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Countries with the Most Tanks

Can you name the countries that have the most tanks?
Think about countries who believe they might get invaded, or who have terrain suitable for tanks
Quiz by milk
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Last updated: February 27, 2024
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First submittedApril 17, 2013
Times taken54,022
Average score81.0%
Rating4.84
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# Tanks
Country
14,777
Russia
5,845
North Korea
5,340
Egypt
5,000
China
4,657
United States
4,614
India
3,742
Pakistan
# Tanks
Country
2,720
Syria
2,501
South Korea
2,231
Turkey
2,029
Vietnam
1,996
Iran
1,777
Ukraine
1,756
Eritrea
# Tanks
Country
1,632
Algeria
1,564
Morocco
1,485
Saudi Arabia
1,370
Israel
1,365
Greece
1,365
Jordan
1,010
Taiwan
+41
Level 83
May 17, 2018
Wow, Russia has a serious tank obsession.
+15
Level 70
Aug 3, 2018
that's not a new thing
+39
Level 46
Jan 11, 2020
most of them are just cold war era tanks that have been idle for the past 50 years though
+1
Level 22
Jun 26, 2021
whut?
+4
Level 83
Aug 19, 2021
More tanks than the next two countries combined? I'd call that a bit insane honestly
+1
Level 78
Feb 28, 2024
More than the next three, even.
+4
Level 70
Aug 26, 2021
usa fanboys here
+7
Level 59
Aug 26, 2021
But it's true though. Countries like China, Russia, and North Korea have big armies but a lot of the equipment is cold war era and often out of date
+6
Level 71
Aug 26, 2021
Hey, at least Russia has a powerful military. What's Syria doing with more tanks than China?
+5
Level 59
Aug 26, 2021
The equipment tends to be cold war era especially with the tanks
+1
Level 56
May 22, 2022
lol exactly syria has so many tanks for its size
+8
Level 77
Feb 7, 2023
Russia has the illusion of a powerful military. In reality, Russia is REALLY bad at war. Like historically bad.
+5
Level 45
Feb 17, 2023
Russia beat Hitler's nazi Germany and Napoléon's french empire though
+9
Level 41
Apr 20, 2023
But that wasn't because of skill. They just retreated and their enemies didn't know how to handle the winter.
+7
Level 84
Jul 13, 2023
Also, the Soviet Union just kept throwing bodies to the front. They recorded something like 11M military related deaths to Germany's 5M. Sheer numbers was a huge factor in their success.
+2
Level 34
Feb 28, 2024
Russia's army is so bad that it beat Napolean, the entire Axis forces, and a country that is being aided by the worlds strongest military force.
+3
Level 83
Feb 29, 2024
50% of French forces died or were indisposed by the time they got to Moscow, and even then the Russians suffered twice as many combat deaths compared to the French. Russia as an inhospitable winter-scape killed them, not the Russian army.

WWII was similar in that the Soviets employed the meat grinder method that they currently do in Ukraine. Most countries would give up before you wipe out an entire generation. Pretty impressive what a culture that doesn't value human life can do, I guess.

+1
Level 25
Dec 20, 2022
They also have an obssesion with nukes, reforming the soviet union, communism, world domination, and vodka
+2
Level 51
Feb 28, 2024
it makes sense for a huge country without natural borders or any obstructions to invasion especially to the west.
+1
Level 60
Feb 28, 2024
If you look at their geography, it makes sense. Their biggest cities are in a flat plain which makes tanks a no brainer. It also why the USA has a strong Navy, our biggest cities are on the coasts.
+4
Level 77
May 17, 2018
Lots of old T34s still floating around?
+19
Level 62
Oct 12, 2018
The Russians don't maintain any T-34s except for parades - the huge number is made up of huge numbers of stored T-55s, T-62s and T-72s. They've actually been scrapping their old T-64s and T-80s so the total number might have dropped by a few thousand in the last couple of years.
+17
Level 77
Aug 18, 2021
This guy tanks
+11
Level 82
May 17, 2018
Europe isn't liking the look of that Russian tank superiority
+7
Level 82
Sep 7, 2018
As long as Trump doesn't pull the US out of NATO, Russia's tanks could easily be destroyed by American and EU aircraft and other tactical weapons systems. Even twenty thousand of them.
+6
Level 62
Oct 12, 2018
Yes, but only in the context of all-out warfare. Tanks can stay perfectly well hidden from air attacks as long as they don't move. It's only when they come out in combat that they can be destroyed from the air.
+1
Level 82
Oct 12, 2018
I'd still rather there wasn't such a disparity, preferably less Russian tanks haha
+5
Level ∞
Aug 17, 2021
During the Cold War it was pretty much understood that the Soviet Union could easily roll through Europe with its massive tank and troop superiority. Which is why NATO relied on a policy of nuclear deterrence.
+6
Level 82
Aug 26, 2021
source? During NATO's brief intervention in Libya nearly 6,000 ground targets were destroyed including 600 of Qaddafi's tanks, The armored division he sent to Benghazi would have easily rolled over it... except that it was obliterated en route. Tanks are just targets when you have air superiority. Nuclear arms build-up in the Cold War was about mutually-assured destruction in the case of nuclear war; some generals and strategists talked about using tactical nukes in a conventional war, but most of them were labeled kooks. There's no situation where it would be been worth the risk of inciting a counter-strike.
+1
Level 51
Jan 28, 2024
Tank warfare in Libya and Europe are two totally different propositions. In Libya you have huge open areas completely without cover and very slightly populated. This leaves tanks totally vulnerable from the air.

