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 now here due to server performances versus audience issues (rising hosting costs), albeit moderated still. You can support also it through merchandise here.
➁ New posts weekly. These are mere "entry into matter", for vehicles not already treated on tank-encyclopedia.com, seen there later 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 this project 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.
New Entries
♆ 08/12/2023
Piranha IIIc DF90 (2006)
The recent, controversial acquisition of the Piranha DF 90, a CMI gun-armed variant of the IIIC ordered en masse by Belgium, was to replace the Belgian Leopard 1A5 MBT in its inventory in the 1990s (recently acquired by Rheinmetall to be refurbished and sent to Ukraine). Armed with a Cockerill med-pressure 90 mm gun the Piranha IIIC DF 90 infantry support vehicle would probably have a hard time against the frontal armour of a T-72 or T-90 and shows both in quantities (only 18 over 40 in service) and quality the limits of the "Belgian Land Component" Today. This post is assorted with a review of the Belgian Army in the cold war up to this day, and its armoured vehicles.
♆ 04/12/2023
Leichtes Artillerie-Raketen-System (LARS) 110 SF1 auf Magirus-Deutz 178 D15 (1969)
Far less well known that the "usual suspects" of the cold war Bundeswehr's, such as the Leopard, Marder or Gepard SPAAG/Roland SPAAML, there was one vehicle that was the de factor inheritor of WW2 Panzerwerfer. Abbreviated as RakArtBtl-122, this 110 mm rocket launcher truck was based on the 6x6 Magirus Jupiter, under the system acronym LARS, intended to pummel advancing Soviet tanks formations. It filled a niche in NATO inventory that only completed later by the M270 MARS. It was replaced in the 1980s by the LARS-2. This is the sister article on truck encyclopedia's Magirus Jupiter (see below).
♆ 30/11/2023
LAV Novator (2017)
The company "Ukrainian Armour" is of today's Ukrainian domestic wheeled armoured vehicles, alongside KrAZ and NPO Practika delivered to the Ukrainian Army in recent years. The Company delivers also the Varta APC and intermediate Kamrat. In this case, the Novator is considered a "light APC" or "LAV" in US parlance, for light armoured vehicle. It is intended as a reconnaissance platform but could carry up to nine men. In service from 2019 with the Ukrainian National Guard, c50 had been manufactured and c19 lost in combat recently.
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 2023are 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.
XMas Special !
Fill your basket, offer and delight your friends/family with brand new posters* of iconic tanks of WW2 to this day:
First of this new serie: All Tiger tanks liveries. See the free web version (10x smaller).
Panther tanks liveries. Web version.
More to come soon !
*Also available: Photo print, metal and canvas prints, postcards, mugs, bucket or dad hats, desk mat, baseball cap, t-shirts, tops, latptop or ipad/iphone skin, sleeves, cases, snap cases, but also acrylic blocks and wood mounted prints, taperstry, clocks, coasters, comforter, duvet, shower curtain, throw blanket, pillow, drawstring bag, tote or duffle bag, backpack, pin, scarf, socks, zipper pouch, hardcover journal and spiral notebook, apron and this Xmas 2023 novelty: A Jigsaw puzzle... .
2024 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: Railwroad 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.17/11/2023: 
Danuta class
Danuta and Poznańczyk (N°11 and 12 in 1939) were probably the most famous Polish Armoured Trains. Veterans of three wars (WWI, Polish-Soviet war, WW2) they had been modernized in the interwar by Cegielski Works and KBPP in Poznań, notably with new armoured artillery wagons, T3i armoured locomotives and assault wagons. They took part in the harsh combats on September 1939, illustrating themselves in fierce defence.
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.
Older Entries:
Magirus-Deutz Jupiter * GAZ-51 * M274 Mule * CMP Chevrolet C60S * Toyota Land Cruiser Prado * Autocarreta OM * OTR-21 Tochka * Leyland Retriever * Studebaker US6 * Breda TP 32 * R380 Hades TEL * JSDGF Trucks * Sd.Kfz.7 * GAZ 63
ZIS-3 Div. Field Gun (1942)
