Over the past years, warfare has become one of the top priorities of nations, Tanks have played an important role in ground battles, many developments have been made in this field with time, but these are the very best of the tanks ever designed and made their way to battlefields. They can be easily called the top ten tanks of the world.
No.10. M-4 Sherman (US)
M-4 Sherman was first developed in 1942, with top speed upto 24 mph and a missile range of 100 miles. It has a power-to-weight ratio of 15.8 horsepower per ton with its radial nine-cylinder engine. The armor thickness is 62 millimeters and the primary armament used is a 75 mm high-velocity gun.
Even though the Sherman lacks very much in firepower and armor, but its efficient and reliable engine was the main reason of its success, increasing its mobility as compared to tanks of its time. Another important reason that helped Sherman grab a spot in the top ten list was its ease in manufacturing. Around 48,000 of Sherman were produced in just over 3 years, thus helping Sherman reaching the tenth spot in the world’s top ten tanks.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fKrjMMQkLE[/youtube]
No.9. Merkava (Israel)
The first ever Merkava was produced in 1977. It had a top speed of 34 mph and a range of 310 miles. It was powered by the Teledyne turbo-charged diesel engine, which gives it a power to weight ratio of 14.28 horsepower per ton. The primary armament was a 120-mm gun and the armor thickness was kept classified.
Even with a below average score in mobility, Israel’s Merkava had the maximum possible score in protection category, it’s armor was never faulted and is said that it can’t be faulted. But with all the armor on it, it’s weight-to-power ratio suffers quite a blow. Due to its complex and expensive production, Merkava was never produced in a large number. But it’s effectiveness in the battlefield because of solid firepower it produced ensure its spot on the ninth place in the top ten list.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk-tUdJPET0[/youtube]
No. 8: T-54/55 (USSR)
T-54T55 was first produced back in 1948. It had a top speed of 30 mph and a range of 250 miles. The tank had a V-12 water-cooled diesel engine which gave a power-to-weight ratio of 14.44 horsepower per ton. It had armor thickness of 203 millimeters and the primary armament used was a 100-mm D10T gun.
Even T5455 didn’t score much for firepower, mobility or protection but its production rate is what got it in the top ten list. A total of 95,000 T5455 were manufactured. Even though T5455 was always ranked below average for fear factor but the reason this tank is ranked at eight spot was because of the vast number of production.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c54m92SRH8w[/youtube]
No.7: Challenger (UK)
The very first challenger that touched the grounds of UK was back in 1982 powered with a Condor V-12 engine that gave it a power-to-weight ratio of 19.2 horsepower per ton. It had a top speed of 37 mph and a range of 340 miles. Its armor thickness still is kept classified and the primary armament used in it was a 120-mm rifled gun.
Challenger had world class armor without a doubt, and the 120-mm gun gave it the maximum of firepower as well. The results were record breaking but it didn’t give much output in terms of mobility and the production rate was low as well. In a word, they were impressive but not enough in number to make a mark over the enemy.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYzaxW6zh3U[/youtube]
