ive been curious how some are better than others, even if they kinda look the same to me.
not sure if the flair should be engineering, sorry in advance
In: Engineering
Improvements in engines and transmission strength enabled a lot of the improvements
The two main gauges of effectiveness of a tank are the strength/thickness of the armor, and the penetrating power of the main gun. Putting more armor on the tank makes it heavier which means you need a stronger engine and transmission to get it moving at a decent speed. Putting a better(aka heavier) gun on a tank makes it heavier as well. If you want your tank to move at a reasonable speed then you’re going to have limits set on it based on what engines you can make.
Old tanks during WW2 were improved by giving them a better gun or by adding more armor to the front face to better deal with the new enemy guns, but this often resulted in slower tanks and lots of breakdowns.
Modern tanks have special ceramic armor that is super durable, long 105mm or 120mm cannons that shoot depleted uranium arrows at high speed, and weigh in at 50-70 tons versus the 20-40 tons of WW2 era tanks. This extra weight is used by the high power guns and lots of fancy armor, but it requires large diesels or turbines that make 1500 HP instead of 300-500 HP of olden days.
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