Kings of Armor: The 5 best battle tanks in the world

Summary and key points you need to know: Compiling a list of the best modern main battle tanks is controversial, but five tanks stand out. Israel’s Merkava V is designed for high-intensity conflict with its advanced Trophy Active Protection System and day/night cameras.

– The Russian T-14 Armata features an innovative unmanned turret despite production problems.

-The T-90M Proryv features significant improvements in protection and firepower.

-The US M1A2 Abrams SEPv3 features advanced armor and electronics.

– The South Korean K2 Black Panther is considered one of the most modern tanks and features a unique suspension system and advanced target acquisition.

– Each tank reflects advances in technology and battlefield strategy.

The 5 best modern tanks: powerhouses of today’s battlefield

Any roundup of the “best” military equipment comes with a lot of controversy – as it’s difficult to define what makes something “better” than another platform. This is certainly true when compiling the list of the best tanks; after all, how can we fairly compare the British MkV tanks from WWI to a Panther from WWII or an M1 Abrams? Even comparing an original M1A1 to the current M1A2 SEPv3 hardly seems fair.

Maybe Wargaming’s online multiplayer simulation World of Tanks or the free-to-play from Gaijin Entertainment War Thunder might help settle arguments about what the very best tank is – but it’s worth remembering that players on the latter game’s forums have a history of leaking confidential details about certain platforms to support their arguments. If that doesn’t prove that we’ll never be able to agree on which tank is the best, then it certainly won’t.

For the sake of completeness, I would like to say that I believe the French-made Renault FT is absolutely the best tank ever built. It may be over a century old, but it was highly innovative for its time and pushed future development in a new direction. In other words, would we even be having this discussion if this light tank didn’t exist?

Nevertheless, five tanks are among the best “modern” main battle tanks (MBTs) in service today.

Israel’s Merkava V

The Merkava series of tanks have been in service with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) since the late 1970s and have been continuously modernized and improved. The latest version, which entered service last year, was recently deployed in Gaza.

Designed by General Israel Tal after the tank battles of the Yom Kippur War and a failed attempt to buy Chieftain tanks from Britain, the Merkava – which means “chariot” in Biblical Hebrew – ensured that the Middle East would no longer have to depend on foreign armored vehicles. The domestic tank program also aimed to create a platform that could compete with Soviet tanks used by many of Israel’s Arab rivals.

The platform has been continuously improved – and the latest version is the Merkava Mark V, also known by the Hebrew “Barak”, which means “lightning” in English. The Israeli Ministry of Defense has called it the “Fifth Generation Merkava Main Battle Tank”, although it took five years to develop. It was only delivered to the 52nd Tank Battalion of the 401st Brigade last year.

The Barak was developed jointly by the Israel Defense Ministry’s Armored Vehicles Division and the Israel Defense Forces’ Ground and Armored Forces, and includes systems from several Israeli defense companies, including Elbit Systems, Rafael and Israel Aerospace Industries’ subsidiary Elta, to name a few, the Times of Israel reported.

The Mk V is equipped with day/night cameras providing 360-degree visibility around the hull, as well as the Trophy Active Protection System (APS), designed to defend against the most modern anti-tank missiles, anti-tank grenades (RPGs), anti-tank rockets and high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) rounds. TROPHY creates a neutralisation bubble around the vehicle. It rapidly detects, classifies and engages all known chemical energy (CE) threats – including recoilless rifles, ATGMs, anti-tank missiles, HEAT tank rounds and RPGs.

Russia’s T-14 “Armata”

No list of the best modern tanks would be complete without the T-14 “Armata”, although the Kremlin apparently has so little confidence in this battle tank that it is not used at all in the fighting in Ukraine.

Developed by Uralvagonzavod, the T-14 was first demonstrated at the Victory Parade in Moscow on 9 May 2015. Among its much-vaunted features was its unmanned turret containing a remotely controlled 125 mm 2A82-1M smoothbore gun with a fully automatic loader. In addition, the driver, gunner and tank commander were housed in a crew compartment located in an armoured capsule in the front part of the hull, isolated from the automatic loader and ammunition storage in the middle of the tank. The Armata also featured a low silhouette designed to reduce exposure to enemy fire, thus improving the safety and survivability of the three-man crew.

