What Is The Best Tank In The World?

"What is / was the best tank in the world" is a commonly asked question, especially when pertaining to modern main battle tanks. So, which is it? The T-14 Armata? The Leopard 2? M1 Abrams? Challenger 2? Well, I think the true answer is a little more nuanced than that. In fact, I'm not sure it's an answer you can find at all, most certainly not by comparing stats like armor thickness, armor penetration, power to weight ratio, etc.

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Halo 3: ODST - More Than His Share
Halo: CE - Under Cover of Night
Halo 3 - Another Walk
Halo 3: ODST - Rain (Deference for Darkness)

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#tanks #tankhistory #warthunder

[mukn]

Why industrial water tanks are the best tanks.
1) provides enough water to keep a whole entire battalion away from dehydration.
2) little to no people shoot at it.
3) amazing view from up top to see enemies clearly
4) Very useful all around different climates.
5) Can be easily built, and less expensive

[krco]

Same as Chieftain said.. There is no best tank in the world, but there can be and most of time is best tank for the country and its doctrine and specifics...

[ironraccoon]

Exactly. This applies to all sorts of military gear. Say, for instance, the Sten submachine gun of WW2, basically a pipe with a trigger and magazine. Not well sealed and horribly unergonomic.
Sounds bad right? Except for the fact that Britain had a critical shortage of subguns at the start of the war and needed something that could be cranked out in numbers quickly.
So considering its origins, role and objectives, it did fantastically well.

Same with camouflage. There's no "best camouflage" because different countries have different terrain and different tactics.

[VKK-cruk]

We can't tell which tank is the best when they can't destroy each other with HEATFS

[NotNicot]

The best tank in the world is obviously the Bob Semple, closely followed by the Tonk

[marpso]

RedEffect viewers know that Arjun is the best tank

[schmit]

Wait, you’re telling me that nations design their tanks based on doctrine, the nations needs, and not purely on a basis to one up the other dude? That’s heretical

[Gurowho]

It’s not about the tank. It’s about how it’s controlled.

[ayylmao]

As people like The Chieftain and PotentialHistory have said; there is no single best tank, each country has their best for their needs.
The T-34 was brilliant for the Soviets. Fast to both produce and good firepower armour speed but poor crew survivability
The M4 was the all rounder needed for the multiple fronts and environments the US fought in alongside leasing some to allies. Whilst not having a gun as effective in tank destroying as say a long 75mm that the panther had
The Panther had excellent firepower and good armour, brilliant from a perspective of combat but had problems with weight and stress on machinery.
The Ha-Go or Chi-Ha were excellent for their time and purpose of infantry support on small pacific islands where maneuverability and fast transport was essential

[Axiom]

Bob Semple, tonk, tog 2, su100y

The harbingers of the apocalypse

[KageRyuu]

Best tank in the world is the one you have when and where you need it, especially if the enemy doesn't have one of their own.

[the_victorious_]

Hit the nail on the head pretty well!

It it just me or are there more people screaming about the Abrams being the best tank ever than any other? I know there's the Wheraboos and their big cats but I seem to see more M1 fans than anything else, boasting like they're playing over inflated top trumps and disregarding everything mentioned in this video...

Personally I'm not too keen on the Abrams, to me it seems to be a bit too much for modern warfare (in my humble opinion as someone who has never fought in war, just read a lot about it) and I'd suggest a supplementary force of lighter, smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles for lower intensity fighting against weaker enemies / insurgents in difficult to reach places so that the Abramses (?) aren't required for everything and overstretched across too many places. Something like an up-armoured Stryker MGS with composites or ERA, the Kaplan MT, or even a modernised M60 would do IMO, I just think that the over complicated M1 is overkill as America often fights in far flung places across the globe, and it might ease the stress of logistics if such a vehicle were used in places that either don't require a modern MBT, or which don't have the infrastructure to support them. For the kind of thing I'm getting at, check Matsimus' video on the Kaplan MT; as he explains it better than me.

Personally, my favourite tank is the Maus; I know it's stupidly impractical and should never have been designed but I still love it as a technological marvel!

Hope someone finds this interesting, and discussion is welcomed!

[roadhouse]

It's clearly the King Tiger, which, using the collective enthusiasm of Wehraboos from around the world, could easily defeat any number of 2A6s, M1A2s, or T-14s while the crew has a loudspeaker blaring "Erika" or "Ghost Division".

[nonamespore]

Honestly, you probably could figure out the best tank in the world, but doing so would require so much information on so many different aspects that actually making an argument for it would be next to impossible.

Not only do you need to take into account general aspects like firepower, armor, optics, ammunition, range, fuel efficiency, fuel sources, speed, maneuverability, and crew survivability, you do also have to take into account mechanical reliability, cost, cross-terrain performance, and operability in different environments and types of landscapes, and them somehow balance all these traits against each other to figure out what is, on average, the best tank. Take away cost and you get what would ideally be the best in a 1v1.

Oh, and how well it would do in a defensive and offensive role.

[TacticalOkuu]

There is no "best tank" overall but there are factors that make specific tanks, or any vehicle in general, the best suited for their use.

Russian tanks since the T-34 have had a focus on offense, with lacking gun depression, tight spaces, low profile, and all of the protection in he form of pure armor that while being designed to take hits, if a hit actually gets inside it's messy.

NATO tanks have been conceptualized as a defensive force with strong armor and good protection and survivability, and an emphasis mainly on the armor of the turret since these machines are designed to excel when hull down. But also boasting high mobility to reposition or retreat.

US is an exception where the Abrams was made to fight both offensively and defensively, as well as a big chunk of its design focus wasn't just Europe, but defending the US homeland as well, meaning it was designed to fight in most of the environment the US has where tanks are strategically useful.

Tanks like the K2 Black Panther or Type 10 are very special cases, a common thing they get labelled as is being extremely advanced, however both are extremely optimized to fight to defend those two countries and strictly nowhere else. The K2 is marveled by many to be one of the best modern MBTs in the world, however, while it's design may give off the impression, it is not optimized to fight anywhere that isn't Korea and maybe the surrounding Asian region, wheras the Type 10 "Hito-Maru" was designed solely to fight in Japan and strictly nowhere else. Its use of nano-crystal ceramic armor isn't an impressive ting either, it's just a material commonly used on light armored vehicles and utilized by the Type 10 to keep it light enough to deploy widely in Japan, but the armor is only around the stats of the Type 90 and the armor is only really good at doing that while making it lighter.

TL:DR Tanks are not universally "the best" but some tanks, even ones classed as "inferior", will excel more than others in the right given circumstances.

[SlimyMcTee]

I hope you make a video about the "best" tank purely based on stats, have same crew with same skill, perfect combat environment (flat plane etc), and only the tank present (no suporting vehicles, no helis etc) just like you said on the video. It would be really interesting to see your analysis tho.

[radioactiverat]

"There is no best tank"

This imo stands out like a sore thumb, and I'm honestly surprised others share this idea. It is not a cop out answer.

I highly recommend watching Potential History on his video about the topic of the best tank of WW2. More or less he hints this very concept, that there wasn't a perfect tank and instead were Armoured vehicles that suited the needs of the countries that built them.

There are objectively good and bad tanks, however, when the topic of the "Best" tank comes up, I think the factors and context means a lot.

[hklassehutten]

We all know Bob Semple is best
Second is Tonk

[TUNNELRATS]

I came expecting muh freebrams or T90 Supreme but was pleasantly surprised by your argument

[indyjons]

The best take in the world is the one that sees the enemy first.