduced by the use of thermal covers which reduce the radiation of heat while the engine cools gently. Certain nets of Camouflage are composed of a mixture of materials having different thermal properties.

The tanks are propelled by diesel engine or turbines of a power comparable with a Diesel loco. Therefore, outside, a diesel tank feels and makes the same noise as a Diesel loco. The grondement deep one can be heard at long distance one day calm, and the odor of the diesel, strong, can be carried very far by the wind. When a motionless tank keeps its ignited engine, the ground trembles around him, but while moving, the vibrations are even larger. The acoustic and seismic signatures of the multi-fuel engines are comparable. The acoustic signature of a turbine engine is much larger: its acute moaning can much more easily be distinguished from other background noises, whatever its distance.

Shielding

See also: Shielding

See also Ammunition anti-shielding

The tank is the vehicle most strongly armor-plated in the modern armies. Its Blindage is conceived to protect the vehicle and its crew from a large variety of threats. Generally, protection against the penetrants with kinetic energy (ball S, Missile S, Shell…) drawn by the other tanks is regarded as most important. The tanks are also vulnerable to the anti-tank guided missiles, with the mine S anti-tank devices, with the grosses bends S, and with the shootings of Artillerie, which can neutralize them or even to destroy them. The tanks are particularly vulnerable to the air threats. The weight due to the quantity of Shielding necessary to protect itself from all the conceivable threats from every angle would be too large to be realistic; to design a tank is thus always business of compromise between the shielding and the weight. In this field, one finances and one follows very close research on new the Alliage S and materials.

The majority of the armor-plated fighting vehicles are made plates of Acier, in certain cases of aluminum, hardened (hardened steel punt) . The relative effectiveness of the shielding is expressed by comparison with a homogeneous armor plate obtained by rolling.

The majority of the armored vehicles are protected better with the front one, and the crew always tries to maintain the machine directed towards the most probable direction of the enemy. The thickest shielding and most tilted is on the Glacis, in front of the Tourelle. The sides are armoured, and the back, the belly and the roof are protected.

Before the second world war, several originators of tanks tried to incline the armor-plates on the experimental tank S. When those are inclined, the effectiveness of the shielding increases considerably, by increasing their thickness perpendicular to the trajectories of the projectiles, and by increasing the chance that these projectiles rebound. The first tank produced with large scales which could reach that point in a satisfactory way was the famous T-34. The German crews were even horrified by noting sometimes that the drawn projectiles horizontally on T-34 rebounded.

During the second world war, the drawn rocket S since the planes gained a reputation of weapon frightening anti-tank device, particularly after the unloading in Normandy (see the Opération Neptune); the analysts according to war report that many targets were missed, but of little. The shells anti shieldings perforating drawn starting from planes, like those of the Hurribomber (40mm) or Stuka (37mm), could also be effective. Simple a Kingpin on the cap of the Moteur could also neutralize the majority of the tanks.

Today, the tanks are particularly vulnerable to the missiles " with attack by the dessus" and with the air raids, like the specialized mines. Even the light anti-tank weapons of infantry (such as the Lance rocket S) can immobilize a tank by damaging its suspension or its caterpillars. Many military vehicles have thus side skirts to protect the suspension.

The ammunition with Hollow-charge, implemented the first time in weapons like the Bazooka, were a new threat during the second world war. These weapons carry a warhead with an explosive load, which focuses the force of the Explosion on a narrow and penetrating flow. The shieldings made up of thin spaced plates, or steel meshs, the rubber skirts and also the reactive tiles of shielding (causing an explosion on the surface of the tank) proved to be ready to reduce their penetrating power considerably, by dispersing the gas jet of the hollow-charges. The tiles of shielding reactive or active shielding is a concept developed by the Israeli army since nearly two decades consisting of a whole of boxes of the size of shoe a box containing of the explosive loads to some extent having to neutralize the effect of an enemy projectile while exploding with its contact.

