Tank Encyclopedia's Archives
A sub of Tank Enyclopedia. 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. This site is ADS FREE and will remains so, as long as server performances are enough to cope with its audience. However you can support it by purchasing posters on the shop.
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
♆ 25/09/2023
M1128 MCS (2002)
The M1128 Mobile Gun System (MGS) is (was now) an interim vehicle specific for the replacement of the light tank, Vietnam veteran M551 Sheridan, retired after the 1991 Gulf War. The quest for its replacement spanned decades and is now resolved with the actual M10 Booker. The M1128 MGS from GLDS was ordered in 2002 alongside the Stryker family as a completely different solution better adapted for the asymetric conflicts of the time. This was however not a sucess, and only 142 were made from 2002 to 2010 by General Dynamics Land Systems. Integrated into the current Stryker brigade combat teams, their planned retirement started in 2022.
♆ 19/09/2023
2S3 Akatsiya (1971)
The SO-152 (GRAU 2S3 Akatsiya) is a Soviet 152.4 mm self-propelled gun. It was first developed in 1968 to answer the American 155 mm M109 howitzer. Development started in 1967, an it completed, accepted for service in 1971 entered service. Its GRAU designation is 2S3. Following the ironic flower naming tradition of Soviet SPGs, "Akatsiya" (Акация) stands for "Acacia".
♆ 12/09/2023
T55-AM2B
The T55AM2B is one of the last, but not the very last evolution of the T-55, born in 1959. After the T-54B, the Czech built T55AM and AM2, the AM2B is the final coldwar non-Soviet evolution of the type. Only a handful were so modernized and served in both the East German and Czech armies before the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. Passed to the successor states, the East German ones soon found new international customers (along with the postwar Polish T-55AM2BP): Cambodia (50), Sudan (20), Slovakia still having 206 by 1995.
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.
Tactics.
They go hand in hand.
Tanks had no tactical manual when first used. It was learned the hard way and perfected over decades, as well as weapons, countermeasures and accompanying vehicles.
Oddball of the week.
This is still an Unidentiified Interwar MGC prototype to this day. Photo wikimedia commons by the way.
Centennial.
Hundreds of pages, for free
The full catalog: All AFVs of the world by country and eras, 2017 Edition.
Museums, Movies, Books & Games
The Tanks and Armor in pop culture
Tanks and armored vehicles in general are only really grasped when seen first person: The mass, the scale, it's all there. Explore also the way tanks were covered in the movie industry, in books and in video games.Movies:
Best tanks movie on warhistoryonline.com
On imdb.com
On bestsimilar.com/
miltours.com
liveabout.com/
watchmojo.com
Video Games:
pcgamesn.com
historyhit.com
levvvel.com
vg247.com/best-tank-games
mmobomb.com/
alienwarearena.com
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. Discover the Tanks in WW1, WW2, but also the cold war.
09/09/2023 
Schienenpanzer 204(f)
The Panzerspähwagen 178 P 204(f) Schienenpanzer was based on teh French Panhard AMF-35 reconnaissance armored car. c190 were captured b the Wechmacht after the capitulation, and c40-43 of these were later recycled in 1941 as reconnaissance draisines, screening in front of supply trains and looking for partisans and saboteurs in Russia. They all served on the Russian Front used until the end of the war...
Trucks.
Military Trucks and staff cars.
A dedicated section for softskin vehicles, from WWI tp this day: Trucks, staff cars, reconnaissance vehicles, and artillery tractors: Truck-Encyclopedia.com.
Older Entries:
Sd.Kfz.7 GAZ 63 * Fiat 618MC * Jiefang ca30 * M151 Mutt * UAZ 23632-148 Esaul * Ashok-Leyland Hippo TEL (2009) * P6 ATAV * CMP C60/F60 * CMP C30/F30 * CMP C30 LRDG * CMP FAT * CMP Part I: Ford F15/Chevy C15 * GAZ 46 * Terrapin (1942) * M38 Jeep * Tatra T813 * Open Maultier * cold war us trucks * BAV 485 * MAN-630 L2 Interim Fast Attack Vehicle * Chevy AFWX-354 * German west german trucks * ZIL-157K S-75 Dvina * GAZ MM * Sd.Kfz.6 * Jiefang CA-10 * Praga 92 * M1161-Growler * fiat spa 38R * Pantsir S1 * Nissan Patrol * Boeing Phantom Badger * ZiL-151 * LRDG Chevy 30 cwt * Sd.Kfz.9
