Editing Armoured fighting vehicle (section)

=== Tank ===
{{Further|Tank classification|Tank gun}}
The [[tank]] is an all terrain AFV incorporating artillery which is designed to fill almost all battlefield roles and to engage enemy forces by the use of [[direct fire]] in the frontal assault role. Though several configurations have been tried, particularly in the early experimental "golden days" of tank development, a standard, mature design configuration has since emerged to a generally accepted pattern. This features a main [[tank gun]] or [[artillery|artillery gun]], mounted in a fully rotating [[gun turret|turret]] atop a tracked automotive hull, with various additional secondary weapon systems throughout.

Philosophically, the tank is, by its very nature, an offensive weapon. Being a protective encasement with at least one gun position, it is essentially a [[Pillbox (military)|pillbox]] or small [[fortress]] (though these are static fortifications of a purely defensive nature) that can move toward the enemy – hence its offensive utility. Psychologically, the tank is a [[force multiplier]] that has a positive morale effect on the infantry it accompanies.<ref name="morale effect">{{cite book|title=Ground Warfare: An International Encyclopedia, Volume 1|year=2002|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=1-57607-344-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L_xxOM85bD8C&q=%22main+battle+tank%22|author=Stanley Sandler|access-date=5 April 2011|page=59}}</ref> It also instills fear in the opposing force who can often hear and even feel their arrival.<ref name="McNab Gulf War">{{cite book|title=Tools of violence: guns, tanks and dirty bombs|year=2008|publisher=Osprey Publishing|first1=Chris|last1=McNab|first2=Hunter|last2=Keeter|isbn=978-1846032257|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/toolsofviolenceg0000mcna}}</ref>

==== Tank classifications ====
Tanks were classified either by size or by role.
<gallery mode="packed">
File:Ripsaw M5.webp|alt=Ripsaw Ground Combat Vehicle|[[Ripsaw (vehicle)|Ripsaw M5]] [[Unmanned ground vehicle|unmanned]] [[light tank]]
File:PanzerIISaumur.jpg|A WWII [[Nazi Germany|German]] [[Panzer II]] light tank
File:T-34-76 RB8.JPG|Soviet-made Polish [[T-34]] medium tank Model 1942 in [[Poznań]], Poland. The model 1942's hexagonal turret distinguishes it from earlier models.
File:T29 Heavy Tank.png|[[United States|American]] [[T29 Heavy Tank|T29]] Heavy Tank
</gallery>

Classification by relative size was common, as this also tended to influence the tanks' role.
* [[Light tank]]s are smaller tanks with thinner armour and lower-powered guns, allowing for better tactical mobility and ease of strategic transport. These are intended for [[armoured reconnaissance]], [[skirmishing]], [[artillery observer|artillery observation]], [[expeditionary warfare]] and supplementing [[Landing operation|airborne or naval landings]]. Light tanks are typically cheaper to build and maintain, but fare poorly against heavier tanks. They may be held in reserve for exploiting any breakthroughs in enemy lines, with the goal of disrupting communications and supply lines.
* [[Medium tank]]s are mid-sized tanks with adequate armour and guns, and fair mobility, allowing for a balance of fighting abilities, mobility, cost-effectiveness, and transportability. Medium tanks are effective in groups when used against enemy tanks.
* [[Heavy tank]]s are larger tanks with thick armour and more powerful guns, but less mobile and more difficult to transport. They were intended to be more than a match for typical enemy medium tanks, easily penetrating their armour while being much less susceptible to their attacks. Heavy tanks cost more to both build and maintain, and their heavy armour proved most effective when deployed in support infantry assaulting entrenched fortifications.

Over time, tanks tended to be designed with heavier armour and weapons, increasing the weight of all tanks, so these classifications are relative to the average for the nation's tanks for any given period. An older tank design might be reclassified over time, such as a tank being first deployed as a medium tank, but in later years relegated to light tank roles.

Tanks were also classified by roles that were independent of size, such as [[cavalry tank]], [[cruiser tank]], [[BT tank|fast tank]], [[infantry tank]], "assault" tank, or "breakthrough" tank. Military theorists initially tended to assign tanks to traditional military infantry, cavalry, and artillery roles, but later developed more specialized roles unique to tanks.

