Having enjoyed Varyags polls so much I decided to post a tank one... Here is what I consider to be the top ten most important MBT's serving during the late 60's, I hope it is a balanced selection... 2 each from China, America, Britain, USSR and Western Europe. Also could someone move this poll to the Post WWII tanks forum... Unknown forces are preventing me from posting polls there
Unknown forces such as the Admin trying to prevent a wild outgrowth of polls by making sure people can't make them in all sections...
Lets hear some reasons... I voted for the T-64 over three close competitors, the Chieftain the Leopard 1 and the M-60 Patton... The T-64 has the largest calibre gun of all four tanks, a 125mm smoothbore with the capability of firing both AP SABOT rounds and ATGM's... I recall seeing on this forum a thread whereby Leopard-1's were tested firing at, and being fired upon with modern AT shells (I assume NATO 120mm which are comprable to soviet 125mm)... there were photos of both tanks after being fired upon... the Leopard-1 chassis was a whitened shell of burnt tank, completely unrecognisable, whereas the T-72 was peppered with dents and a few penetrations from 105mm rounds bouncing off, but it was still very much a tank (edit: here it is! thank you Jens Knudsen!... http://www.fun-online.sk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3160). I assume that since the M-60 uses the same 105mm calibre gun as the Leopard 1, and since the T-64 has superior protection to the T-72, that most 105mm weapons would be inferior in damage to larger caliber weapon of the T-64, and that the T-64 would be quite resistant to at least the Leopard 1... Basically the 105mm weapon does not appear (from those photos) to be sufficint to knock out a T-72 (or a T-64) without repeated fire... For this reason i eliminated the Leopard 1 and the M-60 Patton... Protection-wise I assume that the Chieftain is superior, perhaps the M-60 also, though perhaps not, the T-64 does have thicker armor than the M-60 and has ERA fittings, however that does not necessarily make it better protected... Even if it lacks the protection of the Chieftain the T-64 is generally considered to have been well-protected by the standards of 1969, and given its decisive speed and range advantages over both the Chieftain and M-60... I personally would prefer a faster, more mobile tank with adequate protection than a well armored tank which has slow speed (and an unreliable engine) like the Chieftain... Because it is more mobile than its competitors with more-than-adequate protection and a superior weapon to the Leopard 1 (which is slightly faster) I think the T-64 is the most balanced tank of the selection
I always thought the Leopard to be a first-class MBT. And handsome to boot. The dash-2 only confirmed that original opinion. Tim
If there was a big battle going on involving all those tanks I'd definately want to be in the Chieftain - despite its faults it was way ahead of the others in many ways and certainly the one to be in in a battle.
As a sort-of-but-not-quite-reply to Smeg... The Leopard 1 was designed with mobility as the top consideration. This left it relatively weak in armour and with 'only' the 105mm gun. The Centurian had pretty much reached the peak of its development, and was eclipsed by the Cheiftain. The M60 was better than the Centurian, but retained the 105mm gun. The Cheiftain was fantastic, heavy armour, big gun, equal mobility to the M60... if the engine stayed running. T-64 - I know little about. Most of my tank books date from during or just after the Cold War, and they are quite sketchy on fact for Soviet designs. They do all note that the T-64 was never used outside the USSR itself (which either means that it was bloody fantastic or an absolute turkey) and that the design was never evolved or improved upon (the T-72/T-80/etc all are descended from the T-62).
M60? As in the M60 from which the M60A3 was developed? So, I think the top 3 places are taken by these: 1st: Cheiftan. 2nd: M60 (but it's close) 3rd: Centurion or Leopard 1.
Actually I think that the T-64 had a heavy influence on the design of the T-80, but not the T-72 which was designed from scratch as an entirely new tank... The T-80 was actually built using alot of T-64 and T-72 components... Funny thing is the T-64 is a more capable tank than the T-72, despite being slightly older... The T-80 was designed with the same logic (make a more effective, but expensive supplement to the T-72), thus it resembles the T-64 more than the T-72, so the tank wasn't a technological dead-end... Centurion I included because it was such a good tank, it could compete with the newer T-55 and M-60... That and there were really no other British MBT's in service at the time except those two