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