Certain ammunition anti-tank device (HESH or HEP) use flexible explosives, which are stuck to the shielding of the enemy vehicle, and create dangerous glares inside even tank when the load bursts. Those can kill the crew without penetrating nor to damage the shielding, neutralizing this way the tank. As a defense, certain vehicles have a layer anti-glares (anti-spall) fixed inside.

Since the Seventies, some tanks were equipped with more complex composite shieldings, a sandwich of various alloys and Céramique. One of the best passive types of shielding is the " Chobham" British, who is composed of blocks of ceramics spaced and drowned in a resin-fabric matrix between layers of conventional shielding. A type of Chobham shielding is even drowned in uranium depleted on Abrams M1A1, which makes it very solid.

The tank Israeli Merkava pushes the idea of the systems of high protection to the extreme, by using the engine and its tanks fuel as a secondary shielding.

When the shielding is destroyed, then the capacity of the crew to escape from the machine becomes paramount, a basic question of survival. The trap door of escape, for example, at the bottom of the hull as in T-34 or on the side as in Churchill, constitute weaknesses potential but necessary in a shielding.

Civil defense

The majority of the armored vehicles have smoke-producing grenade throwers which can quickly deploy a smoke screen in order to be dissimulated and carry out a retirement when they are victims of a ambush or a direct attack and that the situation requires it. The smoke screen is very seldom used offensively, that would plug the attacker itself and would give to the enemy a first indication of the origin of the attack. The modern smoke grenades make it possible to occult the optical systems as well as functioning in the infra-red spectrum in the visible spectrum of the light.

Certain smoke grenades are designed to create a cloud very dense able to block the lasers of the enemy indicators of target and to also reduce the visibility, which decreases the precision of the enemy shootings, particularly with regard to the weapons at low speed, such as the missiles anti-tank device because those require a maintenance of the tank aimed into visual for the operator for one relatively long period. On much of tanks, like the French tank Leclerc, the smoke-producing grenade throwers are also designed for launching lachrymatory grenades and anti-personnel grenades to fragmentation. Many Israeli tanks have small mortars which can be actuated starting from the interior of the tank, increasing the potential anti-personnel and making it possible to tackle objectives located behind of the obstacles. There were attempts to equip with the tanks with launchers with grenades smoked Bi-function/fragmentation being able to be reloaded interior.

Before the arrival of systems of thermal imagery, the basic smoke grenade of the fighting vehicles was a grenade with white phosphorus which very quickly created a smoke screen with very useful a flamer effect against the infantry.

Certain tanks also have fixed generators of smoke which can produce smoke uninterrupted. Generally these generators of smoke function by injecting fuel in the exhaust where it burns only partially creating a dense smoke screen.

The modern tanks are equipped more and more with passive defensive systems like devices of detection of laser beam, which activate an alarm if the tank “is swept” by a rangefinder or a laser indicator.

Other civil defenses include the devices of detection of waves, which inform if the tank is aimed by the radar systems which are generally used to guide the anti-tank weapons such as the radars with very short wavelength, like the millimetre-length radars.

Against measurements

The passive countermeasures, like the Russian system Shtora, try to scramble the guidance systems of the Missile S.

The armor reactivates explosive (Explosive reactivates armor or ERA) is another principal type of protection against the anti-tank weapons at explosive strong potential. The various parts of the shielding explode to absorb the total explosive force in a controlled point of the total shielding of the tank. A reactive shielding is attached outside the tank using replaceable tiles.

The active protective systems (protection system or APS Activates) go even further that the reactive shieldings. A APS uses a radar (or other technologies of detection) to react dynamically to the hostile projectiles: when the system detects one of them, it decides measures to be taken, like the launching of an explosive against-projectile to only stop or disturb the travel of the projectile to a few meters of the tank.

Exposure of the crew

When it moves, the commander of tank which is held upright on the turret, and the driver with front, are relatively exposed with the enemy shootings. However, this provision remains surest for the tank in not very hostile ground because it gives to the crew the best visibility on the ground in order to judge dangerosity of the medium. When the tank starts a combat with forces likely to put it in danger, the hatchways are locked and the crew makes use of optic equipment.

