Armoured warfare in modern warfare is understood to be the use of armoured fighting vehicles as a central component of the methods of war.

First World War and Interwar

Modern armoured warfare began with the development of the tank during the First World War.

Following the First World War, the technical and doctrinal aspects of armoured warfare become more sophisticated and diverged into multiple schools.

Self-propelled artillery, anti-tank, and anti-air vehicles were first developed during the interwar period.

Second World War

Arab-Israeli wars

Both sides in this series of conflicts have made heavy use of tanks and other armoured vehicles. Up until the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israeli armoured units typically had the advantage, mainly due to good tactics and unit cohesion. In 1973, Israel failed to understand the importance of the introduction of anti-tank guided missiles. Hundreds of AT-3 Sagger man-portable anti-tank missiles supplied to the Egyptians by the USSR inflicted heavy losses on Israeli tanks. Since then, ATGMs have played an important role with Israeli forces too. They are some of the leaders in the development of missile-based "tank destroyers". Interestingly, when an Israeli infantry unit moved up to engage the anti-tank missiliers, they were able to easily defeat them - strong evidence that tanks operating on their own have some severe weaknesses.

NATO and Warsaw Pact

During the Cold War, NATO and the Warsaw Pact assumed armoured warfare to be a dominant aspect of conventional ground warfare in Europe.

Infantry fighting vehicles were first developed in the 1960s with the Soviet Union's BMP-1.

Rotary-wing aircraft were built and theorised as "flying tanks."

Contemporary tank tactics

Tanks rarely work alone; the usual minimum unit size is a platoon (or troop) of four to five tanks. The tanks of the platoon work together providing mutual support: two might advance while covered by the others then stop and provide cover for the remainder to move ahead.

Normally, multiple platoons would coordinate with mechanised infantry and utilise their mobility and firepower to penetrate weak-points in enemy lines. This is where the powerful engines, tracks and turrets come into play. The possible turret rotation of a full 360 degrees allows for coordinated movement within and between platoons, while defending against attacks from multiple directions and engaging troops and vehicles without stopping or slowing down. When defensive, they would wait in prepared positions or use any natural terrain elements (such as small hills) for cover. A tank sitting just behind a hill crest ("hull down") exposes only the top of its turret, with the gun and sensors, to the enemy - providing the smallest possible target while allowing it to engage almost anything on the other side of the hill. Tanks are usually able to depress the main gun below the horizontal since KE rounds have fairly flat trajectories. Without this they would be unable to exploit such positions. However upon cresting the hill, the tank will expose its underside to enemy weapons.

Without tanks and infantry working together, problems can arise. During the Yom Kippur War, Israeli tanks operating alone in large numbers were decimated by Egyptian infantry with anti-tank guided missiles. When Israeli infantry were brought in to help the tanks, the tables were turned and the Egyptian units were neutralised with almost no losses to the Israeli troops. This is an extreme example but exemplifies what has been fairly thoroughly documented since the second World War: tanks and infantry work best by taking advantage of each other's strengths and combining to minimise the weaknesses. In many conflicts, it was usual to see infantry riding on the back of tanks, ready to jump off and provide support when necessary. Unfortunately, the design of many modern tanks makes this a dangerous practice. The M1 Abrams, for example, has such hot exhaust gas that nearby infantry have to be careful where they stand. Tanks can also be very vulnerable to well aimed artillery; well-coordinated air support and counter-battery artillery units can help overcome this.

The deposition of armour around a tank is not uniform; the front is better armoured than the sides or rear. Accordingly, normal practice is to keep the front towards the enemy at all times, the tank retreats by reversing instead of turning around. Driving backwards away from an enemy is even safer than driving forwards towards them since driving forwards over a bump can throw the front of the tank up in the air, exposing the thin armour of the underside and taking the gun off the target due to its limited angle of depression.

The tracks, wheels and suspension of a tank are outside the armoured hull and are most the vulnerable spots. The easiest way to disable a tank (other than a direct hit in a vulnerable area with a full-power anti-tank weapon) is to target the tracks for a "mobility kill". Once a tank is disabled it is easier to destroy. This is why side-skirts are an important feature; they can deflect heavy machine-gun bullets and trigger the detonation of HEAT rounds before they strike the running gear. Other vulnerable parts of a typical tank include the engine deck (with air intakes, radiators, etc.) and the turret ring, where the turret joins the hull.

When used defensively tanks are often sunk into trenches or placed behind earth berms for increased protection. The tanks can fire off a few shots from their defensive position, then retreat (reversing) to another prepared position further back and drive behind the berms or into the trenches there. These positions can be constructed by the tank crews, but preparations are better and quicker if carried out by combat engineers with bulldozers. Overhead protection, even if it is fairly thin, can also be very useful since it can help pre-detonate artillery shells and avoid direct hits from above which can be deadly to tanks striking them at their thinnest armour. In short, tank crews find as many ways as possible to augment the armour on their vehicles.

Tanks usually go into battle with a round in the gun, ready to fire, to minimise reaction time when encountering an enemy. The US doctrine calls for this round to be a kinetic energy round, as the reaction time is most important when meeting enemy tanks, to get the first shot (and possibly the first kill). If troops or light vehicles are encountered, the usual response is to fire this round at them, despite it not being ideal - it is difficult and time-consuming to remove a round which is already in the breech. In this case, after the KE round is fired, a HEAT round would normally be loaded next to continue the engagement.

Tanks can be decisive in city fighting, with the ability to demolish walls and fire medium and heavy machine guns in several directions simultaneously. However, tanks are especially vulnerable in urban combat. It's much easier for enemy infantry to sneak up behind a tank or fire at its sides, where it is most vulnerable. In addition, firing down from multi-story buildings allows shots at the soft upper turret armour and even basic weapons like molotov cocktails, if aimed at the engine air intakes, can disable a tank. Because of these limitations, tanks are difficult to use in city conflicts where civilians or friendly forces might be nearby, since their firepower can't be used effectively.

Airborne threats

Tanks and other armoured vehicles are vulnerable to attack from the air for several reasons. One is that they are easily detectable - the metal they are made of shows up well on radar, and is especially obvious if they are moving in formation. A moving tank also products a lot of heat, noise and dust. The heat makes seeing them on a forward-looking infra-red system easy and the dust is a good visual clue during the day. The other major reason is that most armoured vehicles have thinner armour on the roof of the turret and on the engine deck, so an anti-tank guided missile from an attack helicopter or ground-attack jet) hitting them from the top can be deadly even if it has a small warhead. Even machine guns and small automatic cannon are powerful enough to penetrate the rear and top sections of the engine compartment of a tank.

A number of helicopter gunships have been designed mainly to engage enemy armoured vehicles. The AH-64 Apache, Westland Lynx and Mi-24 Hind are examples.

This problem has several solutions. Once is air supremacy. This is what the United States relies on most, which is demonstrated by their distinct lack of effective short-range, mobile air defence vehicles to accompany armoured units. Most other countries accompany their armoured forces with highly mobile self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, short and medium-range surface-to-air missile systems, or both (sometimes on the same chassis).

Further reading