The United States needs a tank which can operate in the fullest of combat spectrums, and which can move extremely fast, since we need to trade mass for mobility.
In India, they are bounded by only two nations which could pose any threat that a battalion of light infantry couldn't handle-- China and Pakistan, and the good roads to where they are are not numerous, and tanks don't usually benefit from getting too far ahead of the infantry. The better the adversaries and the terrain can be anticipated, the easier it is to optimize a tank for what it has to do. In that theatre of operations, getting tanks to the points of action will be difficult. Therefore, tanks need to optimize for three things: firepower superiority for the tanks that do get there; considerable ability to take a licking and keep on ticking, so that the ones that get there have staying power; and as good a resistance to air attack as tanks can have-- though you can't build that into a tank beyond some minimal point, so air and ground anti-aircraft assets have to be where the tanks are.
All tanks need to be able to shoot, move, and communicate, regardless of the terrain and situation, but a good tank for a given army needs to be optimized for the terrain and situation, and whatever it's air-ground support team cannot effectively provide, the tank had best carry, even if that makes it a tad slower and heavier than one might wish under some circumstances.
What can be afforded is another factor. Only a few great tanks are enough if the action is on a limited scale, but if the front is large and deep, what is needed is a lot of very good tanks, even if only a few of them are the best. In that case you deploy the lessers broadly, and use the best ones to exploit opportunities or quickly counter breakthroughs.
Interesting matter to contemplate.
The U.S. needs are quite different from India's needs. American tanks, due to our overwhelming air superiority, aren't really in need of a 120mm cannon, for instance.
We need the armor and speed of the M1A1, but most of our firepower needs are anti-personnel instead of anti-tank.
One would expect quite the reverse for India. They had better have gotten the armor part right, too. Those babies *will* be up against infantry equipped with RPG's, artillery, and comparable or older tanks.
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