Reference

Glossary

The language of armor. APFSDS is not HEAT, and a carousel is not a bustle.

APFSDSammofirepower: Armour-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot. A long-rod dart (tungsten or depleted uranium) that is the primary tank-killing round of modern MBTs.
HEATammo: High-Explosive Anti-Tank. A shaped-charge warhead whose copper jet penetrates armor independent of impact speed. Standard on ATGMs and as a secondary tank round.
HESH / HEPammo: High-Explosive Squash Head. Plastic explosive pancakes on a target and throws spall off the inner face. British favorite against concrete; weak against composites.
ATGMfirepower: Anti-Tank Guided Missile. Wire, radio, laser, or fire-and-forget missile designed to kill tanks, often with tandem HEAT and now often top-attack.
ERAprotection: Explosive Reactive Armour. Explosive tiles that move metal plates into a HEAT jet or dart. Generations run Kontakt-1 → Kontakt-5 → Relikt.
APSprotection: Active Protection System. Soft-kill (jamming, smoke) or hard-kill (interceptor) defense against incoming missiles and RPGs. Trophy is the combat-proven Western example.
RHAprotection: Rolled Homogeneous Armour. The baseline steel plate against which penetration is quoted, even when the real array is composite.
Chobham / Burlingtonprotection: British special armor: ceramics and metals in a classified sandwich. Used on Abrams (Burlington) and, as Dorchester, Challenger 2.
Glacisanatomy: The sloped front plate of the hull. Usually the thickest hull armor and the surface most often quoted in millimetres.
Mantletanatomy: The armored shield on the turret face around the gun barrel. A common weak point if it is a huge cast piece (early Tigers, some Pattons).
Bustleanatomy: The rear overhang of the turret. Western tanks store ammunition here behind blow-off panels so a cook-off vents upward instead of into the crew.
Autoloader carouselanatomy: A ring of ammunition under the turret floor, typical of T-64/72/80/90. Saves a crewman; a penetrating hit often ignites the ring and throws the turret.
Hull-downtactics: A firing position where the hull is behind a crest and only the turret (or gun) is exposed. The fundamental defensive tank position.
Hunter-killerfirepower: Commander has an independent sight, designates a target, and hands it to the gunner while searching for the next. Standard on third-generation Western MBTs.
L7 105 mmfirepower: British Royal Ordnance rifled gun that became the NATO standard on Centurion, M60, Leopard 1, and early M1. Still a competent gun with modern APFSDS.
Smoothborefirepower: Unrifled gun optimized for APFSDS (fins do the stabilizing) and HEAT (spin hurts a shaped charge). 120 mm Rh-120 / M256 and 125 mm 2A46 are the type examples.
MBTfundamentals: Main Battle Tank. The post-1960 idea that one type can replace light, medium, and heavy tanks.
IFVfundamentals: Infantry Fighting Vehicle (Bradley, BMP, Puma, CV90). Carries a squad and a cannon; not a tank, even when it has ATGMs.
Power-to-weightmobility: Engine horsepower divided by combat weight in tonnes. A rough mobility score. 25 hp/t is a common modern target.
Ground pressuremobility: Weight spread over the track contact area. Lower is better in mud and snow. Wide Soviet tracks were a doctrinal choice.
Fire-control systemfirepower: The computer, laser, sensors, and stabilized sights that produce a first-round hit. Often more decisive than raw gun size.
KEammo: Kinetic energy. Shorthand for dart rounds (APFSDS) as opposed to chemical energy (HEAT).
Depleted uraniumammoprotection: Dense, pyrophoric metal used in some U.S. and British darts and in Abrams turret armor mesh. Controversial, extremely effective.
Tandem warheadammo: A small precursor charge to trigger ERA, then a main HEAT jet. Standard on modern ATGMs (Javelin, Kornet, Spike).
Top attacktactics: A missile or drone that strikes the thin roof rather than the glacis. Javelin, Bill, and FPV drones all live here.
Overwatchtactics: One element covers the move of another with sights and guns already laid on likely enemy ground. The basic bounding drill.
Combined armsdoctrine: Tanks, infantry, artillery, engineers, and air defense fighting as one system. A tank alone is a target.
Deep battledoctrine: Soviet operational art: simultaneous attacks through the tactical depth to collapse a front, not a single decisive duel.
AirLand Battledoctrine: 1980s U.S. doctrine for fighting Soviet echelons in Europe with tanks, aviation, and deep interdiction together.
Blow-off panelprotection: Weak roof plates over a bustle ammo rack. If rounds cook off, the explosion vents up and away from the crew.
Snorkelmobility: A tube on the turret or hull that lets a sealed Soviet tank drive along a riverbed. Operational river crossing without a bridge.
Road wheelanatomy: The wheels that run on the inside of the track. Count and size are identification clues (T-72 five per side, T-64 six small, Tiger overlapping).
Sprocketanatomy: The toothed drive wheel. Rear-sprocket is standard on German and most Western tanks; T-34 family is rear-drive too. Front-drive was American WWII practice (Sherman).
Bore evacuatoranatomy: The bulge mid-barrel that uses gas dynamics to suck fumes out of the bore before the breech opens.
Thermal sleeveanatomy: Insulating jacket on the barrel so sun and rain do not bend the gun off the sight picture.
NBC / CBRN linerprotection: Overpressure and lining that let a crew fight in nuclear, biological, or chemical fallout. Standard from T-55A onward.
Trophyprotection: Israeli hard-kill APS, combat-proven, now fitted to some U.S. Abrams and German Leopard 2. Intercepts ATGMs and RPGs from the side and front.
Reliktprotection: Russian dual-ERA suite on T-90M and some T-80BVM, designed against tandem HEAT and with a claimed effect on APFSDS.
L/55firepower: Barrel length in calibers. A 120 mm L/55 is 6.6 m long. Longer generally means more velocity for APFSDS. Leopard 2A6+ uses L/55; Abrams keeps L/44.
Jack-in-the-boxprotection: Informal term for a turret blown off by an ammunition carousel fire, common on penetrated T-72/80/90 hulls.