Editing Gas turbine (section)

===Tanks===
[[File:AGT1500 engine and M1 tank.JPEG|thumb|Marines from 1st Tank Battalion load a [[Honeywell AGT1500]] multi-fuel turbine back into an M1 Abrams tank at Camp Coyote, Kuwait, February 2003]]

The Third Reich [[German Army (Wehrmacht)|''Wehrmacht Heer'']]'s development division, the [[Heereswaffenamt]] (Army Ordnance Board), studied a number of gas turbine engine designs for use in tanks starting in mid-1944. The first gas turbine engine design intended for use in armored fighting vehicle propulsion, the [[BMW 003]]-based [[GT 101]], was meant for installation in the [[Panther tank]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Kay |first=Antony L. |title=German jet engine and gas turbine development 1930 – 1945 |year=2002 |publisher=Airlife |isbn=9781840372946}}</ref>  Towards the end of the war, a [[Jagdtiger]] was fitted with one of the aforementioned gas turbines.<ref>{{cite web |last=Fletcher |first=David |url=https://tankmuseum.org/article/gas-turbine-jagdtiger |title=Gas Turbine Jagdtiger |publisher=tankmuseum.org |year=2017}}</ref>

The second use of a gas turbine in an armored fighting vehicle was in 1954 when a unit, PU2979, specifically developed for tanks by [[C. A. Parsons and Company]], was installed and trialed in a British [[Conqueror tank]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Ogorkiewicz |first=Richard M. |title=Technology of Tanks |url=https://archive.org/details/Janes_Technology_of_Tanks_01 |page=[https://archive.org/details/Janes_Technology_of_Tanks_01/page/n272 259] |year=1991 |publisher=Jane's Information Group |isbn=9780710605955}}</ref> The [[Stridsvagn 103]] was developed in the 1950s and was the first mass-produced main battle tank to use a turbine engine, the [[Boeing T50]]. Since then, gas turbine engines have been used as [[auxiliary power unit]]s in some tanks and as main powerplants in Soviet/Russian [[T-80]]s and U.S. [[M1 Abrams]] tanks, among others. They are lighter and smaller than [[diesel engine]]s at the same sustained power output but the models installed to date are less fuel efficient than the equivalent diesel, especially at idle, requiring more fuel to achieve the same combat range. Successive models of M1 have addressed this problem with battery packs or secondary generators to power the tank's systems while stationary, saving fuel by reducing the need to idle the main turbine. T-80s can mount three large external fuel drums to extend their range. Russia has stopped production of the T-80 in favor of the diesel-powered [[T-90]] (based on the [[T-72]]), while Ukraine has developed the diesel-powered T-80UD and T-84 with nearly the power of the gas-turbine tank. The French [[Leclerc tank]]'s diesel powerplant features the "Hyperbar" hybrid supercharging system, where the engine's turbocharger is completely replaced with a small gas turbine which also works as an assisted diesel exhaust turbocharger, enabling engine RPM-independent boost level control and a higher peak boost pressure to be reached (than with ordinary turbochargers). This system allows a smaller displacement and lighter engine to be used as the tank's power plant and effectively removes [[turbo lag]]. This special gas turbine/turbocharger can also work independently from the main engine as an ordinary APU.

A turbine is theoretically more reliable and easier to maintain than a piston engine since it has a simpler construction with fewer moving parts, but in practice, turbine parts experience a higher wear rate due to their higher working speeds. The turbine blades are highly sensitive to dust and fine sand so that in desert operations air filters have to be fitted and changed several times daily. An improperly fitted filter, or a bullet or shell fragment that punctures the filter, can damage the engine. Piston engines (especially if turbocharged) also need well-maintained filters, but they are more resilient if the filter does fail.

Like most modern diesel engines used in tanks, gas turbines are usually multi-fuel engines.