RBT's Defense Blog

An AFV (Armored Fighting Vehicle) is the broad category for any armored combat vehicle; while APCs (Armored Personnel Carriers) focuses on transporting troops with light arms (like MGs) for basic protection, while IFVs (Infantry Fighting Vehicles) are an advanced type of AFV, designed to fight alongside infantry, boasting heavier armor, stronger cannons (20-40mm+), and anti-tank missiles for direct fire support, essentially merging transport and fighting roles.  armored personnel carriers mostly built out of modified tank hulls (sometimes literally old tank hulls). They usually carry the full squad of an APC, have the weapons fit of an APC (machine guns), but have tank level protection (proof against autocannons, MGs, highly resistant to RPGs and some ATGMs). Some armies use them for moving infantry into very dangerous areas (like Israel into the RPG/ATGM rich Hezbollah areas, or high-resistance Hamas zones) but the other use f...

  A Main Battle Tank or MBT or just a tank is the most destructive and powerful land assault system for an army column. The tanks weigh anywhere between 40 tons (medium) to 68 tons (heavy) to 25 tons (light) and are key to any assault that it spearheads. Tanks are mobile, armored, heavy weapons platforms and the tank gun is the most critical part of the tank. Most of today's modern-day tank guns are above 100mm (105 mm, 115 mm, 120 mm, 125 mm) with 120mm being the most common. The tank guns are housed in a rotating turret which allows the tank to engage enemy targets at just about any orientation. There are 2 types of tank guns that are differentiated by the make of barrel, smoothbore and rifle bore. A smoothbore barrel is completely smooth on the inside, cut into the metal; while a rifled-bore barrel has spiraling grooves cut on the inside of the barrel, that help guide a tank shell down the length of the barrel. Tank guns to...