armoured fighting vehicle

Powered vehicle using wheels or chain tracks for motion, and mounting armour plate for protection against small arms and artillery fire, mines, and grenades. A weapons system incorporating machine guns or automatic cannon, missiles, or main-armament artillery is usually an integral part of the vehicle. AFVs can be divided into four main types: tanks, armoured cars, armoured personnel carriers, and self-propelled artillery.

History In 1482 Leonardo da Vinci devised a fighting vehicle in which soldiers, housed within an armoured shell, provided their own power by turning cranks to drive four road wheels. In addition to being protected as they moved to their objective, the occupants were able to fight through ports cut in the vehicle's sides. Leonardo's machine was undoubtedly an AFV, but the development of the modern AFV only became possible towards the end of the 19th century with the production of hardened steels and the invention of the internal combustion engine.

The first fully armoured vehicle was unveiled in 1902 by an Englishman, Frederick Richard Simms (1863-1944). Manufactured by Vickers, it ran at a top speed of 14 km/8.5 mi per hour on wheels driven by a 12-kilowatt Daimler engine, had armour 6 mm/0.2 in thick, weighed 6 tons, and mounted a one-pounder pom-pom (able to fire 0.5 kg/1.1 lb) and two maxim machine guns. Commercially it was a failure since it was firmly rejected by the British Army.

Several countries considered designs for tracked military vehicles before 1914 but these either succumbed to the prevailing military prejudice against ‘machines’ or were found to be impracticable. As a result, the opening campaign of World War I saw the Allies using private touring cars as fighting vehicles. These and other improvised armoured cars continued to be effective until the Western Front stabilized as a vast trench system stretching from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier. At this point the need for a vehicle invulnerable to machine-gun fire which could cross lines of barbed wire and trenches was recognized by such men as Lt Col Ernest Swinton and Winston Churchill and led to the development of the tank and subsequent variations of the armoured fighting vehicle.