Late Cold War

West Germany · MBT

A deliberate bet on mobility and firepower over armour, on the assumption that no plate could stop a modern HEAT warhead.

Gun105 mm Royal Ordnance L7A3

United Kingdom · MBT

The best-armed and best-protected NATO tank of its generation, let down for years by a troublesome engine.

Gun120 mm L11A5 rifled

Soviet Union · MBT

A compact, autoloaded, heavily exported main battle tank that remains the most widely used MBT in the world.

Gun125 mm 2A46 smoothbore with carousel autoloader

United States · MBT

Composite armour, a gas turbine and a thermal-sighted fire-control system made it the benchmark Western tank of the 1990s.

Gun105 mm M68 (M1), 120 mm M256 smoothbore (M1A1 onward)

West Germany · MBT

Germany's answer to the same problem as the Abrams, with a diesel engine and the 120 mm smoothbore that armed most of NATO.

Gun120 mm Rheinmetall L/44, L/55 from 2A6

United States · MBT

America's first true main battle tank, holding the NATO line for two decades before the Abrams arrived.

Gun105 mm M68

France · MBT

France's light, fast main battle tank, built around firepower and mobility rather than armour.

Gun105 mm CN-105-F1

Soviet Union · MBT

The technological leap: composite armour, an autoloader and a three-man crew, years ahead of NATO.

Gun125 mm 2A46 smoothbore with autoloader

Soviet Union · MBT

The gas-turbine Soviet tank: blisteringly fast, thirsty and expensive.

Gun125 mm 2A46 smoothbore with autoloader

Italy · MBT

Italy's private-venture export tank, built on Leopard 1 experience and sold almost entirely to the UAE.

Gun105 mm OTO Melara rifled

Sweden · MBT

The turretless tank that aimed by tilting its own hull - Sweden's answer to defending forests with three men and an autoloader.

Gun105 mm L74 fixed, autoloaded

Israel · MBT

Israel's own tank, designed around crew survival: engine in front, rear door, and a hull shaped by hard lessons from 1973.

Gun105 mm M68 rifled

Poland · Medium

Poland's own answer to an ageing T-55 fleet: a fire-control, armour and mobility package developed at home rather than bought from Moscow, fielded from 1986.

Gun100 mm D-10T2S

Poland · MBT

The export-standard T-72 built under licence at Labedy from 1982, later upgraded by Poland itself as the "Jaguar" and PT-91 programmes.

Gun125 mm 2A46 smoothbore with autoloader

Poland · MBT

Poland's deeply reworked T-72, fielded in 1995. Included as the end point of the Cold War Polish line rather than as a Cold War service vehicle in its own right.

Gun125 mm 2A46MS smoothbore with autoloader

Soviet Union · Medium

The tank that introduced the smoothbore gun and fin-stabilised ammunition to the world's armies, and the Soviet mainstay between the T-55 and the T-72.

Gun115 mm U-5TS smoothbore - the first smoothbore tank gun in service

United States · Light

An aluminium-hulled airborne reconnaissance vehicle firing both shells and guided missiles from one short 152 mm barrel - ambitious, troubled, and the last US light tank.

Gun152 mm M81 gun-launcher firing conventional rounds and Shillelagh missiles

United Kingdom · Light

The aluminium-hulled Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) that gave British recce regiments speed, air-portability and a 76 mm gun - and fought in the Falklands.

Gun76 mm L23A1

United Kingdom · MBT

A privately developed export main battle tank: the Centurion's excellent 105 mm gun in a lighter, cheaper hull, sold to India and Kuwait and built in India as the Vijayanta.

Gun105 mm L7A1

India · MBT

India's first indigenously manufactured tank, a licence-built Vickers MBT whose name means "victorious", fielded in time for the 1971 war.

Gun105 mm L7A1 (Indian-built)

Japan · MBT

Japan's second postwar tank, using hydropneumatic adjustable suspension so it could sit low, lean into slopes and fight in Japan's steep terrain.

Gun105 mm L7 (Japanese-built)

China · MBT

China's first tank developed without Soviet help, drawing on a T-62 captured in 1969 and sold in huge numbers across the Middle East and Africa.

Gun100 mm smoothbore on the Type 69; 100 mm rifled on the Type 69-II; 105 mm on the Type 79

China · MBT

The first Chinese tank to leave the T-54 lineage behind, with six road wheels, torsion-bar suspension, a turbocharged engine and Western-derived fire control.

Gun105 mm rifled, licensed from the L7

Israel · MBT

The British Centurion rebuilt by Israel with an American diesel engine and transmission - the tank that held the Golan Heights in 1973.

Gun105 mm L7 (Israeli M68)

Israel · MBT

Israel's rebuilt American Pattons: M48s and M60s re-engined, re-gunned and progressively re-armoured, and the most numerous Israeli tank of the 1973 and 1982 wars.

Gun105 mm M68 (Israeli-built L7)

Israel · Medium

Captured Egyptian and Syrian T-54s, T-55s and T-62s rebuilt with Israeli guns, radios and stowage and turned against their former owners.

Gun105 mm M68 replacing the Soviet 100 mm or 115 mm

United Kingdom · MBT

The first tank in service with Chobham composite armour, and the tank that fought the most one-sided armoured engagements of the 1991 Gulf War.