Mobility

Characteristics of mobility

There are three aspects essential to consider concerning the mobility of a tank:

• basic capacities of displacement of the tank like its speed through the rough grounds,
• capacity to cross obstacles (slopes, etc),
• the total mobility of the tank on a battle field; let us quote for example:
• which bridges can it cross? (by taking account of its mass)
• which freight vehicles can move them? is
• which its rotation?

Mobility is what the originators of tankers and tanks call the Agilité . The mobility of a tank is classified by category:

• mobility on battle field , function of the capacities of its engine, its transmission, and other elements technical; it is determined by indicators such as acceleration, speed, the crossing of vertical obstacles;
• tactical mobility , corresponding to the possibility of more or less easily moving the tank towards a theater of operation;
• strategic mobility , corresponding to the capacity of the tank to being transported of a theater of operation with the other, function of its mass, ease of transport by air, etc

Types of ground

A tank is designed to be very mobile and to approach the majority of the types of ground. Its broad caterpillar S distributes the weight of the machine on a large surface, having for result a Pression on the ground which is sometimes lower than that of a human foot.

The types of ground which pose problems are usually the extremely soft ground, as in the marshes, or the grounds comprising of large rocks. In the grounds " normaux" , a tank is designed to move between 30 and 50 km/h. Its speed on road can go to the neighborhoods of 70 km/h.

Performances on road

On paper, like during any tests of a few hours, any tank offers performances in cross-country quite higher than all the machines without caterpillar S which exist.

But on Road, the tanks are slow and the top speed posted on the tables of performances cannot absolutely be under consideration like a cruising speed, but rather like a maximum speed of displacement in combat. Indeed, with its caterpillars and its raised mass, a tank circulating at high speed would destroy the fragile road which it borrows, this one obviously not being conceived for that. In addition, the risk of break-in of the engine would be well too great if this speed were maintained for one day (for example, to go quickly on a battle field). It is the same for cross-country speed, except possible for the plains and the arenaceous Déserts.

Moreover, one crawler-mounted tank carrying out a turn produces a large effort of Torsion on the ground and, in the event of too dry turn, the ground is torn off. For this reason the principal arteries of the big cities like Paris, are Pavé are because this coating is much more resistant to this effort than the tar. One observes this same problem on the machines of building sites crawler-mounted assembled excavators, more especially as they are often brought to carry out rotations on the spot. One of the solutions installation is the use of rubber crawler belts which deaden the effort of Torsion. This solution is also used on the tanks to carry out operations, such as for example the procession of July 14th in Paris.

Mobility in combat

Since an immobilized tank is an easy target for the mortars, artillery, and the units specialized in the fight anti-tank device, speed is normally kept with a minimum, and all the means are used to move tanks on other conveyers (trucks, trains, etc). The tanks finish inevitably on trains in all the countries having a railway infrastructure sufficient, because this average best remainder for a displacement of mass at a long distance. To plan well the loading and the unloading of the trains is a crucial work, and the railway and road bridges are the main targets of the enemy forces wishing to slow down a projection of tanks. For more specific operations, trucks tank transporter are used.

When they move in a country or an area without railway infrastructures and with few good roads, the speed average day laborer of progression of a unit of tanks is comparable with that of a man with horse or bicycle. Frequent halts must be planned for the preventive maintenances and checks in order to avoid breakdowns during the combat.

Another facet of mobility is to make arrive the tank on the theater of the operations. The tanks, particularly the tanks of battle, are extremely heavy, which makes them very difficult, to see impossible, to transport by plane. The use of the maritime transport and terrestrial is made at the price speed, with the result that the heavy tank is not a means often used by the fast forces of intervention.

Certain armoured vehicles use Roue S instead of the caterpillar S in order to increase speed on road and to decrease the efforts of maintenance. These vehicles suffer of course from a lack of mobility on the rough grounds, but are regarded by the strategists as being adapted to the fast rapid deployment forces thanks to their reduced cost and to their increased strategic mobility.

