A short history of the gun-on-tracks
From the Somme to the drone age, in one briefing.
1916–1945: invention and industrial war
Britain’s Mark I on the Somme, then the Renault FT — rotating turret, driver in front, engine in back — which is still the layout. WWII scaled it: T-34 and Sherman in five figures, Tigers in three, and a race among gun, armor, and aircraft that ended with the MBT idea already obvious.
1945–1991: the European obsession
NATO and the Warsaw Pact designed for one battlefield: the inner German border. Almost every tank in this atlas is a child of that map. Export wars (Korea, Middle East, India-Pakistan, Angola) were the live-fire tests.
1991–2021: the unipolar hangover
Desert Storm suggested the tank duel was over and the West had won it. Armies cut fleets, added urban kits, and fought counterinsurgency. Russia parked T-80s and sold T-90s. China built a serious MBT force the West mostly ignored.
2022–now: the roof is the front
Ukraine put tanks back in a high-intensity war against peers with drones. Hulls still matter — artillery and breakthroughs still need protected guns — but an MBT without air defense, EW, and infantry is a target. The atlas is not a museum. It is a briefing on a weapon that is being rewritten in public.