Gun120 mm L11A5 rifled

Yugoslavia · MBT

Yugoslavia's licensed T-72 with domestic fire control and a more powerful engine, and later a tank fought on several sides of the wars that broke the country apart.

Gun125 mm 2A46 smoothbore with autoloader

Romania · MBT

Romania's own development of the T-55 line, with six road wheels, a German-derived diesel and distinctive side skirts - the most heavily rebuilt T-55 derivative of the Warsaw Pact.

Gun100 mm A308 rifled

Argentina · Medium

A German-designed medium tank built for Argentina's soft pampas and weak bridges, where a 50-tonne main battle tank simply could not operate.

Gun105 mm FTK rifled, derived from the Royal Ordnance L7

Brazil · MBT

Prototypes only. A Brazilian-designed main battle tank that performed well in Saudi desert trials, then died with its manufacturer.

Gun105 mm L7 in the P1 prototype; 120 mm GIAT smoothbore in the P2

South Korea · MBT

South Korea's first domestically produced main battle tank, designed with American help and fitted with hybrid suspension for firing positions in Korea's hills.

Gun105 mm KM68A1 rifled; 120 mm smoothbore on the later K1A1

Soviet Union · MBT

The Soviet T-55 brought up to 1980s standard with composite brow armour, a laser rangefinder and a gun-launched missile.

Gun1 x 100 mm D-10T2S, Bastion guided round capable

Soviet Union · Tank Destroyer

The Soviet divisional 122 mm self-propelled howitzer: amphibious, fully enclosed and built in enormous numbers.

Gun1 x 122 mm 2A18 howitzer

Soviet Union · Tank Destroyer

The Soviet army-level 152 mm self-propelled howitzer, the answer to the American M109.

Gun1 x 152 mm 2A33 howitzer

Soviet Union · Light

The first true infantry fighting vehicle: amphibious, gun and missile armed, with firing ports for its eight passengers. Not a tank.

Gun1 x 73 mm 2A28 Grom low-pressure gun

West Germany · Light

The West German answer to the BMP: heavier, better protected and far more expensive - and it kept its crews alive. Not a tank.

Gun1 x 20 mm Rheinmetall Mk 20 Rh202 autocannon

United Kingdom · Light

The Scorpion with a 30 mm RARDEN cannon instead of a 76 mm gun - British reconnaissance from the Cold War to Afghanistan.

Gun1 x 30 mm L21 RARDEN cannon

Sweden · MBT

Sweden final Centurion rebuild: a 1945 design given a diesel engine, laser rangefinder and applique armour and kept in service to the 2000s.

Gun1 x 105 mm L7 (Swedish designation kan strv 104)

China · MBT

The Chinese break from cast Soviet-style turrets: welded composite armour, a computerised fire-control system and later a 125 mm autoloader.

Gun1 x 105 mm rifled, later 125 mm smoothbore with autoloader

Austria · Tank Destroyer

An Austrian light tank destroyer: a French oscillating turret with a 105 mm gun and autoloader on a home-built chassis.

Gun1 x 105 mm CN-105-57 in an oscillating turret with autoloader

Soviet Union · Light

Radar-directed self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, not a tank; the most widely used vehicle of its kind ever built.

GunFour 23 mm AZP-23 automatic cannon

Soviet Union · Light

Infantry fighting vehicle, not a tank: the BMP-1's successor, rearmed with a stabilised 30 mm autocannon in a two-man turret.

Gun30 mm 2A42 autocannon

Soviet Union · Light

Airborne infantry fighting vehicle, not a tank: the first parachute-droppable tracked fighting vehicle in any army.

Gun73 mm 2A28 Grom

Soviet Union · Light

Prototype only. An amphibious light tank meant to replace the PT-76, dropped when missile-armed vehicles took over the scouting role.

Gun85 mm D-58

Russia · MBT

Accepted in 1992, just after the Soviet collapse: the end-of-era successor to the T-72, and the tank that carried Soviet design practice into the Russian army.

Gun125 mm 2A46M smoothbore with autoloader

China · MBT

The first Chinese tank with a Western-derived 105 mm gun and a laser rangefinder fire control system, developed from the Type 69 during the brief warming of relations with the West.

Gun105 mm rifled gun (Royal Ordnance L7 derivative)

China · MBT

The production development of the Type 80, with a welded turret, computerised fire control and the six-roadwheel torsion-bar chassis that underpins all later Chinese tanks.

Gun105 mm rifled gun, later 105 mm with improved ammunition

Japan · MBT

Japan's first third-generation main battle tank: a compact, autoloaded 120 mm design with a three-man crew, built for the defence of Hokkaido.

Gun120 mm Rheinmetall L44 smoothbore, licence-built by Japan Steel Works

Japan · Tank Destroyer

A twin 35 mm anti-aircraft vehicle on the Type 74 tank chassis, with search and tracking radars on the turret roof. Known in service as the "Guntank".

GunTwo 35 mm Oerlikon KDA autocannon

North Korea · MBT

North Korea's locally built development of the Soviet T-62, produced in a long series of progressively modified marks and the backbone of the Korean People's Army armoured force.

Gun115 mm U-5TS smoothbore, 125 mm on the latest marks

Taiwan · MBT

A Taiwanese composite tank marrying the M48A3 turret and hull to the M60A3 chassis and the M1 Abrams digital fire control system.

Gun105 mm M68 rifled gun