
Thus was born the proverbial ‘cat and mouse’ game between both countries of attempting to achieve the upper edge in MBT capability.

The Indo-Pakistan conflicts of 1965/1971 underlined the indispensable role of the armoured corps in general and the MBT in particular in ‘ensuring’ favourable battle outcomes. Why is There a Need to Compare the Arjun Mark-1A & the VT4?Īs a key battle asset, both India and Pakistan have paid due attention to keeping their AFV fleets abreast with each other, if not always against a global median. ‘A tank with a good balance of firepower, cross-country mobility and armoured protection, and therefore capable of carrying out the roles of breakthrough, exploitation and infantry support’. ‘A MBT is a tank that fills the armour-protected direct fire and manoeuvre roles of modern armies’. While there are numerous attempts to holistically define a MBT, some open source definitions that encapsulate the essence are reproduced below:. This led to the development of the ‘main battle tank’ (MBT), with improved tank & gun design, armour capability against varied anti-armour threats and advancements in transmission and power-pack technology, allowing these vehicles to perform multiple roles including anti-armour, spearheading breakthrough operations, reconnaissance, destruction of enemy defences and infantry support.

However, the requirement of combining roles into a ‘universal tank’ to increase survivability, enhance potency and reduce logistics burden continued to loom large. The development of the battle tank progressed from World War I through different weight classifications (light, medium and heavy) and through role-specific models-those designed for anti-infantry roles and ‘cruiser tanks’ with higher mobility and fire power designed specifically for anti-tank and cavalry roles. No manoeuvre machine on land can cause the adversary as much anxiety and fear of being annihilated as can the Main Battle Tank- indeed there is no sound more terrifying than the rumble of steel over battle grounds- the terror of these deadly chariots of fire.
