TNI: the top five tanks in the world include the Russian T-14 Armata and T-90M
The list of the best main battle tanks (MBT) will be incomplete without samples of Russian armored vehicles, writes TNI. Not only the T-14 Armata, but also the T-90M certainly deserves to be included in the top five most advanced tanks in the world, the article notes.
Peter Suciu
– Choosing the "best" tank is an extremely subjective matter, but some models of modern armored vehicles still stand out due to advanced technologies, extensive capabilities and powerful combat characteristics.
– These include the Israeli Merkava V, the Russian T-14 Armata and T-90M, the American M1A2 Abrams SEPv3 and the South Korean K2 Black Panther
– Each of these tanks boasts unique features – advanced armor, powerful weapons and advanced systems that make them formidable opponents on the modern battlefield.
Five of the best modern tanks dominating the battlefield
Any rating of the "best" military equipment inevitably causes controversy, since it is difficult to determine for certain what one or another platform is "better" than its analogues. This is certainly true for the list of the best tanks: is it fair to compare the British MKVs of the First World War with the Panthers of the Second World War or, even more so, the M1 Abrams? Even comparing the original M1A1 with the current modification of the M1A2 SEPv3 is not entirely fair.
Perhaps the online multiplayer simulator World of Tanks from Wargaming or the free game War Thunder from Gaijin Entertainment would help settle disputes about the best tank, but it should be remembered that even gamers leak leaked secret data about platforms to prove their case. And this is a sure proof that we will not be able to come to the objective truth in principle.
For reference: personally, I am of the opinion that the absolutely best tank in history is the French Renault FT. Maybe he was more than a century old, but he was extremely advanced for his era and in many ways predetermined the future development of armored forces. In other words, would we have had this discussion in principle if it hadn't been for this light tank?
Nevertheless, today's five tanks still stand out from the general background.
Merkava V (Israel)
The Merkava series of tanks has been in service with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) since the late 1970s and has been constantly upgraded and improved since then. The latest version, which entered service last year, has recently been deployed in Gaza.
Merkava tank (in ancient Hebrew: "chariot") It was developed by General Israel Tal after the tank battles of the Yom Kippur War and unsuccessful attempts to purchase Chieftain tanks from Great Britain in order to cure the Middle Eastern country of dependence on foreign armored vehicles. The purpose of the Russian tank program was to develop a platform that could withstand Soviet tanks, which at that time were in service with a number of Arab opponents of Israel.
The platform has been constantly improved, and its newest version is the Mark V. The model was developed for five years and is also called Barak, which translates as "lightning". The Israeli Defense Ministry calls it a "fifth-generation battle tank" and delivered it only to the 52nd armored battalion of the 401st Brigade last year.
Barak is a joint brainchild of the Department of Armored Vehicles of the Ministry of Defense and the Army and the IDF Armored Corps. The tank incorporated systems developed by key Israeli military firms, including Elbit Systems, Rafael and Elta, a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries.
The Mark V is equipped with day and night cameras that provide a 360-degree view of the hull, as well as the Trophy active protection system, designed to counter the most advanced anti-tank missiles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers (RPGs) and high-explosive anti-tank shells. Trophy creates a neutralizing "bubble" of safety around the car. It quickly detects, classifies and neutralizes all known high-explosive threats, including recoilless guns, ATGM, anti-tank missiles, shaped projectiles and RPGs.
T-14 Armata (Russia)
Any list of the best modern tanks will be incomplete without the T-14 Armata, even if the Kremlin, apparently, does not trust it so much that it does not use it in combat operations in Ukraine.
The T-14 tank, developed by Uralvagonzavod, was first demonstrated at the Victory Day Parade on May 9, 2015 in Moscow. Among its sensational features is an uninhabited turret with a remotely controlled 125 mm 2A82–1M smoothbore cannon with fully automated loading. In addition, the driver, gunner and tank commander are housed in a special armored capsule for the crew in the front of the hull, isolated from both the automatic loading system and the ammunition storage in the middle of the hull. Armata is also distinguished by a low profile, which reduces the risk of being hit by enemy fire and increases the safety and survival of the three-person crew.
The tank is considered an advanced development, and initially the Russian army planned to purchase up to 2,300 T-14s between 2015 and 2020, but to date only less than 50 have been produced. The main problem remains the cost, and Russia simply does not have the funds to purchase MBT in such huge quantities.