Mobility in water

For the majority of the tanks, the passage in a river is limited to cross a ford. The traversable depth of a ford is limited to the height above the ground of the air intake of the engine and, with a less degree, the position of the driver. The traversable depth of a typical Gué for a tank is from 90 to 120 centimetres.

Major passages

However, with an adapted preparation, some tanks can cross a river considerably major. Certain tanks, like the leopard I and West German leopard II or the Russian T-90 can cross a ford to a depth of several meters, once equipped with an adequate air intake called Schnorchel. This air intake is in fact made up of a series of rings which can be piled up to create a long tube. This tube is then adapted to the trap door of the commander and is used to provide the air and a possible fire exit for the crew. The size of the tube is limited to approximately three meters.

Amphibious tanks

Certain light tanks such as the PT-76 are amphibious, they are in general propelled in water by Hydrojet S or their caterpillars. Often, a sheet directed to the bottom, the pallet, is installation to divert the water which would pass above the tank, reducing of this fact the risk for the vehicle to be flooded by the trap door of the driver.

During the second world war, the average tank Sherman M4 was made amphibious with the addition of a rubberized cloth to obtain buoyancy. It progressed thanks to engines driven by the principal engine. The Sherman DD (Duplex Drive) was used during the D-day to provide a support during the close combats on the beaches, at the time of the first vaguenesses of the unloading. The Sherman DD could not draw in water because its screen of buoyancy went up higher than the gun, and due to excessive instability. A great number of these DD ran once launched and were destroyed during the operation. Because of the capricious climate of the English Channel, some were released too much far from the beach. Because of the current, certain tanks turned in the direction of the current making it possible the waves to pass over and to fill the tank. Nevertheless, those which touched ground provided an essential support in the first critical hours of the unloading.

Motorization

The principal engine of the tank ensures the power necessary to him to move and for many other uses, such as making swivel the turret or quite simply providing the electric current and the hydraulic power. The tanks of the First World War used usually petrol engines, except for the American tank " Holt" who was propelled by a petrol engine and an electrical motor. During the Second world war, there were no really rules. All the types of engines coexisted. Many engines of tanks were adapted engines of plane. Starting from the cold war, the tanks almost directed all towards the diesel engines, with multi-fuel versions always improved of topicality. Towards end of the year 70, the engines containing Gas turbine started to appear.

The weight and the type of the engines, without forgetting the transmission and the gear box, mainly determine the speed and the mobility of the tank. Moreover, the ground strongly limits the maximum speed of all the tanks by the constraints which he exerts on the suspension and the crew.

Concerning the engine, a tank M1 Abrams A2 is currently able to develop 1.500 horses, that is to say 21,6 horses per ton. (A coefficient ranging between 20 and 25 means that the tank has a weight-power positive ratio. A too heavy tank or too not very powerful has a coefficient lower than 20 hp/ton.) At the beginning, the engines ran on the gasoline, which supported the fires.

Diesel engines " multi-carburants"

All the modern tanks do not function any more that thanks to a Gas turbine or use a Diesel engine because this Carburant is less flammable and more economic than the gasoline. Some Soviet tanks even employed the opaque smoke of a diesel engine evil regulated like technique of Camouflage. They could thus carry out an incomplete combustion of the fuel to create an opaque smoke in order to create a cover. The fuel tanks of help are generally placed at the rear of the tank. On some models, like Israeli Merkava, these tanks are placed around the sector of the crew to provide an additional layer of shielding. The fuel was often stored in auxiliary jerry cans outside the machine, or by other means a such small trailer that it is possible to detach before or during the combat.

The modern engines of the tanks are multi-fuel, they can use similar fuel oil, gasoline or fuels.

Gas turbines

See also: Gas turbine

Gas turbines were used as auxiliary generators of edge on some tanks, and are the source of principal propulsion on the tanks Soviet T-80 and Abrams M1 American. They are comparatively lighter and smaller than of the diesel engines for the same level of prolonged power (T-80 was even called the flying tank because its speed).