In modern use, the heavy tank has fallen out of favour, being supplanted by more heavily armed and armoured descendant of the medium tanks – the universal [[main battle tank]]. The light tank has, in many armies, lost favour to cheaper, faster, lighter [[Armoured car (military)|armoured cars]]; however, light tanks (or similar vehicles with other names) are still in service with a number of forces as [[reconnaissance vehicle]]s, most notably the [[Naval Infantry (Russia)|Russian Marines]] with the [[PT-76]], the [[British Army]] with the [[FV107 Scimitar|Scimitar]], and the [[Chinese Army]] with the [[Type 63 (tank)|Type 63]].
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==== Main battle tank ====

<gallery mode="packed">
File:Karelian_Lock_23_(7827362).jpg| [[US|United States]] third-generation [[M1 Abrams]] tank
File:2013_Moscow_Victory_Day_Parade_(28).jpg| [[Russia|Russian]] [[T-90]] main battle tank with [[2A46]] smoothbore gun
File:Leopard_2A6,_PzBtl_104.jpg| Modern [[Germany]] [[Leopard 2]] main battle tank
File:ZTZ-99A_MBT_20170902.jpg| [[China|Chinese]] [[Type 99 tank|Type 99]] main battle tank
</gallery>

{{Main|Main battle tank}}
Modern [[Main battle tank#Main battle tank (late twentieth century)|main battle tanks]] or "universal tanks" incorporate recent advances in automotive, artillery, armour, and electronic technology to combine the best characteristics of the historic medium and heavy tanks into a single, all-around type. They are also the most expensive to mass-produce. A main battle tank is distinguished by its high level of firepower, mobility and armour protection relative to other vehicles of its era. It can cross comparatively rough terrain at high speeds, but its heavy dependency on fuel, maintenance, and ammunition makes it [[Military logistics|logistically]] demanding. It has the heaviest [[Vehicle armour|armour]] of any AFVs on the battlefield, and carries a powerful [[precision-guided munition]] weapon systems that may be able to engage a wide variety of both ground targets and air targets. Despite significant advances in [[anti-tank warfare]], it still remains the most versatile and fearsome land-based weapon-systems of the 21st-century, valued for its [[Shock tactics|shock action]] and high [[survivability]].
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==== Tankette ====
{{Main|Tankette}}
[[File:Carden-Loyd Two-Man Tankette, 1926. KID235.jpg|right|thumb|The [[Carden-Loyd tankette]] concept was adopted by many armies]]
[[File:W2 argus.tif|thumb|[[Wiesel 2]] ''Argus'' scout tankette]]
A tankette is a tracked armed and armoured vehicle<ref>{{cite report |url=http://www.tedescos.com/Pages/VJ/monograph2.pdf |title=The Revolution After Next: Making Vertical Envelopment by Operationally Significant Mobile Protected Forces a Reality in the First Decade of the 21st Century |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120213100806/http://www.tedescos.com/Pages/VJ/monograph2.pdf |archive-date=13 February 2012 |last=Tedesco |first=Vincent J. |publisher= [[United States Army School of Advanced Military Studies]], United States Army Command and General Staff College]] |location=[[Fort Leavenworth]], United States |date=2000 |page=15}}</ref> resembling a small "ultra-light tank" or "super-light tank" roughly the size of a car, mainly intended for light infantry support or [[reconnaissance|scouting]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z23JjCBkSykC&q=tankette&pg=PA84 |title=Iron Arm: The Mechanization of Mussolini's Army, 1920–1940 |last=Sweet |first=John Joseph Timothy |publisher=[[Stackpole Books]] |date=2007 |page=84 |isbn=9780811733519}}</ref> Tankettes were introduced in the mid-1920s as a reconnaissance vehicle and a mobile machine gun position They were one or two-man vehicles armed with a machine gun. Colloquially it may also simply mean a "small tank".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/War_Slang |quote=tankette. |title=War Slang: American Fighting Words and Phrases Since the Civil War |last=Dickson |first=Paul |publisher=Brassey's |date=2004 |page=[https://archive.org/details/War_Slang/page/n234 221] |isbn=9781574887105}}</ref>

Tankettes were designed and built by several nations between the 1920s and 1940s following the British [[Carden Loyd tankette]] which was a successful implementation of "one man tank" ideas from [[Giffard Le Quesne Martel]], a British Army engineer. They were very popular with smaller countries. Some saw some combat (with limited success) in World War II. However, the vulnerability of their light armour eventually caused the concept to be abandoned. However, the [[German Army]] uses a modern design of air-transportable armoured weapons carriers, the [[Wiesel AWC]], which resembles the concept of a tankette.

