MBTs have been an ever-present part of modern warfare for decades, holding strategic benefits and keeping crews safe. Still, not all tanks fulfill their developed purpose. Some of the tanks were liabilities on the battlefield. Here, take a look at some of the most known tanks, which were ever used in combat.
Designed to give the Red Army an edge in World War II, one of the worst conceptions in war machine design was that of the Soviet T-35. Even with five independent turrets and nearly 10 meters in length, the T-35 had underlying mechanical defects. Most of the T-35s that were lost during Operation Barbarossa were not lost to enemy fire but to mechanical failure and immobilization. Its slow speed, mixed with unreliable mechanics, made it ineffective.
The T-34 was a fearsome tank during its heyday in the Second World War, with its 76.2mm main gun, solid cross-country mobility, and enhanced armor protection. After eight decades, however, it is evident that North Korea’s T-34s are relics of a bygone era. Although some minor upgrades had been made to these antique MBTs, they would have little hope of surviving encounters with current-generation tanks, such as the American M1A2 Abrams.
The T-72’s rival and Iran’s defensive mainstay, the Sabalan, may boast a 125mm smoothbore gun. Even this could not mask the aged and antiquated nature of the MBT. Its current generation matchmaking would be extremely suspect against heavy hitters like the American M1A2 Abrams.
Iran upgraded the United States-made M47 Patton, known as the Sabalan, in 2014. The Patton was a very good tank when first introduced nearly sixty years ago but now is very antiquated. The Sabalan, even modernized, still would not pose much of an efficient threat to modern tanks in battle, similar to North Korea’s T-34s.
The British A38 Valiant was developed during World War II and did not go into mass production as the design did not ripen. However, this armor at 114mm would prove to be substantially better than those of comparable designs but had several other maladies. The Valiant hardly moved and was difficult to maneuver. During the test process, the driver had to stop it further as fatigue could no longer allow it to continue; hence the tank remained abandoned.
The Japanese Type 95 Ha-Go tank was the Japanese weapon in the Second Sino-Japanese War. At the time when they used it against American forces in the Pacific during World War II, it was already an antique. It topped out at an optimistic speed of only 28 miles per hour, and the 37mm gun provided inadequate punch to impress any target.
The T-72, however, is well ahead of the M1A1 Abrams, and still very much on the battlefield, particularly throughout the Middle East. Despite its poor performance during the Gulf War, it was still put into wide-scale usage due to its low cost and availability. Most third-world and second-world countries continue to use the T-72 due to their highly limited budgets.
The Type 59 tank, a cut-price version based on the Soviet T-54A, has become a very generic version of a tank used by most third-world armies. Though it may not possess highly sophisticated features like infrared vision systems or even main gun stabilizers, it remains among the popular options as it comes in at a cut price. However, the Type 59 is not at par with the modern ones, it yet helped many countries keep in an armored force of good size.
These prove a lesson that in armored warfare, one needs the finest, most reliable design, and it is through these that armored warfare has been given its proper importance in the world of military. Though some have found their niche because of the inexpensive price attached to it, still many shortcomings prove their innate weaknesses in military technology, which needs continuous innovation and upgrading.