NATO had a policy not to rule out first use of nuclear weapons while the USSR explicitly vowed that they would not be the first to fire nukes. The reason for this was that NATO didn't believe that they could defend mainland Europe from the Warsaw Pact in a conventional war.

+1
Level ∞
Feb 27, 2024
The U.S. developed tactical nukes to repel a hypothetical Soviet tank invasion into western Germany. Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulda_Gap

"During the Cold War, the Fulda Gap offered one of the two obvious routes for a hypothetical Soviet tank attack on West Germany from Eastern Europe (especially from East Germany); the other route crossed the North German Plain. A third, less likely, route involved travelling up through the Danube River valley through neutral Austria. The concept of a major tank battle along the Fulda Gap became a predominant element of NATO war planning during the Cold War. With such an eventuality in mind, weapons were evolved such as nuclear tube and missile artillery, the nuclear recoilless gun/tactical launcher Davy Crockett, Special Atomic Demolition Munitions, the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, and A-10 ground attack aircraft."

+1
Level ∞
Feb 27, 2024
Keep in mind that warfare in the 1950s and 1960s would be much different than today. Now we have satellites and smart missiles. Back then, not. So a massed tank invasion would have been quite difficult to repel.

Keep in mind that, if the USSR decided to invade Germany in the 1960s, the U.S. would not necessarily have air superiority.

Comparing the Soviet Union of the Cold War era to Libya (!) in the 2010s makes no sense.

+2
Level 57
Oct 12, 2018
How many of those tanks are of the inflatable variety? https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/13/world/europe/russia-decoy-weapon.html
+1
Level 39
Feb 21, 2021
For planes, yes, but I wouldn't doubt their numbers for tanks. They've built a lot.
+4
Level 74
Aug 29, 2021
Inflatable paywall :'(
+57
Level 90
May 17, 2018
Tanks for making this quiz!
+14
Level 78
May 17, 2018
Tanks for making me laugh!
+12
Level 74
May 17, 2018
Apparently we're not counting giant Ford Expeditions and Hummer H3s as tanks—maybe they're just Urban Assault Vehicles.
+7
Level 39
Feb 21, 2021
a toyota can be a tank if you stretch the definition hard enough
+25
Level 92
Jun 20, 2018
Not sure why, but Taiwan strikes me as really strange. Tanks don't strike me as defensive materiel, and their options to invade seem... limited.
+2
Level 26
Jul 24, 2018
Yeah that seems a little unusual
+14
Level 82
Sep 7, 2018
Maybe Taiwanese tanks are amphibious
+6
Level 62
Oct 12, 2018
The Taiwanese tank count includes a lot of semi-static M48s that are only serving as bunkers.
+4
Level 90
Oct 12, 2018
The little blurb that accompanies the front page feature for this quiz today said "Strictly for defensive purposes, naturally." In the case of Taiwan, that statement is accurate.
+8
Level 61
Aug 18, 2021
Same for Cuba.
+11
Level 86
Oct 12, 2018
Important to remember when taking this quiz that tanks are more useful in deserts than they are in jungles.
+23
Level 81
Oct 12, 2018
You mean when tanking this quiz, right?
+4
Level 73
Aug 26, 2021
That's what I thought at first but then it turns out Vietnam is on there too! Which is not just jungly but also mountainous
+21
Level 74
Oct 12, 2018
I wonder how many of the North Korean tanks have fuel in them
+31
Level 82
Oct 12, 2018
Only the ones on parade
+17
Level 71
Oct 12, 2018
Australia has thousands of tanks ....... water tanks that is.
+7
Level 74
Aug 29, 2021
And that's not even counting tank tops.
+4
Level 84
Aug 30, 2021
And that's where the name tanks came from. Water tanks. Was used as a cover name for them in World War I. Original name was to be landships.
+13
Level 80
Oct 12, 2018
UK has a lot of fish tanks. Although to be honest many of them are just fish bowls.
+4
Level 52
Oct 13, 2018
Good quiz. Took me a moment to realise you need to focus on regional or smaller powers that have unpleasant relations with their neighbours.
+3
Level 50
Feb 22, 2020
Taiwan? Why
+8
Level 39
Feb 21, 2021
cuz ccp
+3
Level 57
Oct 2, 2020
Taiwan?
+10
Level 55
Feb 21, 2021
Because of China
+4
Level 28
Feb 17, 2021
3:49

Scoring

You scored 3/15 = 20%

This beats or equals 1.5% of test takers

The average score is 12

Your high score is 3

+18
Level 74
Mar 25, 2021
What is the point of this comment
+16
Level 73
Aug 26, 2021
accountability
+3
Level 40
May 31, 2021
Is this outdated?
+2
Level 22
Jun 26, 2021
good quiz but why you have to name you username as 'milk?'

