The M1917, the United States’ first mass-produced tank, was based on the French Renault.Īlso celebrating a 100th birthday this year is retired Brig. Pershing saw the immediate value and need for tanks as part of his forces engaged in combat.Ĭelebrating a 100th birthday this year is the United States Tank Corps, which used tanks supplied by France and Great Britain during World War I.Īmerica’s first tank, the M1917, had just started production when WWI came to an end.
John Pershing served as the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces sent to the fight by President Woodrow Wilson. Tanks in WWI were developed simultaneously by England and France as a means to break the deadlock of trench warfare.įor those interested in history, Little Willie can be seen in the tank museum in Bovington, England, along with the M4 Sherman tank nicknamed “Fury” used by Brad Pitt in the move of the same name.Īmerica entered WWI in April 1917 in support of England and France with no tanks in our formations. The British Army claim the first tank-like vehicle ever produced, nicknamed Little Willie, in 1915. AUSA Volunteer Family of the Year Award.Letters to Congress & the Administration.Update: this article was accidentally edited to imply that infantry tanks typically had less effective armor. And while everything seems to be twice as big, the performance gains are often exponentially better: the main gun of the Challenger may be twice as wide in diameter but's many, many times more effective. The Challenger is superior in every way, from speed to cross-country performance. The difference between the two tanks in the video is huge. The Challenger 2 in the video has an extra layer of reactive armor on the side of the turret and hull, and cage-like " slat armor" surrounding the rear engine compartment-two upgrades that came about as a result of experience in the Iraq War. Armored protection is classified but is known to use so-called "Chobham armor", a mixture of ceramic and metal composites also used in earlier versions of the M1 Abrams tank. It speeds along at up to 37 miles an hour, more than twice as fast as the Churchill, and has more than double the horsepower to weight ratio.Ĭhallenger 2 is armed with a 120-millimeter rifled anti-tank gun and, like the Churchill, it has two smaller 7.62-millimeter machine guns for engaging infantry, anti-tank missile crews, and light vehicles. At 27 feet long and 65 tons, it's more than fifty percent heavier than its ancestor the Churchill.
The Challenger 2 tank, which came into service in 1998, is the standard main battle tank of the British Army.
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