Ground Vehicles
The Matilda III is an early heavy tank in the British tech tree. It boasts amazing armour and weaponry, but suffers from a poor top speed and can easily be outflanked and defeated if fighting on its own against a coordinated and determined enemy. There is also the Matilda Hedgehog, that has a mortar in the back, which can be used against enemy light vehicles, or even tanks with enough luck and skill.
The idea of a universal platform, one that can be adapted to a wide range of missions, has long captivated armored-vehicle designers. Vehicles like the M113 APC and the Marder and Warrior IFVs were conceived from the outset as the foundations for entire families of fighting machines. Their upgrade potential was baked in at the drawing-board stage.
The CV 9035NL is a Dutch variant of the CV90 series Infantry Fighting Vehicle, produced by BAE Systems Hägglunds and developed from the Mk III platform. The vehicle was ordered by the Royal Netherlands Army in the early 2000s, with deliveries beginning around 2007. It is equipped with a 35 mm Bushmaster III automatic cannon and features advanced fire-control, thermals, and a laser rangefinder.
Tanks have been in service for over 100 years, starting in the trenches of WW1 and still fighting today. While the first designs were slow, massive, and under-armed, they were still revolutionary, introducing an entirely new way to fight wars. Many tank designs from many nations aimed to create the fastest, the toughest, and the strongest tanks. However, one of the most famous of them all is the United States' M1 Abrams. First fielded in the 1980s, it has since fought across the world from Europe to Iraq and it has gone through over 40 years of combat and upgrades. Today, we will explore the history of the Abrams and its impact on American tank design.
We continue looking at the newcomers of the December update. Today it’s time for one of the most modern armored vehicles in the game, an American fire support vehicle sometimes referred to as a light tank: the M10 Booker. Its real-world career turned out to be short-lived: deliveries began in 2024, and by 2025, the program was canceled due to numerous issues. Let’s see what the Booker can do in War Thunder.
We’ve already discussed the T14 (more about the T14 here in my article: T14: The Super Heavy Sherman). Now we want to take a closer look at its British counterpart, the Excelsior. Like the American T14, the Excelsior resulted from the same development project, although the Excelsior also never went into serial production; only two prototypes were built.
The Ratel 20 is a South African Light Tank in the British Tech tree, which is typically disliked. With a top speed of 65 mph, and a missile with maximum 530mm of penetration, the Ratel 20 is — on paper at least, a good light tank. However, with a poor acceleration and a rather slow missile, this vehicle does not perform too well when in combat.
The Soviet KV series, most notably the KV‑1 and KV‑2, were among the heaviest tanks of the early war. When they were put to operational use during the midst of Operation Barbarossa, German forces found most of their anti‑tank weapons far too weak against the thick armor; even a single KV could stall an advance and demonstrate capabilities the Germans themselves lacked. That display of strength made captured examples highly prized. Yet the tanks were far from perfect. They consumed fuel at alarming rates, broke down often, and were difficult to supply, and as such many were left behind in retreat or captured intact. The Wehrmacht quickly put these tanks to use, repainting their insignia and assigning them new designations as Beutepanzer (lit. loot tank).