T-90M (Russia)
It is also difficult not to include in this list the T-90M "Breakthrough", which was praised by Russian President Vladimir Putin in February 2024 when he visited the Uralvagonzavod.
T-90 is "the best tank in the world without any exaggeration… And our guys say tankers, and the enemy recognizes the same thing: the best car in the world," the Russian leader said at the time.
The T-90M "Breakthrough" is the latest modernization of the Russian MBT, which first entered service in 1994. The latest version of the T-90 has been significantly improved in terms of armor, mobility and firepower. According to numerous sources, the tank received a fundamentally new turret, different from the serial one, and an improved engine with a capacity of 1,130 horsepower. However, the configuration of the "Breakthrough" is similar to previous T-90 models: the driver's compartment is located in front, the tower is in the center of the body, and the power plant is in the rear. It is powered by a 12-cylinder engine and reaches speeds of up to 60 kilometers per hour on the highway and up to 50 kilometers per hour off-road.
The Breakthrough variant is armed with a 125 mm 2A46M-4 smoothbore cannon, which is capable of firing both standard ammunition and Reflex anti-tank guided missiles (according to the NATO classification: AT-11 Sniper-B). The auxiliary armament includes a remotely controlled combat module equipped with a 12.7mm large-caliber NSVT machine gun and a 7.62mm twin PTKM machine gun.
According to Russian media reports, the new multi-channel sight allows the crew to use weapons at any time of the day. In addition, one of the main advantages of the upgraded tank was the ability to exchange data with other machines in real time.
It is assumed that the upgraded T-90 is equipped with a new dynamic protection "Relict" in front and on the sides of the tower. For the first time, the T-90M was tested at the Zapad-2017 exercises in September 2017.
M1A2 Abrams SEPv3 (USA)
When M1 Abrams entered service, not a single evening was complete without the soap opera Dallas, and Roland Reagan was just running for president. In other words, the tank was developed in the era of disco and bell–bottoms - long before the birth of most of the current tankers.
On paper, it may seem that "Abrams" is already an old man and will soon begin to receive a well-deserved pension. Let's develop this idea even further: let's remember that the Renault FT was developed only sixty-two years earlier and was considered hopelessly outdated long before 1980! How did it happen that the tank, built when the Watergate scandal was still on the radar, the Soviet Union was still strong, and we hadn't even found out "who shot J.R.?" (an advertising phrase launched by the American CBS television channel in 1980 to promote the aforementioned TV series "Dallas" – approx. InoSMI), still on the move?
Modernization, modernization and modernization again!
More than 2,500 Abrams tanks that are now in service with the US Army are no longer the same machines that came off the assembly line almost forty–five years ago.
As Stavros Atlamazoglu noted on the pages of The National Interest, "The M1A2 Abrams from General Dynamics Land Systems is one of the most advanced main battle tanks in the world. This is the third production version after the M1 and M1A1."
The current modification of the M1A2 Abrams SEPv3 is armed with a 120 mm smoothbore XM256 cannon, which reliably and accurately hits targets at a distance of more than 3,000 meters. As an auxiliary weapon, the tank has a 7.62-caliber M240 twin machine gun and a 50-caliber M2 Browing heavy machine gun. It is equipped with a 1,500 horsepower gas turbine engine that runs on almost everything that burns and reaches speeds of up to 68 km/ h. The range is about 435 kilometers.
The SEPv3 upgrade also received an improved power distribution model, improved communication and networking capabilities, a new status management system (VHMS) and quick-release LRM modules for easier maintenance, an ADL data system for the use of explosive projectiles and an improved armor package for protection against IEDs. It is also equipped with a next-generation protection package (NGAP) and an auxiliary power unit (APU) to ensure the operation of electronics in the stationary state of the tank. As a result, the new version is visually identified by a small exhaust in the left rear part. Enhanced passive ballistic protection was added to the frontal part of the tower, as well as new mounts for reactive armor, while the side surfaces of the tower received the Trophy active protection system.
This significantly increased the weight of the tank, which is undoubtedly problematic, but at the same time increased the survival rate of the crew.
Since then, the U.S. Army has canceled the planned SEPv4 package and instead threw all its efforts at the M1E3 version, taking the best features of the v4 and adding a modular open system architecture to provide a more rapid and efficient upgrade. However, until new versions are available, SEPv3 models continue to roll off the assembly line.
