armoured fighting vehicle

development of armoured vehicles

• 
  In armoured vehicle

  …tank is the principal fighting armoured vehicle. Other types armed with large-calibre main guns include tank destroyers and assault guns. This article traces the development of armoured personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, and other armoured vehicles designed primarily as platforms for assault troops.

  Read More
• 
  In armoured vehicle: Infantry fighting vehicles

  The French AMX-VCI of 1958 represented the first attempt to produce a true infantry fighting vehicle (IFV)—that is, a tracked armoured carrier from which infantry could fight effectively. A further step in this direction was taken by the West German army with…

  Read More
• 
  In tank: Earliest developments

  …basic elements of the modern armoured fighting vehicle, it remained only to adopt tracks as an alternative to wheels. This became inevitable with the appearance of the tracked agricultural tractor, but there was no incentive for this until after the outbreak of World War I. A tracked armoured vehicle was…

  Read More
• 
  In tank: Earliest developments

  …of the 20th century that armoured fighting vehicles began to take practical form. By then the basis for them had become available with the appearance of the traction engine and the automobile. Thus, the first self-propelled armoured vehicle was built in 1900 in England when John Fowler & Company armoured…

  Read More
• 
  In tactics: Continued growth of military technology

  …gave way in turn to armoured fighting vehicles, from which troops could fight without dismounting and some of which were almost as heavy and expensive as tanks. In the rear services, horse-drawn vehicles, which in both the Soviet and German armies had still been in the majority until 1945, disappeared…

  Read More