MBT development heads eastwards

摘要

This year marks a century since tank development began as an attempt to break stalemate on the Western Front. Although the tank's origins are rooted in Western Europe - the region, with the exception of Germany, has run down its capability to design, develop and manufacture main battle tanks (MBTs), a situation out of phase with industry elsewhere, particularly across Asia. Within Europe, industry consolidation, contracting budgets, and long-lived vehicle programmes have seen countries that once nurtured their own capabilities to design and build MBTs - such as Sweden, with the Bofors S-tank and Switzerland with the Pz 61 and Pz 68 -forego it in favour of off-the-shelf imports. Both those countries opted for the Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) Leopard 2, assuaging local industry by building subsystems - such as the MTU diesel powerpack - in country.