New Entries
♆ 27/10/2024
M19 MGMC (1945)
The M19 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage was a late WW2 self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicle based on the M24 light tank chassis, sporting two Bofors 40 mm guns and produced by Cadillac and Massey Ferguson Canada from late 1944. It was fielded too late to see action in WW2 but saw first combat in Korea in 1950 against North Korean forces. It was gradually replaced by the M42 Duster iand completely phased out in 1953 but still active in other armies, notably the Netherlands until 1978. In Korea it was used in several high profile battles such as Chosin reservoir and around the Pusan perimeter against Chinese forces in ground fire, especially efficient against massed Chinese PLA infantry charges.
♆ 19/10/2024
VT-4 (2017)
The VT-4 is the marketing name of the previous MBT-3000, a modernized main battle tank built by Norinco for overseas export developed from the Type 90-II/Al-Khalid or MBT-2000 in the 1980s with a powertrain from Ukraine, and later the MBT-3000 with Chinese powertrain, named VT-4 from 2009, developed as a co-operation with the First Inner Mongolia Machinery Factory and other companies. It was presented in 2012 Eurosatory, 2014 Norinco Armour Day, 10th China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition and marketed as the VT-4, sold since to Nigeria (6), Pakistan (44) and Thailand (62), tested also by Algeria and Brazil among others.
♆ 12/10/2024
K9 Thunder (1999)
The K9 Thunder is a South Korean 155 mm self-propelled howitzer designed and developed by the Agency for Defense Development and private corporations such as Dongmyeong, Kia, Poongsan and Samsung for the Republic of Korea Armed Forces (ROKAF) and later manufactured by Hanwha Aerospace. The K9 howitzer was introduced in 1999 and the K9A1 in 2018, operating organically with the K10 Ammunition Resupply Vehicle variant. The K9A2 tested for production. It was also incredibly successful at export, by 2022, with a 52% global marjet share in this category: Egypt (K9A1/K10EGY), Poland (AHS Krab), Estonia (K9EST Kõu), Finland (K9FIN Moukari), India (K9 Vajra-T), Norway (K9/10 VIDAR), and Turkey (T-155 Fırtına I).
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 2024are 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.