Heavy Tanks
Heavy tanks continued to be developed and fielded along with medium tanks until the 1960s and 1970s, when the development of anti-tank guided missiles and powerful tank guns rendered them ineffective in their role. The combination of large HEAT warheads, with a long effective range relative to a tank gun, and with high accuracy meant that heavy tanks could no longer function in the stand-off, or overwatch role. Much cheaper antitank guided missiles could fill this role just as well. Medium tanks were just as vulnerable to the new missiles, but could be fielded in greater numbers and had higher battlefield mobility. Furthermore, the value of light tanks for scouting was diminished greatly by helicopters, although many light tanks continued to be fielded.
Read more about this topic: Tanks In The Cold War
Famous quotes containing the words heavy and/or tanks:
“Political liberty, the peace of a nation, and science itself are gifts for which Fate demands a heavy tax in blood!”
—Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)
“Today, almost forty years later, I grow dizzy when I recall that the number of manufactured tanks seems to have been more important to me than the vanished victims of racism.”
—Albert Speer (1905–1981)