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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♆ 23/04/2024
T9/M2/M2E1 Scout car (1935)
The origin of the tens of thousands of M3 Scout Car, M2 and M3 Half Tracks cars that soldiered for the allies in WW2 and so many nations for most of the cold war and up to the 1980s in many cases (like for the IDF), could trace back their origin, not to White, but to Corbitt. The story of the scout car M2 is now forgotten. It was an early US Army armoured car of the 1930s, intended for the cavalry, designed from 1934 and introduced in 1935, first named T9 but standardized in March 1938 as the M2, after 22 vehicles including prototypes, followed by a small serie of 78 M2E1 Scout Cars in 1937-1939. The first used to train cavalry units in the US and the remainder for training M3 scout car crews for the duration of the war, never leaving US soil.
Chinese PLA AFT-9 Carrier (1998)
16.04.2025 The AFT-9 is the now ageing 4x4 ATGM armoured tank hunter using the HongJian 9 ('Red Arrow' 9) of the People's Liberation Army Ground Force. The launcher was modified to also firing anti-air missiles in later evolutions, and provided to mobile force an organic universal short range missile protection. Deceloped in the late 1980s, this ATGM carrier was given a platform based on the Wz.500. Never exported, unveiled in 1990, the Norinco vehicle is only fielded by the PLA today with 450 estimated in service.
♆ 09/04/2025
Renault YS & YS2
The Renault YS was a smaller serie of command and communication tanks. The Reconnaissance tanks of the French Army since 1933 were the AMR-33, 34 and 35. They had been distributed to cavalry units for reconnaissance, and declined each into multiple variants. Among these were a serie of command tanks equipped with radio sets, the Renault YS of which only ten were built and distributed to various units. Then, there was derived YS-2, a prototype artillery observation vehicle with an observation turret, tested in 1938-40 but not adopted either, despite the need for such vehicles.
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.
19/04/2025
For once, not an armoured train, but an interesting wagon nonetheless: The Berlin Duty Train Caboose. A guard escort carriage (known in the US as a ‘caboose’) from the US Army Berlin Duty Train. The Berlin Duty Train was operated by the Transportation Corps and operated from December 1945 to December 1990 between Bremerhaven on the Baltic Coast and Frankfurt am Main to West Berlin. Aside from the train driver/engineer (West German Deutsche Bundesbahn employees within West Germany and East German Deutsche Reichsbahn employees across East Germany), the train crew comprised a Transportation Corps first or second lieutenant as train commander, two MPs, a radio operator, a conductor, and an interpreter, who were based in this caboose. The carriage had observation bubbles on each side and on top, fitted with windscreen wipers, to keep an eye on the progress of the journey.
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.
Ursus A (1925)
20.04.2025 The Ursus A was Polish Miliitary Light Truck, the first built in Poland, as a license-built modification of the Italian SPA 25C Polonia. This was a gradual process, with the Fiat SPA 25C being purchased, then assembled, then built locally in 1928-1931, as the Ursus-A which, differing in some point. It was replaced by the Polski Fiat 621, but many were still active in 1939.
Older Entries:
Citroën Type 23 (1935) * SAMIL 50 * Bedford MW * 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.
FH 77
➾ Howitzer gun produced to 720 units 1987-91
FH 77The 155mm Haubits FH77/A Howitzer was developed by Bofors to replace older ordnances in the 1970s, boasting a high rate of fire and extra mobility and traverse. 720 were manufactured, inc. 220 for the Swedish Army, 48 for Nigeria and 410 for India which developed a licenced-modified version, the Dhanush. The mount included a Volvo APU and it is capable of self-locomotion at 6 kph. The base version was constantly improved, with a caliber of 38, 38, and eventually 45 and 52 caliber when adopted for the 2012 Archer self-propelled gun system.
