why aren't superheavy tanks used anymore?
>>65515869>anymoreThey were never used to begin with...
>>65515869>>65515869>anymoreTrue "superheavy" tanks were never used in the first place. The Maus, T28, and Tortoise were only built as prototypes and never saw combat before WW2 ended. Nobody bothered to pursue that line of development post-war because they all demonstrated significant problems with mobility, plus the emergence of guided missiles and precision bombing meant that the idea of building a tank so heavily armored that no enemy weapon could destroy it was no longer viable.But if you include things like the Tiger II in that category, it's worth noting that the current model of the Abrams is roughly the same weight as the Tiger 2, while the Challenger 2 is actually heavier when equipped with its upgraded armor package.
Superheavy tanks were just an idea floating between the 40s and 50s that went nowhere because the mbt made the need for specialized tanks moot. Stuff like the conqueror or the t95 were just the brain child of crusty old generals fascinated by hitler's megalomania and obsession over giant tanks, thinking he must've been up to something other than crack and gay sex.
dead mod
dead mod for soon to be dead ziggers.
>>65515869Superheavy tanks were industrially extremely expensive and almost impossible to support logistically. They also weren't practical for any nation that could build them but would need to ship them overseas(the united kingdom, the united states, japan). This left them only hypothetically viable vehicles for the mainland european powers in a mainland european theater of conflict. Their weight also heavily restricted how many rail lines you could use to transport them over land due to bridge weight limits and sometimes just the construction of the railway and you're obviously not driving them long distances to the front due their very low speed and being heavy enough that most regular bridges and roads can't support them.The upper limit of what a nation can practically support logistically is what their rail lines can transport across most of the country, any nation that has oversea obligations must also have the naval capacity to be able to comfortably ship the vehicle by sea.The only superheavy tank used operationally was the T-35 with disastrous results, being hopelessly outdated at the time, the crews performing poorly, in unwinnable tactical scenarios. The only other operational superheavy tank was the char 2C, also being badly outdated and deliberately kept out of combat to maintain their propaganda value with that information in mind. The 2C's direct successor, the FCM F1 was the only superheavy tank that might have given a good showing of itself had france not crumbled.
>>65515869They are too heavy to easily move around and don't really address the main vulnerability of modern tanks: the roof.
