TANK

When you hear the word "tank" what is the first thing that comes to your mind, if the first that comes to your mind is a fighting vessel of steel then you are an up-dated man. But if the first thing that comes to your mind is a container for storing water or it's like then you need to read this article and share with others. A tank can be said to be: (definition by Wikipedia) A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat, with heavy firepower, strong armour, and tracks providing good battlefield manoeuvrability.  .

Basically a tank has a very simple function which can be said to be an attack defence function, it is meant to protect those inside or around it while it delivers enough damage to the other side, so that when eventually you get to design a tank you will definitely take this function into play. Tanks are usually made from steel and might be covered with other form of material, like composite alloy, ERA (explosive reactive amour), or other form of protection that can serve as useful defence to the tank and also help to keep the tank integrity in place like the shape and design.

Like I said in the beginning when you hear the word tank try to control your imagination to the place that is more befitting, the correct place that that word can be used in the correct sense (quite funny). The usage of the word I certainly cannot trace that back for you now, but the first use of the word tank in this sense was in the first Great War and the first general usage was also in the first Great War for the meaning that we know it to be now. The war introduce a machinery that was able to carry a moving gun and while protecting the shooter or gunner the machine will be able to deliver some fire power to the enemies, somehow this machinery grew into becoming the tank we use today in our time, and this provided the back bone on which the whole idea of the tank was built from and all future version was taken from. The first tanks that came into being were somehow not to be called tanks in the light of the notion tanks as used in the present era, simply due to the fact that their basic characteristics were somehow far different from the present view of tanks, in also checking with the efficiency of the tanks in terms of size to fire power and armour because most of them were twice as big as modern tanks but in actuality can only do about 30% of the present tanks can do or achieve.

The word or notion tanks was defined by Wikipedia as<: A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat, with heavy firepower, strong armour, and tracks providing good battlefield manoeuvrability.

Tanks has many characteristics that can be described about them, but we shall consider some of the main characterises of the tanks some of them include:

1.) The turret; which usually carry the main weapon of the tank which is the main gun.

2.) The tracks; which is continuous in nature, which is from the back to the front it. The tacks makes up about 20% of the tank and in some case also adds to the gross armour of the tank. Some light tanks usually have rubber wheels in addition to the tracks.

3.) The main body: the main body which is the part that holds all the other part of the tank in place either directly or indirectly. It holds all the other compartments of the tank like the turret, tracks, member’s compartment, the war heads etc.

4.) The eyesight; it is the part of the tank in which those inside the tank can see and in a way experienced the outside world around them. Sometimes it can be in virtual format that is used of cameras in other for the images to be displayed on a screen or it may be direct as in the use of a telescope etc.

There are many things that can be written about the tanks that we can also write about, but the very nature of this topic that I want to write about is these factors that have a very strong influence on the mind so that we can in our own little way get use to this term. As we have said so many times before the first thing to know is that a tank is an armoured vehicle that is driven and carrying weapon for attack and also amour for defence. From some pre-history it can be said that the British were the first to bring tanks into battle in the great war, but then the tanks were very big and of very low standard and also usually have very low efficiency for their them to be called an effective fighting machine, thus as time moved many a great modifications were given to them but still on the same principle as the first one, the main modifications usually comes in terms of size to fire power and defence ratio. During the World War II tanks such as the Sherman were small tanks used by the US but were more effective than that used in the Great War but was smaller, let alone the panzers and tigers used by the Germans.

Turrets gun ranging between 32mm and 88mm existed during world 2, and armour of about 3inch thick were then in used, but as the war raged on new modifications came into play and turrets as big as 102mm started coming into play and also thicker armour were being used and also armour protection aided devices like the explosive reactive armour were also being introduce, but now bigger tanks with main battle guns of about 120mm and increasing are being made.

The British mark 1 tank was the first tank to be used in actual combat during the first world war, it can also be said to be the first modern tank to be used in actual combat, it can also be said to be the biggest tank ever produce in the history of tanks and also that it was a tank that has a very complex structure.

Tanks were made to basically help infantry in wars and this tactics became increasingly needed due to the advent of trench warfare, or in attacking bunkers or an army base were open field or space has to be transverse, the aim was to absorbed the impact of the enemy fire {infantry or others} while delivering a much more higher damaged to the enemy.