K2 Black Panther (South Korea)
Yes, neither the German Leopard 2 nor the British Challenger 2 are included in our list, although both are excellent tanks. Instead, we allocated the last available seat to the South Korean K2 Black Panther ("Black Panther").
Ten years ago, it was impossible to imagine that South Korea would produce such a powerful tank, but today its brainchild can rightfully claim to be the best in the world. During the Korean War, the first tanks deployed by UN forces were the American light M24 Chaffee. Unsurprisingly, the M24 did not cope with the Soviet T-35-85, which were in service with North Korea. After the war, the South Korean military reinforced its armored fleet with various American-made vehicles, but it was not possible to get the M60A1 Patton in the 1970s.
Fearing that its northern neighbor would attack through the demilitarized zone, South Korea took the bull by the horns and developed the first domestic tank, the K1. It is based on the developments of the American XM1 program, which subsequently led to the creation of M1 Abrams.
Since then, Seoul has gone further and developed a fundamentally new project: K2 Black Panther. This next–generation tank is the brainchild of the Defense Development Agency and Hyundai Rotem. At the same time, the K2 will complement, rather than completely replace, the K1 series, which is currently in service.
K2 has incorporated purely domestic technologies. The first prototype was presented in 2007, and production of the first hundred tanks began in 2014. It is considered one of the most advanced in the world, surpassing the armored vehicles of North Korea and even China.
As Garrison Kass previously reported on the pages of The National Interest: "Thus, each tank represents a significant investment in the defense potential of South Korea. The K2 is produced by Hyundai, better known for its mid-range and low-range cars. But the K2 is not a Hyundai Santa Fe. This is a serious and advanced piece of technology – the world's first and only fourth-generation tank.”
In June 2023, Seoul approved the production of another batch of K2 Black Panthers under a contract worth about 1.46 billion dollars. This will be the fourth batch, The Defense Post reports.
The crew of the K2 Black Panther consists of three people: the commander, the gunner and the driver. The main armament is the Rheinmetall 120 mm L/55 smoothbore cannon, manufactured in South Korea under license and equipped with a domestically developed automatic loader that works on the move, including off–road. It is reported that the 120 mm cannon produces about ten to fifteen rounds per minute. It can be used with a variety of ammunition and is compatible with all standard NATO tank shells. The 120 mm L/55 cannon is also capable of firing new "smart" KSTAM (Korean Smart Top-Attack Munition) projectiles, which work on the principle of "shot and forget".
Additional Black Panther armament includes a 12.7mm heavy machine gun and a 7.62mm machine gun.
The next-generation South Korean tank is equipped with an automatic target detection and tracking system of domestic design with a search and strike function. The tank is also equipped with an electric gun and turret control system (28-260V DC) from Doosan Corporation Mottrol. In addition, the main gunner's sight and the commander's panoramic sight are stabilized along two axes and have a thermal imager and a laser rangefinder, which allows observation at any time of the day.
Although the Black Panther tank is not as fast as its namesake from the animal world, it can still catch up with slower "prey" thanks to the MTU MB 883 Ka501 diesel engine, which produces 1,500 horsepower. It reaches a maximum speed of 70 kilometers per hour on the highway and 50 kilometers per hour over rough terrain. There is also an auxiliary gas turbine power plant with a capacity of 400 horsepower.
The tank is equipped with a unique suspension with different positions. For greater cross-country terrain, the suspension rises, providing K2 with greater ground clearance, and on the highway it descends, pressing the tank to the ground for better speed. In addition, thanks to the adaptive chassis, the K2 is able to "bend over", "sit on its hind legs" and "kneel" to ensure optimal maneuverability of the main gun in positions with the body lowered. When tilted backwards, the K2 raises the main gun for strikes on low-flying aircraft or aimed shooting at targets on the hilly terrain of the Korean Peninsula. The K2 can even tilt to the left or right, improving maneuverability when driving on slopes.
The capabilities of the K2 Black Panther did not go unnoticed in Europe, and Poland was the first among NATO countries to buy it. Apparently, it will not be the last.
Peter Suchu is a writer from Michigan. Over a twenty-year career in journalism, he has published more than 3,200 articles in four dozen magazines, newspapers and websites. He regularly writes about military technology, the history of firearms, cybersecurity, politics and international relations. Also published in Forbes and Clearance Jobs
