Tanks of the Soviet Union

The Soviets also spent tens of millions of dollars on U.S. equipment and technology to modernise dozens of automotive and tractor factories, which would later produce tanks and armoured vehicles.

Joseph Stalin's enthusiasm for industrialisation and mechanisation drove an aggressive military development program, resulting in by far the largest and broadest tank inventory of all nations by the late 1930s.

In spring 1930, the Soviet buying committee, under the direction of Semyon Ginzburg, had arrived in Great Britain to select tanks, tractors and cars to be used in the Red Army.

Compared with the British original, the hull was larger, the running gear was improved and the weapon mount was modified to take a Soviet-built 7.62 mm DT machine gun.

Those early models were developed into prototypes by Carden-Loyd Tractors, Ltd., which attracted the attention of the Department of Motorization and Mechanization of the RKKA (UMMRKKA), because the small tank suited well to the new armament policies of the Red Army, as well as possibly being able to replace the older T-27 tankette.

The Soviet–Japanese border conflicts (1935-1939) over the border in Manchuria gave the Soviets a chance to employ tactics with their armoured forces which were to prove useful in the coming war, when General Georgy Zhukov deployed approximately 50,000 Soviet and Mongolian troops of the 57th Special Corps to hold the center of the line on the east bank of the Battle of Khalkhyn Gol, then crossed the river on with BT-7 tanks and armoured units, massed artillery, and air cover.

Despite that, T-40 with thicker armor and TNSh cannon, unable to float, was produced along the T-60 in smaller numbers for more smooth conveyor belt transition, this tank was also named as T-60, but is often referred to as "T-40" T-60 to avoid confusion.

In June 1941, within weeks of the German invasion of the USSR, the first British aid convoy set off along the dangerous Arctic sea route to Murmansk, arriving in September.

The Sherman was largely held in good regard and viewed positively by many Soviet tank-crews which operated it before, with compliments mainly given to its reliability, ease of maintenance, generally good firepower (referring especially to the 76mm-gun version) and decent armour protection,[39] as well as an auxiliary-power unit (APU) to keep the tank's batteries charged without having to run the main engine for the same purpose as the Soviets' own T-34 tank required.

Countering the initial combat imbalance, the UN Command reinforcement materiel included heavier US M4 Sherman, M26 Pershing, M46 Patton, and British Cromwell and Centurion tanks that proved effective against North Korean armour, ending its battlefield dominance.

The defenders fought back with M72 LAWs (Light Anti-Tank weapons/66 mm), and requested support from nearby Khe Sanh, who were unable to help, as they too, were under siege.

[52] This conventional invasion (the largest offensive operation since 300,000 Chinese volunteers had crossed the Yalu River into North Korea during the Korean War) was led by armoured forces.

Two PAVN divisions (the 304th and 308th - approximately 30,000 troops) supported by more than 100 tanks (in two regiments) rolled over the Demilitarized Zone to attack I Corps, the five northernmost provinces of South Vietnam.

The PAVN advance was followed by antiaircraft units armed with new ZSU-57-2 tracked weapon platforms and man-portable, shoulder-fired Grail missiles, which made low-level bombing attacks against the columns of tanks hazardous.

At the war's end, Israel had seized the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria.

The coalition of Arab states and Egypt and Syria lost 2,300[71] tanks destroyed or captured The Soviet–Afghan War started on December 27, 1979, when 700 Soviet troops dressed in Afghan uniforms, including KGB and GRU special force officers from the Alpha Group and Zenith Group, occupied major governmental, military and media buildings in Kabul, including the Tajbeg Presidential Palace.

The Soviet Zenith Group destroyed Kabul's communications hub, paralyzing Afghan military command and the assault on Tajbeg Palace began; as planned, president Hafizullah Amin was killed.

According to the Soviet Politburo they were complying with the 1978 Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Good Neighborliness and Amin had been "executed by a tribunal for his crimes" by the Afghan Revolutionary Central Committee.

[79] The air raids destroyed many tanks and support vehicles and prevented the majority of the Iraqi troops deployed for the offensive from taking part in it, allowing Saudi and Quatari forces to retake the city.

Other 2nd ACR Troops, I- ("Iron"), K- ("Killer"), and G- ("Ghost"), joined the fighting at 73 Easting and engaged several waves of Iraqi T-72 and T-55 tanks advancing directly into G-Troop.

The British responded decisively with MLRS fire, cannon artillery, and air strikes and destroyed 40 enemy tanks and captured an Iraqi division commander.

[87] The last operational Asad Babils were destroyed by the successive waves of American armored incursions on the Iraqi capital[88] or abandoned by their crews after the fall of Baghdad, several of them without firing a single shot, after the collapse of the regime.

Russia initially denied its command and control over "separatist militias" in Ukraine significantly manned by Russian volunteers and soldiers, supplying them with Ukrainian-built T-64 tanks captured in Crimea and from its own Soviet-era stocks, as well as T-72.

The following were among the aid delivered or committed to Ukraine:[89] Meanwhile Russia increased its military production, producing some new T-90M, refurbishing many old T-90, T-80, and T-72 tanks, but with difficulty due to sanctions limiting access to components as diverse as digital electronics and ball bearings.

[95] First produced at the KhPZ factory in Kharkov (Kharkiv, Ukraine), it was the mainstay of Soviet armoured forces throughout World War II, and widely exported afterward.

The biggest differences from its direct ancestor, the IS-3, were a longer hull, seven pairs of road wheels instead of six, a larger turret mounting a new gun with fume extractor, an improved diesel engine, and increased armour.

A revolutionary feature of the T-64 is the incorporation of an automatic loader for its 125 mm gun, allowing a crewmember's position to be omitted, and helping to keep the size and weight of the tank down.

The propellant charge is held inside a semi-combustible cartridge case which is made of a highly flammable material - this is consumed in the breech during firing, except for a small metal baseplate,[108] which is ejected during the next reload cycle.

[108] The reason given by U.S. and Russian experts was the vulnerability of the stored semi-combustible propellant charges and missiles when contacted by the molten metal jet from the penetration of a HEAT warhead, causing the entire ammunition load to explode.

Protective measures include Kontakt-5 explosive reactive armour (ERA), laser warning receivers, Nakidka camouflage, the EMT-7 electromagnetic pulse (EMP) creator for the destruction of magnetic mines[109] and the Shtora infrared ATGM jamming system.