However they are much less sparing while carburizing, particularly with low driving, demanding mode of larger fuel tanks to reach the same levels of autonomy in combat. Various models of the Char M1 Abrams regulated this problem with secondary batteries or generators to actuate its systems when it is in stationary mode, thus saving fuel by reducing the need for making idle the principal turbine. The T-80 tanks are generally equipped with large external fuel tanks intended to increase their autonomy. Russia replaced the production of T-80 with least powerful Char T-90 (based on T-72), whereas the Ukraine developed T-80 UD and T-84 with diesel engine with a power very close to the gas turbines.

Because of its least output, the thermal signature of a gas turbine is higher than that of a diesel engine at equal power. On the other hand a tank with a sound-proof gas turbine is generally quieter than those propelled by piston engines. The M1A2 was called the whisper of dead (Whispering Death) because of its low noise level.

A turbine is theoretically more reliable and easier to maintain than a piston engine, since it has a simpler construction with few moving parts. In practice, however, its parts test a more important wear because their higher speed of operation. The blades of the turbine are, moreover, very sensitive to dust and fine sand so that, in operations being held in the desert, of the special filters must be carefully gone up and changed several times per day. A badly assembled filter, or only one ball or piece of glare can make the filter useless, which is strongly prejudicial for the engine. The piston engines have, them also, also need for well maintained filters, but they are endangered if the filter has a tear.

Like the majority of the modern diesel engines used in the tanks, the gas turbines are also multi-fuel engines.

Order, control and communications

Being translated

Internal communications

Each action of a tank, movement or shooting, is ordered by the chief of tank. In some old tanks, the commander was to charge or draw with the principal gun, sometimes both, reducing largely his capacities of command. In much of small armor-plated fighting vehicles, even late in the twentieth century, the commander would transmit his orders to the driver by slaps on his shoulders or his back. Today the majority are equipped with Intercom, making it possible all the members of the crew aurally to be expressed. Some tanks are even equipped with an external intercom on the back, to make it possible the infantry of support to speak with the crew.

Tactical communications

Being translated

Control devices

Being translated

Vulnerability

In spite of the fact that it is a powerful and impressive weapon on the battle field, the tank is vulnerable. In fact, the fear of the effectiveness of the tanks even led to the massive development of tactics and terribly effective anti-tank weapons.

It is also a heavy, expensive and capricious machine.

At the infantry

In spite of the firepower of a tank and its action of shock to long range against the inexperienced infantry, the tanks without support are vulnerable to the infantry when they fight defensive positions in not-open medium, or urban. The weapons of the tank cannot cover all the environment at short distance, and the suspension and the parts back and higher of shielding, relatively thin, are vulnerable to the attacks of close or starting from the upper floors of the buildings of a city.

The tanks generally function with the narrowly coordinated support of infantry to protect them from the enemy infantry.

The anti-tank weapons of infantry include rustic weapons, as the bombs with the gasoline (Kingpin and others), the rifles anti-tank device, the grenade S anti-tank devices, the bombs sticking and various portable weapons modern, the lances rocket and the missiles anti-tank device and the mine S anti-tank.

With artillery

Since the second world war, the tanks are sufficiently armoured to be protected against from the fragments of shell of Artillerie. However, the artillery batteries usually have in reserve some anti-tank ammunition for their defense against tanks. In the event of direct shooting, they can appear of a frightening effectiveness, like showed it the Canon of 88 mm of the Second world war.

Since the Years 1970, several types of artillery ammunition were developed in order to demolish the armored vehicles. Those include the projectiles guided by a beam Laser directed on the target. There are also the bombs at submunitions, saturating a sector with the " bombinettes" who can damage the higher shielding or create a field of mines, and even of the submunitions " intelligentes" who can identify and attack the tanks being with range.

In the arsenal of certain countries, one finds also, halfway between artillery and weapons of infantry, the anti-tank Fusil S or the specialized guns (standard SPG-9).

With the mines

The fields of anti-tank mines are weapons of prohibition of sector (area-denial) , helping to defend a sector, or to channel the enemy movements towards zones where they will be destroyed. Not-defended minefields or mines planted on the roads are also employed to delay the movements of the companies of armoured tanks and act as arms with gene, but they are not considered by the soldiers as a strongly effective weapon - although their effect on the Moral is important.

