In modern armoured warfare, armoured units equipped with tanks and infantry fighting vehicles serve the historic role of [cavalry], light cavalry, and dragoons, and belong to the armoured branch of warfare. === History === ==== Ships ==== The first ironclad battleship, with Iron armour over a wooden hull, La Gloire, was launched by the French Navy in 1859 prompting the British Royal Navy to build a counter.
After the first battle between two ironclads took place in 1862 during the American Civil War, it became clear that the ironclad had replaced the unarmoured line-of-battle ship as the most powerful warship afloat. Ironclads were designed for several roles, including as high seas battleships, coastal defence ships, and long-range cruisers.
In Japan armour continued to be used until the end of the samurai era, with the last major fighting in which armour was used happening in 1868.
Samurai armour had one last short lived use in 1877 during the Satsuma Rebellion. Though the age of the knight was over, armour continued to be used in many capacities.
This change was pushed forward by the development of heavier naval guns (the ironclads of the 1880s carried some of the heaviest guns ever mounted at sea), more sophisticated steam engines, and advances in metallurgy which made steel shipbuilding possible. The rapid pace of change in the ironclad period meant that many ships were obsolete as soon as they were complete, and that naval tactics were in a state of flux.
There is no clear end to the ironclad period, but towards the end of the 1890s the term ironclad dropped out of use.
New ships were increasingly constructed to a standard pattern and designated battleships or armoured cruisers. ==== Trains ==== Armoured trains saw use during the 19th century in the American Civil War (1861–1865), the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), the First and Second Boer Wars (1880–81 and 1899–1902),the Polish–Soviet War (1919–1921); the First (1914–1918) and Second World Wars (1939–1945) and the First Indochina War (1946–1954).
The most intensive use of armoured trains was during the Russian Civil War (1918–1920). Armoured cars saw use during World wars 1 and 2. During the Second Boer War on 15 November 1899, Winston Churchill, then a war-correspondent, was travelling on board an armoured train when it was ambushed by Boer commandos.
These contained guns or crossbowmen that could fire through gun-slits. The first modern AFVs were armoured cars, developed circa 1900.
As of 2019, it has been deemed too heavy, expensive, and unreliable, in comparison to more tradition plates, and it is outdated in protection compared to modern US IOTV armour, and even in testing was deemed a downgrade from the IBA. The British Armed Forces also have their own armour, known as Osprey.
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Page generated on 2021-08-05