Tank Encyclopedia's Archives
A sub of Tank Encyclopedia. This is the new archive section, with all former entries, and a search engine. ➀ All single vehicles are accessible by nations and eras in a more consistent and logical way than previously. ADS are needed due to finance better server performances as audience grows. But you can support also it through merchandise here.
➁ New posts weekly. These are mere "entry into matter", for vehicles scheduled on tank-encyclopedia.com, that will be seen in the latter in much more detail. A link from the archive entry will point to the new article when up. There are still circa 2,000 serial armored vehicles to be treated over the years excluding prototypes and paper projects, so tank-afv.com will continue to run until all are treated, and follow the news of armoured vehicles around the world.
☄ About the site name: If a "Tank" is obvious to anyone in this context, "AFV" is an acronym which stands for "Armoured Fighting Vehicle". It is a catch-all definition for all military vehicles armoured (and armed), tracked or wheeled. For soft-skinned vehicles please visit truck-encyclopedia.com. See also The 2015 archive.
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♆ 03/04/2025
Cougar MRAP (2002)
The Cougar is a mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) doubling as infantry mobility vehicle. It was developed to be immune to landmines and IEDs, in the wave of such vehicles ordered by the US Army/USMC for the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, which made apparent the Hummer's irrelevance. The Cougar was Produced by Force Protection Inc, integrated by Spartan Motors to fill the need of the US Army in the 2000s. It was also better protected against small arms and RPGs for some and had dual air conditioning. Some 1700 HE were manufactured, the remainder H, 5300. and also modified and exported as the British Mastiff, Canadian Timberwolf, Iraqi Badger. Production was terminated with the JPO dissolution in 2014. The HE is the 6x6 version of the family.
♆ 26/03/2025
T-155 Fırtına
Turkey looked to replaced its now obsolete (even ugraded) T-44 and T-52 self propelled guns, by building a modified licensed K9 from Samsung Techwin designated the T-155 Firtina (Storm). Development started at MKEK in 1995 and its mostly the opposition from germany to deliver critical components that led authorities to look after South Korea instead. The T-155 Firtina is however built locally with many domestic components, including Aselsan for the fire control and many sub-systems. It capable of automatic fire, rapid fire at calaculated trajectories to fall at the same point, and the 52 caliber barrel, while compatible with a large array of NATO rounds, is capable of 40 km without assistance. So far 280 had been produced, now gradually replaced by the Firtina 2.
♆ 21/03/2025
Alvis Scorpion 90 (1987)
A fork of the Alvis 101 family (with the Cougar, Sabre, Salamander...) the Scorpion 90 or "Scorpion 2" was a version armed with the long-barrelled Cockerill Mk3 M-A1 90mm gun designed for the export market. It met success as a specific version ordered by Venezuela and Indonesia in the late 1980s and 1990s. By June 1988, Venezuela ordered 84 and from 1995 to 1997, Indonesia ordered two batches of Scorpions from 1992.
WW1 Tanks & Armored Cars
Born in the Trenches, when the front became static, the idea of the tank was a resurgence of ...science fiction, when some looked at HG Wells' "land battleships" novel. In UK, development was stirred by Wintson Churchill and the Navy. In France, by an artillery officer, J.B. Estienne. And soon the world took notice. Tanks were rare and few in between still, with grand plans in 1918 that never were realized. When the front was not static, armored cars reigned supreme.
WW2 Tanks & Armored Cars
In 1939, thanks had nearly two decades to evolve at peacetime rate, though the boiling of new ideas of tactics and combined arms, with some armies more acute of these than any others. Ground combat proved absolute masters of these new ideas, the Wehrmacht, with luck and opposite incompetence. After moving to USSR, the fight moved to Africa, then to Italy and back to Western Europe at large, driving fast-paced innovation in a deadly food chain contest.
Cold War Armoured Fighting Vehicles
The atomic age started with the opposition of two superpowers, which developed deterrence but at the same time, always considered conventional warfare. Far from peaceful, this second half century, until 1991, saw gradual improvement, with a gap of twenty years before generations, towards 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation main battle tanks and a cohort of armoured personal carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, and many specialized variants, wheeled and tracked.
Modern Armoured Fighting Vehicles
As the recent conflict in Ukraine shows us, the tank is still useful in the frame of a conventional war. However drones unexpectedly showed deadlier as well as artillery. Between 1991 and 2025are we really seeing a radical transformation of ground warfare ? One thing is sure through for all generals: The main battle tank is still king of the battlefield, when well used and accompanied. From city scapes to desert, steppe, rolly hills and mountains, even coming from the sea, the tank adapted and is there to stay.
