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This is the third in a series of books looking at the tanks fielded by the main Cold War powers in Europe, covering the final generation of Cold War tanks (indeed so far the final generation of entirely new tanks).
The most obvious difference between these tanks and those examined in the previous book is the use of increasingly advanced technology. This included a variety of types of reactive armour, advanced fire control systems, active defense systems etc. This is a period where better fire control software could make more of a difference than the more familiar comparisons of armour or firepower, as one British soldier found when using the M1A1 Abrams in 1989 – all the gunner had to do was put a circle over his target and press two buttons, and the tank did all of the rest!
One notable feature of these tanks is that the best of them are still in use. The Abrams, Challenger 2, Leopard 2 and T-80 were all developed in or just after the Cold War, and are all in use today.
Thankfully as with the first two books, there was no direct clash between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, so the Tanks in Battle chapter has to look at other wars. In this case we do have the 1990 Gulf War, which saw the current NATO tanks take on export versions of the Soviet T-72. What becomes clear here is that the Western reaction to their easy battlefield victory was somewhat over-done – the Iraqis had a less capable export version of the tank, firing less capable export versions of the ammo, and were facing far better trained opponents. Even so, the general consensus is that the Western tanks were generally more capable than their Soviet opponents of 1990, mainly because of that technological edge.
This is an interesting conclusion to this series, and gives us an idea of where the two blocs stood when the Cold War came to its unexpectedly sudden end.
Chapters
The Tanks, Doctrine and Organization
Tanks in Battle
Technical Analysis
Author: Steven J. Zaloga
Edition: Paperback
Pages: 48
Publisher: Osprey
Year: 2023