An armoured fighting vehicle or armored fighting vehicle (AFV) is an armed combat vehicle protected by armour, generally combining operational mobility with offensive and defensive capabilities. AFVs can be wheeled or tracked. Examples of AFVs are tanks, armoured cars, assault guns, self-propelled artilleries, infantry fighting vehicles (IFV), and armoured personnel carriers (APC).
A military engineering vehicle is a vehicle built for construction work or for the transportation of combat engineers on the battlefield. These vehicles may be modified civilian equipment or purpose-built military vehicles. The first appearance of such vehicles coincided with the appearance of the first tanks, these vehicles were modified Mark V tanks for bridging and mine clearance. Modern military engineering vehicles are expected to fulfill numerous roles, as such they undertake numerous forms, examples of roles include; bulldozers, cranes, graders, excavators, dump trucks, breaching vehicles, bridging vehicles, military ferries, amphibious crossing vehicles, and combat engineer section carriers.
The Kampfpanzer Leopard 1 is a main battle tank designed by Porsche and manufactured by Krauss-Maffei in West Germany, first entering service in 1965. Developed in an era when HEAT warheads were thought to make conventional heavy armour of limited value, the Leopard design focused on effective firepower and mobility instead of heavy protection. It featured moderate armour, only effective against low caliber autocannons and heavy machine guns, giving it a high power-to-weight ratio. This, coupled with a modern suspension and drivetrain, gave the Leopard superior mobility and cross-country performance compared to most other main battle tanks of the era, only being rivaled by the French AMX-30 and Swedish Strv 103. The main armament of the Leopard consisted of a German license-built version of the British Royal Ordnance L7 105 mm rifled gun, one of the most effective and widespread tank guns of the era.
A beach armoured recovery vehicle (BARV) is an armoured recovery vehicle used for amphibious landings.
The M4 Sherman tank was produced in several variants, a result of mass production spread across several manufacturers and several years. It was also the basis for a number of related vehicles and Shermans have been modified by several nations, ranging from upgrades to complete hull conversions for another task. Originally designed in 1941, M4 variants were still used by Israel during the 1967 and 1973 wars with its Arab neighbors.
An artillery tractor, also referred to as a gun tractor, is a specialized heavy-duty form of tractor unit used to tow artillery pieces of varying weights and calibres. It may be wheeled, tracked, or half-tracked.
This article deals with Sherman tanks extensive use around the world after World War II and catalogues foreign post–World War II use and conversions of Sherman tanks and variants based on the Sherman chassis.
The United States provided tens of thousands of its Medium Tank M4, also named the Sherman, to many of its Allies during the Second World War, under the terms of Lend-Lease.
The M88 Recovery Vehicle is one of the largest armored recovery vehicles (ARV) in use by United States Armed Forces. There are three variants, the M88, the M88A1, and the M88A2 HERCULES. The M88 series has seen action in the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, the Iraq War, and the War in Afghanistan, and to a lesser extent during the Kosovo War, where they were deployed to help recover heavy armored vehicles of the Allied ground units. As of 2000, the M88A2 replacement cost was around US$2,050,000.
WZT was a Polish post-World War II armoured recovery vehicle series. It consists of five versions. The first two, WZT-1 and WZT-2 were built on T-55/T-55A hull, the WZT-3 was built on T-72M hull, the WZT-3M was built on PT-91 hull and the WZT-4 was built on PT-91M hull for Malaysia.
Vehicle recovery is a type of military operation conducted to extricate wheeled and tracked vehicles that have become immobile due to condition of the soil, nature of terrain in general, loss of traction due to an attempt to negotiate an obstacle, having broken down, or from sustaining non-combat or combat damage. Vehicles used in military operations can be hard to extricate from sand, snow, or mud.
The OF-40 is an Italian main battle tank developed as a joint venture between OTO Melara and Fiat, and intended primarily for export sales. OTO Melara would develop and produce the hulls, and automotive components would be provided by Fiat. Initial design work was started by OTO Melara in 1977, with the first prototypes ready by 1980.
The M74 tank recovery vehicle (M74) was an engineer vehicle used by the U.S. Army in the 1950s. It was designed to cope with the heavier weights of the M26 Pershing and M47 Patton. It could also be suitable for light dozing, since it had a hydraulic, front-mounted spade. More than 1000 were produced by Bowen-McLaughlin-York by converting M4A3 Sherman tanks starting in 1954. Later, some were converted from M32B1 ARVs by Rock Island Arsenal until 1958.
The Norinco Type 77 is a Chinese amphibious armoured personnel carrier. First fielded in 1978, it is similar to the Soviet BTR-50 in function. Like the BTR-50 designed by putting a higher hull on the PT-76 light tank chassis, Type 77 is based on the Type 63 light tank, which is itself a derivative of PT-76, making both vehicles very similar.
The M32 Armored Recovery Vehicle was an armored recovery vehicle (ARV) used during World War II and the Korean War by the United States, and was based on the chassis of the M4 Sherman medium tank. During World War II, the British also used several hundred M32s, which were obtained through Lend-Lease in 1944. The first four prototypes were produced in January 1943, labeled T5, T5E1, T5E2, T5E3, and T5E4. After a series of tests at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, the prototypes were approved as M32, M32E1, M32E2, M32E3, and M32E4. However, the M32E4 never entered production. There were also variants that had Horizontal Volute Spring Suspension (HVSS), which were demarcated by the suffix "A1" after the model number.
The Bergepanzer 2 is an armored recovery vehicle based on the Leopard 1 main battle tank, developed in the 1960s and manufactured by Atlas-MaK Maschinenbau for the West German army. It first entered service in 1966 and replaced the earlier Bergepanzer 1. Various versions have served in the armed forces of Germany and other countries. It was later succeeded by the Bergepanzer 3 "Büffel".