Upcoming:
South Africa: Bosvark, MRAP Samil-50 Kwevoel RV, Ribbok, Hippo
Israel: Merkava, III, IV, M109A5 Doher/Rochev, Magach 5 Golan, M113 Golan/Zelda Toga (IDF service), MAR 290/90, M3 HT in IDF service, M50 AGM launcher, Haviv MLR, Eshel HaYarden, M2310 shilem
Britain: Vickers Mk.I MBT, Centurion AVRE, Light Mk.IV Colonial Pattern, Light Tank Mk.II, Wasp Carrier, Bren Carrier (update), FV430 Bulldog, FV105 Sultan, FV103 Spartan
USA: M548, M728 CRV, M40 155mm HMC, T12E1 CGMC, M15 Combination GMC, M13 MGMC, M12 155mm SPG, M14 MGMC, M17 MGMC, M39 Carrier, T1 Cunningham, M22 Locust, M3 HMC-75mm, M4 sherman flail, Marmon CTLS, Sherman-MkV-Crocodile, M108 SPG, LAV-300, M113 FIST, M106 MortarCarrier, M577 Command, M103, M110 howitzer
USSR/Russia: 9M317 BUK-M2, 9K330 Tor, 1S91-kvardat, 9K37M1 buk-M (SA-17-Grizzly), 2S35 Koalitsiya, BTT-1, MT-55, 9P157-2 Khrizantema-S, 9P163M-1-Kornet, 2S23 Nona SVK, BMO-T, BMP-2M, BMP-97 Vystrel, BTR-T, Ural Typhoon, R-381T-Taran, R-145BM, STZ-5 tractor/BM-13-16(Ni tank), Pioneer(Komomolets), T26T/BNSP reco vehicle/TP26, Ya12 tractor(T60/70), GT-MU soviet airborne APC, GAZ-2330 Tigr
China: Type 63G mod. light tank, VT4, Yitian-SPAAML, PLZ-07, PLZ-52, PGZ-07, PTL-02, Type 63C APC amphib Ukraine ready: BMP-1U, Varta MRAP, BTR-60M Khorunzhy APC , BTR4 MV1, 2S22 Bohdana
And also: TAB-77, LAV-6, M120 Rak, Archer, T-155 Fırtına, RODEF-4, Pereh-tank-destroyer, T34-D30-SPH, Iranian Rakhsh-APC, Patria II AMV, Light Tank Mark II, Mark III, Spanish AFVs interwar, TAB 77+ B33 Zimbru, Ford Lynx, Rhodesian Crocodile, Serge CDS, Jordan Khalid MBT, Jordan Al Hussein, Leonardo-M60 , wasserwerfer-SK2, BTR-152 vz53 SPAAG, MT-55, BTS-4A, BTS-2, M47M_AVLB, Renault FT command, 370-Recoiless-GunsSPG, TC5000XYB
2025 Announcement
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Centennial.
Hundreds of pages, for free
The full catalog: All AFVs of the world by country and eras, 2017 Edition.
Armored Trains.
The New section in development
The same database as for tanks: Railroad networks developed in the XIXth soon found a military use. Before even WWI, train attacks led to armed and armored trains. This had going on for more than a century now. This will cover all WW1, WW2, but also cold war and even recent armoured trains on the long run.
18/03/2025 
Legkaya Broneploshadka PL-37 (1939)
The PL-37 was the later standard light artillery armoured wagon common to the BP-35 armoured train, replacing the earlier PL-37, and generally with two affected to each composite train (two light PL-35/37, one PT-35 heavy artillery wagon). Only 24 PL-37 were maufactured in 1940-41 until production ceased with Operation Barbarossa. Each 77t wagon had two 76mm field gun turrets, four 7.62 mm Maxim Machine gun ports, and observation turret, a crew of 30 and a lot of ammunition. They were not popular, cramped, dark and hot. The few that survived the first weeks of 1941 were captured or recycled into later BP-43 trains.
Trucks.
Military Trucks and staff cars.
A dedicated section for softskin vehicles, from WWI to this day: Trucks, staff cars, reconnaissance vehicles, and artillery tractors: Truck-Encyclopedia.com.
Bedford MW
31.03.2025 The Bedford MW was a light general service truck used by the British Armed Forces during the Second World War, with 66,000 manufactured, until 1945. It was studied from 1937 as a prewar emergency production program and produced from 1939 until V-day in an early and late versions. It was one of the most common of the "15 Cwt" used on all fronts, from the French campaign in 1940 to the African, Italian, Northern Europe and Far East campaign, the last soldiering for the crown and country "east of suez" until the 1960s. It was reliable, rugged, easy to maintain, cheap to produce and proved quite adaptable.
Older Entries:
Iveco Eurocargo * Dodge M37 (1951) * GAZ-60 (1938) * Land Rover Perentie * 2S43 Malva * Laffly S15 T * MAN SX * BM-21 Grad * M87 Orkan * Albion WD FT15 * Pacific M25 Tank Transporter "Dragon Wagon" * C2P Tractor (1936) * Autocarro Unificato Pesante O.M. URSUS (1939) * ZIL-131 * Faun L900 D567 (1937) * Mack NJU 5-ton 4x4 * KrAZ-6322 * BM-30 Smerch * Isuzu Type 97 * FSC Lublin 51 (1951) * Ford G8T (1942) * SU-12 * Mercedes Benz 250 GD & G class (1978) *
The Antitank-Encyclopedia.
All the means to destroy a Tank.
From early antitank cannons and rifles to missiles, mines and RPGs.
AZP S60
➾ AA gun produced to c50,000 units
The AZP S60 was a 1950 57 mm AA gun studied from captured German in 1943, tested from 1946. It was adopted in 1950 and largey exported to 50 countries, seeing a lot of action, and still in use today. Only standardized vehicle adaptation was the ZSU-57-2 "Sparka" Soviet SPAAG. The onboard guns are a variant called the S-68. They fired fused HE and frag shells but also the only anti-tank round, the UBR-281/281U.
