- published: 03 Nov 2015
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Armoured warfare or tank warfare is the use of armoured fighting vehicles in modern warfare. It is a major component of modern methods of war. The premise of armoured warfare rests on the ability of troops to penetrate conventional defensive lines through use of manoeuvre by armoured units.
Much of the application of armoured warfare depends on the use of tanks and related vehicles used by other supporting arms such as infantry fighting vehicles and self-propelled artillery, as well as mounted combat engineers and other support units.
The doctrine of armoured warfare was developed to break the static nature of World War I trench warfare on the western front, and return to the 19th century school of thought that advocated manoeuvre and "decisive battle" outcomes in military strategy.
Prior to World War I, horse-mounted cavalry performed what is now the role of tanks; manoeuvring and breaking through enemy infantry to attack army lines of communication in the rear. The entry of machine guns on the battlefield, and the increased occupation of the flanks of armies, leading to closed fronts, made cavalry too vulnerable for this task.
Anti-tank warfare arose as a result of the need to develop technology and tactics to destroy tanks and their supporting infantry during the First World War. Because tanks represent an enemy's greatest force projection, anti-tank warfare has been incorporated into the doctrine of every combat arm and service.
The predominant anti-tank weapons at the start of the Second World War were the tank-mounted gun, limbered (towed) anti-tank guns and anti-tank grenades used by the infantry. Anti-tank warfare developed rapidly, particularly on the Eastern Front, to include infantry and infantry support weapons, anti-tank combat engineering, towed anti-tank artillery, tank mounted guns, ground-attack aircraft and self-propelled tank destroyers. Both the Red Army and the Wehrmacht developed complex combined-arms methods of combating tank-led offensives, including deployment of static anti-tank weapons in in-depth defensive positions, protected by anti-tank obstacles and minefields, and supported by mobile anti-tank reserves and ground attack aircraft.