Tank

A tank is a tracked, armored fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat.

Background
Large armored vehicles, found throughout the wastelands, rarely in working order.

Chimera


The Chimera is a "co-opted mining rig" heavily modified and upgraded by the People's Liberation Army to serve as a battle tank on the Alaskan front. Being a screw-propelled vehicle intended to negotiate harsh terrain, the chassis rests on the screw, with each powered by a separate motor with plenty of clearance between them. A streamlined hull is mounted to the chassis, with a deployable mining rig resting in the middle of the vehicle. The low profile and organic shape make it easy for the Chimera to transverse the tundra in search of oil fields. It is not clear whether the Chimeras were actually developed by the Chinese, as voice clips intended for use in the game suggest their presence was a fantasy implemented by General Constantine Chase.

Main battle tank


Main battle tanks were used by the United States Armed Forces and were widely deployed both on the domestic and presumably international fronts. Weighing sixty tons and armed with twin 140mm cannons, the main battle tank has a nuclear engine and dual treads with leaf spring suspension. Their sheer weight meant that these tanks had a tendency to become stuck in soft terrain, but the firepower offered by their twin cannons made it capable of destroying most targets in a single salvo. Many main battle tanks were left inoperable following the Great War, however rarely working models can be found in the wastelands which can be repaired to working order.

Chinese tanks
The People's Republic of China also employed tanks, which found their match in 2067 in the form of American T-45 power armor units.

IS-2


The IS-2 was the heavy tank of the Soviet Union's Red Army in the late stages of World War II. A picture of a IS-2 in front of the Reichstag following the Soviet capture of Berlin is used in Fallout's intro.

Mark VIII tank


Retaining many of the features of the Mark One through Five tank series, the Mark Eight nonetheless introduced a number of changes to the design, the most important of which was the introduction of compartmentalization, separating the working engine from the crew, shielding them against noise, fumes, and heat. Otherwise, it was a typical First World War line tank: Huge, slow - top speed was just 5.25 mph (8 km/h) - and poorly armored, though with a pair of 57mm guns it could project excellent firepower. It was originally intended for the 1919 offensive against the Central Powers, with initial production runs fielded in Europe as soon as possible, but delays caused it to enter service after the capitulation of the Central Powers. Ultimately, it failed to make an impression and all existing tanks were scrapped by 1940.

M46 Patton


The M46 Patton started its life as an upgrade of the M26 Pershing and eventually developed into a new type of tank - one of the main medium tanks of the United States in the early stages of the Cold War (1949-1950s). Restricted primarily to United States service, its key upgrade was the replacement of the original power plant with the Continental AV1790-3 engine and Allison CD-850-1 cross-drive transmission and the 90mm M3 gun of the M26 Pershing into the M3A1 with bore extractor. Its only known period of service was during the Korean War.

Old type tank
The United States military utilized modern, conventional main battle tanks as late as 2066. It can be seen in a photograph from 2066 showing American troops moving against the Chinese in Alaska. It should be noted, however, that this is a slightly modified photo of a M46 Patton from the Korean War which has had a second tank added to it, and only appears once as a 2066 tank on a newspaper in a Fallout 3 official trailer.

Pre-War tank


The United States military has also utilized heavy duty conventional main battle tanks. This "heavy tank" (wiki description) has a single tracked chassis, with a single turret mounted on the top. This model appears to have a single large caliber kinetic cannon using conventional ammunition and some sort of side mounted device.

Sherman tank


This tank is a M4 Sherman battle tank, which has seen extensive modification over the years since its initial service in World War II. Although woefully outdated by the 21st century, in the resource-deprived reality of the wastelands, it is a veritable juggernaut. It is heavy, yes, and very slow, yes, but the sloped steel armor makes it nigh invulnerable to most infantry weapons, short of explosives and anti-tank weaponry. It retains its primary 75mm gun mounted on a fully traversing turret, with a gyrostabilizer enabling the crew to fire with reasonable accuracy while the tank was on the move. However, the range of the gun was reduced severely when raiders tried to rebore the barrel and failed.

Behind the scenes
According to the Fallout Bible, New California Republic is the only post-War faction that is known to possess functional tanks.