Editing Tank classification (section)

====Main battle tank====
{{Main|Main battle tank}}
Advances in tank design, armour, and engine technology allowed tank designers to significantly increase and combine the capabilities of tanks, combining speed, defensive armour, and attacking power, allowing one tank to undertake multiple battlefield roles. Although these advances could sometimes be made without resorting to heavier designs, weights did gradually increase.

[[High-explosive anti-tank]] (HEAT) ammunition was a threat to tanks and could penetrate steel armour thicker than was practical to put on a tank. Advances such as the British-designed [[Chobham armour]] limit the effectiveness of weaker HEAT rounds, but the vulnerability still remained.

On 7 November 1950, the US Ordnance Committee Minutes (OCM), order #33476, ceased utilizing the terms heavy, medium, and light tanks and redesignated tanks by the gun system, e.g. ''90&nbsp;mm Gun Tank [[M48 Patton]]'', etc.<ref name="hunnicutt">Hunnicutt {{Page needed|date=April 2011}}</ref> with heavy gun tanks ({{convert|120|mm|in|3|abbr=on|disp=or}}), medium gun tanks ({{convert|90|mm|in|3|abbr=on|disp=or}}), and light gun tanks ({{convert|76|mm|in|3|abbr=on|disp=or}}), although these gun terms were often still shortened to simply heavy, medium, and light tanks.

The term "main battle tank" (MBT), in the US, was first generally applied in 1960 to an all-purpose tank, armed and protected as a heavy tank, but with the mobility of the medium tank (the introduction of [[M60 tank|M60]]).<ref name="hunnicutt"/> The MBT would form the backbone of modern ground forces.

[[File:Abrams-transparent.png|thumb|right|[[United States Army]] [[M1 Abrams|M1A2 Abrams]] main battle tank, fitted with [[reactive armor]], as per the recent TUSK refit.]]
Many [[Cold War]] MBTs evolved more or less directly from late World War II medium tank designs. However, in the 1960s and 1970s, a generation of purpose-designed main battle tanks appeared, starting with the British [[Chieftain tank]]. These vehicles are less obviously influenced by wartime templates (the Chieftain, for example), weighing as much as a World War II heavy tank and possessing far greater firepower and armour, while retaining the mobility of the previous Centurion design. Similarly, the US [[M1 Abrams]] series, the German [[Leopard 2]], the British [[Challenger 1]], French [[Leclerc tank|Leclerc]] and Russian [[T-90]] tanks are all main battle tanks. The defining feature of the main battle tank type is neither its weight, mobility, nor firepower, but instead the idea that only one type of tracked armoured vehicle is required to carry out the roles of breakthrough, exploitation and infantry support.