==== ''Super''-heavy tank ====
{{Main|Super-heavy tank}}
The term "super-heavy tank" has been used to describe armoured fighting vehicles of extreme size, generally over 75 tonnes. Programs have been initiated on several occasions with the aim of creating an invincible [[siege engine|siegeworks]]/[[Breakthrough (military)|breakthrough]] vehicle for penetrating enemy formations and fortifications without fear of being destroyed in combat. Examples were designed in World War I and World War II (such as the [[Panzer VIII Maus]]), along with a few in the [[Cold War]]. However, few working prototypes were built and there is no clear evidence any of these vehicles saw combat, as their immense size would have made most designs impractical.
<gallery mode="packed">
File:TOG II.jpg|[[United Kingdom|British]] [[TOG II]]
File:Metro-maus1.jpg|[[Nazi Germany|German]] [[Panzer VIII Maus]]
</gallery>
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==== Missile tank ====
[[File:IT-1 missile tank.jpg|200px|thumb|Soviet [[IT-1]], [[Kubinka Tank Museum]]]]
A [[missile tank]] is a tank fulfilling the role of a main battle tank, but using only [[Anti-tank missile|anti-tank]] [[surface-to-surface missile]]s for main armament.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}} Several nations have experimented with prototypes, notably the Soviet Union during the tenure of Nikita Khrushchev (projects Object 167, Object 137Ml, Object 155Ml, Object 287, Object 775),
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==== Flame tank ====
[[File:Churchill Crocodile 01.jpg|thumb|right|British [[Churchill Crocodile]] flame tank]]
{{Main|Flame tank}}
A '''flame tank''' is an otherwise-standard [[tank]] equipped with a [[flamethrower]], most commonly used to supplement [[combined arms]] attacks against [[fortification]]s, confined spaces, or other obstacles. The type only reached significant use in the [[Second World War]], during which the United States, [[Soviet Union]], [[Nazi Germany|Germany]], [[Kingdom of Italy|Italy]], [[Empire of Japan|Japan]] and the United Kingdom (including members of the [[Commonwealth of Nations|British Commonwealth]]) all produced flamethrower-equipped tanks. Usually, the flame projector replaced one of the tank's machineguns, however, some flame projectors replaced the tank's main gun. Fuel for the flame weapon was generally carried inside the tank, although a few designs mounted the fuel externally, such as the armoured trailer used on the [[Churchill Crocodile]].

Flame tanks have been superseded by [[thermobaric weapon]]s such as the Russian [[TOS-1]].
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==== Infantry tank ====
[[File:MatildaII.jpg|thumb|A British [[Matilda II|Matilda tank]] displaying a captured [[Kingdom of Italy|Italian]] flag]]
{{Main|Infantry tank}}
The idea for this tank was developed during World War I by British and French. The [[infantry]] tank was designed to work in concert with infantry in the assault, moving mostly at a walking pace, and carrying heavy armour to survive defensive fire. Its main purpose was to suppress enemy fire, crush obstacles such as barbed-wire entanglements, and protect the infantry on their advance into and through enemy lines by giving mobile [[overwatch (military tactic)|overwatch]] and [[Suppressive fire|cover]]. The French [[Renault FT]] was the first iteration of this concept.

The British and French retained the concept between the wars and into the Second World War era. Because infantry tanks did not need to be fast, they could carry heavy armour. One of the best-known infantry tanks was the [[Matilda II]] of World War II. Other examples include the French [[Renault R35|R-35]], the British [[Valentine Tank|Valentine]], and the British [[Churchill Tank|Churchill]].

==== Cruiser tank ====
[[File:IWM-E-17616-Crusader-19421002.jpg|thumb|2 pdr-armed [[Crusader tank]] in the desert]]
{{Main|Cruiser tank}}
A cruiser tank, or cavalry tank, was designed to move fast and exploit penetrations of the enemy front. The idea originated in "[[Plan 1919]]", a British plan to break the trench deadlock of [[World War I]] in part via the use of high-speed tanks. The first cruiser tank was the British [[Medium Mark A Whippet|Whippet]].

Between the wars, this concept was implemented in the "fast tanks" pioneered by [[J. Walter Christie]]. These led to the Soviet [[BT Tank|BT tank series]] and the British [[Cruiser tank|cruiser tank series]].

During [[World War II]], British cruiser tanks were designed to complement [[infantry tank]]s, exploiting gains made by the latter to attack and disrupt the enemy rear areas. In order to give them the required speed, cruiser designs sacrificed armour and armament compared to the infantry tanks. Pure British cruisers were generally replaced by more capable medium tanks such as the [[Sherman Tank|US Sherman]] and, to a lesser extent, the [[Cromwell tank|Cromwell]] by 1943.

The Soviet fast tank (''bistrokhodniy tank'', or [[BT tank]]) classification also came out of the infantry/cavalry concept of armoured warfare and formed the basis for the British cruisers after 1936. The T-34 was a development of this line of tanks as well, though their armament, armour, and all-round capability places them firmly in the medium tank category.
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