It is an innovative design, but the Russian Army had originally planned to acquire up to 2,300 T-14s between 2015 and 2020. However, fewer than 50 have been produced to date. Cost remains an issue, and Russia simply does not have the funds to purchase the main battle tank in significant numbers.

Russia’s T-90M

It would also be difficult not to include the T-90M Proryv main battle tank in this list, as it received high praise from Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to Uralvagonzavod in February 2024.

“The T-90 is, without exaggeration, the best tank in the world. Our tankers and the enemy recognize it as the best in the world,” the Russian president announced.

The T-90M Proryv is the latest modernization variant of the Russian main battle tank, which first entered service in 1994. The upgraded T-90 tank has been significantly improved in terms of protection, mobility and firepower. According to several sources, the main battle tank was upgraded with a fundamentally new turret, different from the mass-produced combat module, and a more powerful 1,130 hp engine. However, the Proryv’s configuration is similar to previous T-90 models, with a driver’s compartment at the front, a turret in the middle of the hull and a power plant at the rear. It is powered by a 1000 mm 12-cylinder engine, which allows it to reach speeds of 60 km/h on the road and 50 km/h off-road.

The Proryv variant is armed with a 125 mm smoothbore gun of the 2A46M-4 type, which can fire both standard ammunition and anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) of the Refleks NATO code AT-11 Sniper-B type. Secondary armament includes a remotely controlled weapon station with a heavy 12.7 mm machine gun NSVT and a coaxial 7.62 mm machine gun PTKM.

According to Russian media reports, the tank’s new multi-channel sight allows the crew to use its weapons at any time of the day or night. In addition, the ability to exchange data with other combat vehicles in real time is one of the main advantages of the modernized tank.

The upgraded main battle tank is to be equipped with the new Relikt ERA (Explosive Reactive Armor) armor, which is installed on the front and on both sides of the turret. The T-90M was first tested during the Zapad-2017 military exercise in September 2017.

The US Army’s M1A2 Abrams SEPv3

When the M1 Abrams first entered service, Dallas was the must-see TV show, and Roland Reagan was just running for president. The MBT was actually developed in the days of disco and bell bottoms, and before most of today’s U.S. Army tank crews were even born.

On paper, the Abrams appears to be middle-aged and could soon be on welfare. To further reinforce this, we must remember that the Renault FT was developed only 62 years earlier and was considered completely obsolete long before 1980! So how could it be that a tank was built when Watergate was still fresh in the minds of many, the Soviet Union was still strong and we wouldn’t find out who shot JR until several months later?

Improvements!

The more than 2,500 Abrams in service with the U.S. military today are no longer the same vehicles that rolled off the assembly line nearly 45 years ago.

As Stavros Atlamazoglou wrote for The national interest“The M1A2 Abrams, manufactured by General Dynamics Land Systems, is one of the most modern main battle tanks in the world. After the M1 Abrams and the M1A1 Abrams, it is the third production variant of the main battle tank.”

The current M1A2 Abrams SEPv3 MBT is armed with the 120mm XM256 smoothbore gun, which can reliably and accurately hit targets more than 3,000 meters away. As secondary weapons, the tank has a coaxial 7.62 M240 machine gun and a 50-caliber M2 Browing heavy machine gun. It is powered by a gas turbine engine capable of producing 1,500 horsepower – and that engine can run on virtually anything that burns – allowing it to reach speeds of 42 miles per hour. It has an effective engagement range of approximately 270 miles.

The SEPv3 upgrade also included improved power generation and distribution, better communications and networking, a new Vehicle Health Management System (VHMS) and Line Replaceable Modules (LRMs) for improved maintenance, an Ammunition DataLink (ADL) for the use of airburst rounds, and an improved Anti-IED Armor Package. It was also equipped with a Next Generation Armor Package (NGAP) and an Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) under the armor to power the electronics when stationary instead of the engine, with the version visually distinguished by a small exhaust on the left rear. The turret fronts were fitted with improved passive ballistic protection as well as new mounts for explosive reactive armor (Abrams Reactive Armor Tile), while the turret sides were fitted with Trophy Active Protection systems.