Modern Land Combat

The advanced weapon systems with which today's armies are equipped form the main subject of this book, which begins with an exploration of the role of technology in all the most important aspects of today's land warfare. The principal weapon on the modern battlefield remains the tank, with its unique combination of firepower, mobility and protection, and the first chapter explores the fundamental elements of tank design: new types of powerplant, advanced guns firing specialised ammunition and new forms of armour protection are described and illustrated and their performance and capabilities analysed. Light armoured fighting vehicles, the subject of the second chapter, offer essential support and current examples are capable of bringing substantial firepower to bear. The same is true of modern anti-tank weapons, an enormous variety of which have been produced in an attempt to exploit any weakness in tank design. Thus specialised missiles have been designed to attack tanks' more vulnerable top armour and smart sensors have been combined with mines and rocket launchers to produce unattended, self-activating weapons. The other source of heavy firepower is artillery, where the main thrust in recent years has been toward the production of self-propelled mountings. At the same time, improvements in the range performance and accuracy of artillery shells, new varieties of payload and enhanced surveillance and target acquisition capabilities have helped to enhance the value of artillery weapons, whilethe primitive multiple rocket launchers of World War II have been succeeded by both modern versions and by such sophisticated weapons as the Multiple Launch Rocket System.