There are many variants or category in which tanks can be classified. Some of the most common classification include;

Main Battle Tank

Reconnaissance Tank

Heavy Tank

Medium Tank

Light Tank

Infantry Tank

Cruiser Tank

Some of the countries that is very directly involved with the production of tanks include Russia, USA, Germany, India, Israel, china, japan, Britain. The first tanks to be used in actual combat and the first variants of tanks to be used in actual combat were the "mark series" tanks which can be said to be the largest series of tanks ever produce, the mark 1 tanks were first used in first world war during the battle of Somme, the design or the upgrade that exist between the tank of then and those of modern times are very many so the growth of the design of tanks during the ages has been fast and great and these changes were greatly propelled by the first and second world war. The FT Renault built by the French was the first tank that has the design and characteristics of the modern tanks that are being used today.

During the adoption of trench warfare, the need for these came and also the need for a machine that can transverse trenches and any kind of terrain, this somehow lead to the adoption of the design of the tanks that were in used then and also lead to the adoption of tracks as the main locomotives of the tanks. Most detailed information about the evolution of tanks can be gotten from Wikipedia. But the introduction of tanks greatly brought about tremendous change in warfare tactics and planning, like the Germans " blitzkrieg ("lightning war")"which uses a combination of tanks and other machinery for a lighting strike on the enemy which saw used by the man "Erwin Rommel", and also the use of tank "M1A1 Abrams" tank that saw it use and effectiveness In the Iraq war that lead to the decisive victory of the us.

Tanks nowadays are among the most sophisticated and well-armed and well protected machinery of the war or to be used in a battle {land battles}, they are among the most used machine in land based warfare both in rural and urban settings they can be employed in all kind of battle formation and settings because they can also adapt to meet new and very complex settings of the environment.

Some Information In Summary About The Evolution And General Characteristics Of Tanks;

BY COUNTRIES

M1 a1 Abrams' tank {usa}.

Merkava {Israel}

T-90 {Russian}

T-14 {Russian}

Challenger ii {British}

M-60 {Israel}

Arjun MBT {India}

Leopard 2A6m {Germany}

TURRET SIZE

32MM (Sherman)

77MM

88MM

105MM

120MM

150MM

AMMUNITION

The main weapon of modern tanks is usually a single, large-calibre cannon mounted in a fully traversing gun turret.

Armour-piercing kinetic energy penetrators (KEP)

Armour-piercing discarding sabot (APDS)

Armour piercing fin stabilised discarding sabot (APFSDS)

High explosive anti-tank (HEAT) shells

High explosive squash head (HESH)

Anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM)

High explosive (HE) shells

Canister shot

Most of these weapons are fired from the main gun, or from other aux device.

Another weapon that is usually found in almost all tank design is a machine gun (usually ranging between 1-3) that is installed at the top of the tank, usually for engaging human targets or light armoured vehicles. Some are also equipped with AA guns or missile.

PROTECTION

The measure of a tank's protection is the combination of its ability to avoid detection (due to having a low profile and through the use of camouflage), to avoid being hit by enemy fire, its resistance to the effects of enemy fire, and its capacity to sustain damage whilst still completing its objective, or at least protecting its crew -Wikipedia-

The main protection for any tank is usually its thick armour "its haul", were the armour is weakest is the back of the tanks followed by its sides.

Composite Armour: it consist of incorporating ceramics and plastics in a resin matrix between steel plates, which provided good protection against HEAT weapons.

Reactive Armour: it consists of small explosive-filled metal boxes that detonate when hit by the metallic jet projected by an exploding HEAT warhead, causing their metal plates to disrupt it.

Active protection system.

MOBILITY

The mobility of a tank is described by its battlefield or tactical mobility, its operational mobility, and its strategic mobility.

CREW

Most modern tanks most often have four crew members, or three if an auto-loader is installed. These are the:

Commander - The commander is responsible for commanding the tank, most often in conjunction with other tanks and supporting infantry. The commander is provided with all-round vision devices rather than the limited ones of the driver and gunner.

Driver - The driver drives the tank, and often also serves as the tank's day-to-day mechanic.

Gunner - The gunner is responsible for laying the gun.

Loader - The loader loads the gun, with a round appropriate to the target. In tanks with auto-loaders this position is omitted. -Wikipedia-

We should be aware of the marvel around us and also take notice of the advancement around us, we should also know that the word tank doesn’t only apply to the notion "tank" as in water tank.

 "The name was adapted by the British during the early stages of their development, as a security measure to conceal their 

Purpose -Wikipedia-”

PICTURE GALLERY

TANK OF THE FUTURE