While much is made of Russia’s latest main battle tank, the T-14 Armata, and its radical departure from previous Soviet/Russian tank designs, the West has not been idle, recognizing the need to upgrade their own fleet of main battle tanks if they are to a win a conventional war. Several years ago, work began in earnest to develop a new series of main battle tanks that could cope with and defeat many of the latest technological advances that have been made on the battlefield as well as identify threats that will likely come into play over the ensuing decades.

In the case of the United States, the venerable M1 Abrams tank will certainly undergo a series of radical upgrades that have been designed to meet these new threats — building upon a family of vehicles that have soldiered on for well over four decades. The M1 Abrams X, as it is currently named, is the fruit of these labors, created to meet these challenges with a package of upgrades that are aimed at enhancing the mobility, survivability and lethality of the Abrams. Germany has taken a different approach, their military abandoning its highly successful series of Leopard tanks — vehicles that have served them well for over thirty years in favor of a brand new armored fighting vehicle. In its place, they are resurrecting a name that struck fear in the hearts of soldiers some 80 years ago, while incorporating the latest technological improvements arising from years of painstaking development. Meet the KF51 Panther.