The mines on the ground damaging the relatively fragile suspensions of a vehicle and the finer lower shielding, much of armored vehicles are designed to reduce their effects. In the majority of the cases, a mine anti-tank device only immobilizes it and the majority of the tanks can be equipped with devices anti-mines (plow, rollers, or plagues anti-mines). There are also mines which employ warhead S HEAT to attack on the side. The guerillas who do not have anti-tank mines at their disposal can improvise some for the harassing of the armor-plated forces. But these impromptu explosive devices, same heaviest, will be able to destroy really a modern tank only if it is placed just at the top.

With aviation

Since the second world war, the planes of attack on the ground were able to destroy the tanks using heavy machine guns (via the thinner layer of shielding of the top of the tank), of guns and rockets. Today, such planes also use guided missiles or guided bombs. In the majority of the cases, only the planes of support at low altitude are effective against the tanks. With high-altitude, and even today, it is very difficult to detect a tank particularly once camouflaged) and it is easy to thwart the enemy plane by using lures. The bombs, even those equipped with a guidance of precision are only effective against the stationary tanks. During the allied operations in Kosovo, only 13 Serb tanks were destroyed in spite of massive air raids.

Since the years 1960, another threat is the Hélicoptère of attack, exploiting its high mobility and the use of the ground for its protection, equipped with control and guidance of shooting and carrying powerful sophisticated missiles. A helicopter can carry out an attack surprised by behind, time when it is exposed depend on the type of missile used. A helicopter, attacking using a wire-guided missile or with laser guidance, must be exposed until the missile strikes the target, which makes it very vulnerable to the enemy answer. The helicopters attacking with missiles of the self-directional type can turn over to their cover after launching.

The majority of the modern tanks are able to retort with slow air targets with their principal gun and much are equipped with methods of defensive countermeasures such as the systems of laser detection (which informs the crew of the use of a laser targeting the tank), the generators of smoke blocking IR (infra-red radiation) and even, in certain cases, of the systems jammers of missiles. On the other hand the traditional anti-aircraft machine-guns, often assembled on the tanks of the second world war, were abandoned because the speed of the attacks of the modern planes. System credits of destruction of the missiles are being studied and in test.

Heavy logistics

The tanks have very heavy logistic needs. They require great quantities of fuel, ammunition, maintenance, and spare parts to continue to function, even when they are not engaged with the combat.

The armor-plated forces cannot fight effectively if all their requirements are not filled because of failures in the provisioning, a poor planning or action of the enemy. Historically, much of armor-plated offensives failed in this way, such as for example the offensive of the Ardennes of the German Armée during the second world war.

For more precise details on the logistic aspects, to see higher: aspects of mobility

Environment

Climate

The tanks can also be neutralized by time: the batteries of the Starter S and the Lubricant S, and even the engines can not start in the freezing cold. During the second world war in the Russian Winter, it was often necessary to let turn the engines of the tanks to the stop to prevent problems of starting (congelation of the engine and fuel which is there). The engines and the crew can also suffer from overheating in hot weather (the tanks all are equipped with air-conditioning since the years 1980), or dust can block the conduits.

Ground

The tanks are also in an unfavourable position in the wooded grounds and the urban environments. Cancelling the advantage of the shooting with long range, limiting the capacity of the crew to detect potential threats, and limiting even the capacity of the turret to be turned in too narrow streets. Some of these problems are now taken into account by special modifications in particular for the urban combat (let us note that the urban combat create additional risks for almost all the types of units) with a survival of the tanks which improved considerably (particularly against the impromptu and portable weapons) quite simply under the terms of their powerful shielding.

Research and development

Current research seeks to make the tanks more discrete by adapting the technologies of camouflage developed at the origin for aviation. Research is also continuous in the systems of shielding and new units of propulsion.

A clear tendency is the growing number of electric systems and communication, such as the thermal detectors and of the more powerful radios with long range.

See too

References

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