Armoured Vehicles

Armored vehicles fall into four main classes: MBT (Main Battle Tank, ~50–70 tons), IFV (Infantry Fighting Vehicle, ~25–45 tons, infantry + 25–35 mm autocannon), APC (Armored Personnel Carrier, lighter, 15–25 tons, machine gun), and MRAP / light tactical 4×4 (5–15 tons, blast-resistant V-hull against IEDs/mines). Each has its own core technologies. MBT armor today combines three layers: passive composite (RHA — rolled homogeneous armor — maximized through interleaved ceramic tiles and titanium laminate, as in Chobham and Burlington packages); reactive (ERA — Explosive Reactive Armor, "tiles" on the armor that explode when a HEAT warhead strikes, disrupting the penetrating jet; Russian Kontakt-5, Relikt; Israeli Blazer; Western "AVePS"); and active (APS — Active Protection System, like the Israeli Trophy or the Russian Arena/Afghanit, which detect anti-tank missiles in flight and destroy them with counter-projectiles). The Trophy system on the Leopard 2A8, M1A2 SEPv4, and Israeli Merkava IV has proven itself against Kornet, RPG-29, and even some Javelin attacks. Firepower is largely standardized on Western 120 mm smoothbore (Rheinmetall Rh-120 L/55 or L/55A1 in Leopard, Abrams, K2; M10 Booker with 105 mm) and Russian 125 mm smoothbore (T-72/90/14 with the 2A46 series). Munitions include APFSDS (Armor-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot — depleted-uranium or tungsten rod at Mach 5+), HEAT-MP, ATGMs fired from the cannon (Russian 9M119 Refleks via 125 mm) and programmable HE-TP. Fire control runs through a stabilized gun, stabilized thermal sight (commander + gunner independent in modern MBTs for "hunter-killer" mode), laser rangefinder, ballistic computer, and crosswind sensor. Mobility comes from diesel engines (1,500 hp MTU MB873 in the Leopard, AVDS-1790 in the Abrams M1A2 — replaced by the Rolls-Royce CV12 in the latest variants; Chinese WD396 in the VT-4) or gas turbine (AGT-1500 in the Abrams — sensitive to sand erosion). The Russian T-90 has a V-92S2F diesel; the modern 152 mm 2S35 Koalitsiya-SV on a T-90 chassis. For tracked APCs (Bradley, Puma, BMP-3, K21), tracks are standard; for wheeled IFVs (Stryker, Boxer, Patria AMV), 8×8 modular trucks with run-flat tires are the norm.