The Swedish Königstiger

Kingdom of Sweden (1947-1951) Heavy Tank – 1 Tested Not many tanks in history have achieved the legendary status of the Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf.B or ‘Königstiger’. Despite all the research on this tank, not many know that after the war, several nations, among them Sweden, acquired examples to evaluate and test. The Swedish Mission During World …

Škoda Š-I-j

Czechoslovakia/Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1938) Tankette – 1 Built As the Yugoslav Royal Army was in a search of new armored equipment, the Czechoslovak Škoda company was more than willing to offer its armored vehicles products. During the thirties, a few tankettes were presented to the Yugoslav Royal Army but performed poorly on testing so a …

NM-116 Panserjager

Kingdom of Norway (1975-1993) Light Tank/Tank Destroyer – 72 Converted After the Second World War, as part of the United States-led Military Aid Program (MAP), Norway received around 130 M24 Chaffee light tanks to help rebuild its military. In the early years of the Cold War, the Norwegian Military (Forsvaret, Eng: “The Defence”) was happy …

Stridsvagn 74

Kingdom of Sweden (1953-1984) Medium Tank – 225 Built After the Second World War, Sweden was in urgent need of modern tanks. Their current medium tank, the strv m/42, was horribly outdated, being armed with a short-barreled 75 mm gun. The Swedish military was certainly impressed by French AMX-13’s and considered buying them, but eventually …

Progetto M35 Mod. 46 (Fake Tank)

Italian Republic (1946) Medium Tank – Fake The popular online game World of Tanks (WoT) published and developed by Wargaming (WG) has many tens of thousands of players and a wide variety of historical and semi-historical armored vehicles to play. It also has a few ‘fake’ tanks as well, that is, tanks that never existed …

AMX-US (AMX-13 Avec Tourelle Chaffee)

France (1957) Improvised Light Tank – 150 Built In 1956, the French Army and the Direction des Etudes et Fabrications d’Armements (Directorate of Studies and Manufacture of Armaments, DEFA, an institution within the French Military) were looking into affordable methods of modernizing their fleet of aging M24 Chaffee light tanks. One method was to somehow …

Panzerkampfwagen Panther With 8.8 cm Gun Design Proposals

German Reich (1944-1945) Medium Tank – Project Only By 1944, the fate of the Großdeutsches Reich (English: ´Greater German Reich´), more colloquially known as Nazi Germany, started becoming clearer and it was certainly not in the favor of the Germans. However, the German nation was not ready to surrender. As a result, the Panzerkampfwagen V …

SMK

Soviet Union (1939) Heavy Tank – 1 Prototype Built The More Turrets, the Merrier? Right from the very beginning of the development of the tank concept, the idea that tanks could have multiple turrets to do multiple tasks at the same time was one that was very popular. Japan, Germany, the USA, and Poland all …

AEV 3 Kodiak

Federal Republic of Germany/Switzerland/Kingdom of the Netherlands (2002) Armored Engineering Vehicle – 43 Built + 44 On Order The AEV 3, nicknamed ‘Kodiak’, is an armored engineering vehicle currently in service with four armies in modest numbers. The vehicle, being based on the Leopard 2 MBT chassis, offers a high level of protection, combined with …

Eland Armoured Car

Republic of South Africa (1962) Armored Car – 1,600 Built “Eland” The African Antelope The Eland armored car, more affectionately known by its nickname, “Noddy Car”, (with reference to the popular Noddy in the Toyland TV program of the time) takes its Afrikaans name from the African Eland, the largest antelope in the world. Similar …

Light Tank M3A1/A3 Stuart in Yugoslav Service

105mm Gun Tank M1 Abrams ‘Improved Performance’ (M1IP)

United States of America (1984-2000) Main Battle Tank – 890 Built The Improved Performance M1, often referred to as IPM1 or M1IP, was a stopgap before the introduction of the M1A1 upgraded standard. It was intended to implement some of the features being added on the M1E1 prototype and rush it into a production Abrams …

Type 58 and T-34-85 in Chinese Service

People’s Republic of China (1950-~1990) Medium Tank – 1800+ Supplied (T-34-85), Unknown Number Converted (‘Type 58’) The Chinese Upgrade of the T-34-85 ‘Type 58’ is an unofficial name which refers to the mysterious Chinese upgrade package to the T-34-85. All T-34-85s in operational service with the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) came to the People’s Republic …

Škoda T-25

German Reich/Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (1942) Medium Tank – Blueprints Only Prior to the German occupation of Czech lands, the Škoda works was one of the largest weapon manufacturers in the world, famous for its artillery and later its armored vehicles. In the early 1930s, Škoda became involved in designing and building tankettes, followed …

Panzerkampfwagen Panther Ausf.F (Sd.Kfz.171)

German Reich (1945) Medium Tank – Small Number of Unfinished Hulls and Turrets. At Least One F/G Hybrid. As early as 1943, the Germans sought to design a new turret for the Panzerkampfwagen V Panther (Sd.Kfz.171). The Rheinmetall-designed turret that the Panther was equipped with was considered to be an inefficient design with various flaws. …

Lincoln No. 1 Machine

United Kingdom (1915) Prototype – 1 Built The First World War was supposed to end quickly. Most of the high-ranking officials of the participating countries expected and planned for a short war, in which they would quickly crush their enemies and win glory and territories for their nations. However, after the German defeat at the …

Leichte Flakpanzer IV 3 cm ‘Kugelblitz’

German Reich (1944-1945) Self Propelled Anti-Aircraft Gun – 2-5 Built As the German Luftwaffe (German Air Force) lost control over the skies of Germany in the second half of the Second World War; it could no longer provide sufficient protection against Allied aircraft. Panzer divisions were especially affected by the lack of cover from fighter …

OF 40 Mk.2 Main Battle Tank

Italian Republic (1982) Main Battle Tank – 18 Built + 18 Converted The Italian firms of OTO-Melara and FIAT had worked together and developed the OF 40 (OTO-FIAT 40 tonne) main battle tank. However, they classed it unusually as a ‘medium battle tank’, one of “nearly unlimited cross-country mobility” to quote the sales literature. The …

Modelo Trubia Serie A

Kingdom of Spain/Second Spanish Republic/Nationalist Spain (1926-1937) Light Tank – 4 Built Spain has mainly depended on foreign technology for its tank forces but there have always been enthusiastic engineers, military commanders, and policy-makers who have wanted to break the mold and create indigenous designs. The first of these initiatives would take place in 1925 …

NASA M113 Armored Rescuer

United States of America/NASA (1960s-2015) Rescue Vehicle – 4 Operated From the days of the Mercury space program, the means of evacuating astronauts from a burning or otherwise compromised rocket vexed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, better known just as ‘NASA’. The problem was to get the astronauts from the rocket and to safety …