Are actually a kind of food or a kind of a drink or is it just what you pick?

+15
Level 71
Aug 17, 2021
And your real name is 'Spongepat'?
+4
Level 73
Aug 26, 2021
The more I think about the name spongepat the more concerned I become
+3
Level 74
Aug 29, 2021
Nah, you should meet Spongezelda. Spongevlad is fun at parties but you can't leave him alone with the pots and pans.
+2
Level 76
Aug 18, 2021
Excluding Russia, no other European country has made the list, except Greece??? The country that has been heavily indebted not so long ago? Also, it isn't exactly known for its involvement in any recent wars, so what's with those numbers?
+8
Level 63
Aug 19, 2021
Supposedly the long-standing territorial dispute with Turkey is the reason.
+2
Level 70
Aug 26, 2021
And corruption/overprocurement. They have a big problem with that. German companies bribe the Greek officials to buy weapons and then glare at Greece's budget deficit.
+1
Level 68
Aug 26, 2021
NO WE DO it because turks want to invade us
+1
Level 75
Nov 10, 2021
Or that's what Rheinmetall keeps telling you :3
+1
Level 61
Aug 26, 2021
Wow, those last three. I could have had two more minutes, and I'm not sure I would have got them.
+3
Level 66
Aug 26, 2021
I love the front page description lol
+1
Level 67
Aug 26, 2021
53 seconds remaining, didn't expect to see Greece or Taiwan or Cuba, I suppose Taiwan and Cuba somewhat make sense given their history.
+1
Level 40
Aug 26, 2021
Why doesn't North Vietnam work for Vietnam?
+10
Level 63
Aug 26, 2021
why would it lol
+5
Level 76
Aug 26, 2021
Same reason "West Germany" generally doesn't work when talking about present-day Germany.
+5
Level 76
Aug 26, 2021
So for counties like the Marshall Islands which don't have any tanks of their own but that rely on countries like the US to provide their international defense, I guess it's tanks but no tanks.
+4
Level 64
Aug 30, 2021
I was struggling a bit...

Until i typed in Israel and its neighbors lol

+2
Level 75
Nov 10, 2021
This really makes me wonder where Israel keeps all these tanks, it's such a tiny country.
+2
Level 85
Dec 12, 2021
Think you have a typo in the caveat
+2
Level 60
Oct 18, 2022
Surprised Monaco isn't on here
+1
Level 74
Oct 18, 2022
That's a lot of tanks for a country the size of Cuba, especially since they don't have the navy equipped to ship them. What do they think is going to happen in their country?
+2
Level 69
Dec 7, 2022
It's obviously to counter a US invasion. I assume most of them were donated by the Soviets during the cold war, either as a response to the Bay of Pigs invasion or the later missile crisis. Likely as not, they've just been gathering dust since the USSR collapsed - dismantling them would be foolish with USA still having at best strained relations with them. In short, hostility towards USA when the USSR had a massive tank surplus and a strategic interest in the region.

This may also be the reason for Vietnam making the list in spite of not having very tank-friendly terrain.

+3
Level 85
Feb 27, 2024
As usual the US is very well-equipped to fight the last war.
+1
Level 67
Feb 27, 2024
Just missed Greece, was surprised to see Eritrea on here, only guessed it after trying Ethiopia and it wasn't one of them
+4
Level 88
Feb 28, 2024
Is this before or after the supposedly 3000+ tanks Russia has lost in the Russia-Ukraine war?
+1
Level 66
Feb 28, 2024
Tanks and armoured vehicles are different things and I think that those 3000+ losses are both exaggerated and have armoured vehciles counted. The quiz only counts tanks.
+1
Level 46
Feb 28, 2024
The actual number of FUNCTIONAL Russian tanks is widely exagerated as well...
+1
Level 55
Feb 28, 2024
Oryx has counted 2758 so it's not too far off in terms of documented losses. This doesn't include captured Ukrainian tanks however.

Source: https://www.oryxspioenkop.com/2022/02/attack-on-europe-documenting-equipment.html

+1
Level 84
Feb 29, 2024
Interesting quiz. Many tanks!
+2
Level 68
Feb 29, 2024
Why does Eritrea have so many tanks? You'd expect that they could spend their funds wiser. Such as providing basic needs for their citizens.
+1
Level 71
Mar 6, 2024
potential for another war with Ethiopia