First Look at Tier 10 Vehicles

One of the most common requests from players is for more awesome vehicles to be introduced into Armored Warfare, and few vehicles are cooler or deadlier than the cutting edge prototypes only recently unveiled and announced to the public.

To bring you the coolest and most modern vehicles and provide more unlockable content, we have decided to extend the vehicle Tier system to include Tier 10 vehicles.

Leading up to the introduction of Tier 10, we've been carefully monitoring the community's opinions on what the highest tier of Armored Warfare should contain. One option was to introduce vehicles that are only now entering service, such as the latest iteration of the M1A2 Abrams. While some of these vehicles are unique and interesting and will appear in the game sooner or later, the contemporary modernized versions of Main Battle Tanks such as the Leopard 2A6 or M1A2 Abrams offer little difference from their Tier 9 variants.

After carefully examining community feedback on both EU/NA and RU servers, we have decided to go a bit further.

Armored Warfare is a game that takes place in the mid-2030s. After taking both this and the community's opinions into account, we have decided to introduce two categories of vehicles as Tier 10s:

• Vehicles that are currently in the prototype or concept phase (such as the SPHINX)
• Vehicles based on existing models with experimental or planned upgrades

The vehicles of the latter category were put together with the help of several tank experts and are completely realistic. The 140mm guns of the NATO vehicles have actually been developed (specifically to replace the 120mm variants), prototyped and tested. In real life, they turned out to be unnecessary since Soviet vehicles could be defeated with existing equipment so the further expense of the development program was not considered to be justified.

In the Armored Warfare storyline, these experimental modules were fitted onto the vehicles that were planned to carry them, thus creating futuristic yet realistic vehicle variants that were, or still are, planned for production in real life.

The first Tier 10 vehicles will be introduced in Update 0.15 on the 3rd of May 2016 and we hope you enjoy driving these magnificent fighting machines!

This Light Tank was first shown during Armored Warfare's Early Access stage. It will return at Tier 10. The original 2013 PL-01 concept lightly armored vehicle was developed by OBRUM and BAE Systems on a CV90 AFV chassis. It immediately drew a great deal of attention for its futuristic looks. The design has since evolved and the first prototype of this Light Tank could appear in 2016. In Armored Warfare, it is armed with an auto-loading 120mm cannon that is capable of firing APFSDS, HEAT and HE shells as well as LAHAT anti-tank guided missiles. Its prototype 940 horsepower engine gives it excellent mobility and maximum speed. Agile and fast, the PL-01 is the pinnacle of the Armored Warfare Light Tank class.

The Tier 10 AFV "SPHINX" is a French prototype vehicle by Panhard that appeared alongside the smaller four-wheeled CRAB. It is intended to replace the aging heavier French armored cars of the EBCR armored combat scout program – the ERC-90 and the AMX 10 RC. It's a sturdy turreted six-wheeled vehicle that first appeared in the form of a mock-up in 2010 and is expected to start replacing the older French equipment by 2018. Lightly armored but with considerable firepower from its 40mm autocannon and ATGMs, the SPHINX will be the most potent scouting vehicle in Armored Warfare.

The Leopard 2A7-140 is the ultimate member of the Leopard family and a Tier 10 Main Battle Tank in Armored Warfare. It is a combination of the most modern Leopard 2 armor kit available and the firepower of a 120mm L/55 Rheinmetall gun, which can be upgraded to the German experimental 140mm cannon that was intended to replace it. Equipped with the most advanced countermeasures available in the world, the Leopard 2A7-140 will be a tough opponent to beat and more than a match for any vehicle it encounters.

The XM1A3 Abrams prototype, rather like the Leopard 2A7, combines the most advanced upgrades available for this aging chassis. The vehicle is based on the M1A2 Abrams with a TUSK kit and ARAT-2 explosive reactive armor. It is armed with a 120mm gun that can be upgraded to the 140mm ATACS cannon, which was designed to replace the 120mm guns in the Abrams. While the M1A3 Abrams won't be seeing service in the U.S. Army for at least another decade, Armored Warfare players will be able to test this American behemoth much sooner than that.

This super-modern Main Battle Tank from Russia came as a shock to the western world in early 2015, when prototypes appeared in public at the May 9 military parade in Moscow. It's an advanced design that includes an unmanned turret and a new 125mm automatically loaded gun, which surpasses any other MBT currently in service. The Russian military plans to purchase several thousand of these tanks over the next five years. In Armored Warfare, the Armata is armed with a 125mm 2A82-1M gun with a 152mm cannon as an upgrade.

The latest experimental version of the legendary Challenger 2 British Main Battle Tank is the best-armored vehicle to be introduced to Armored Warfare. Layers upon layers of armor cover this lumbering beast as it forces its way through the thick of battle, and its defensive capabilities are further enhanced by the option to mount two Armor retrofits. Much like the other Tier 10 western Main Battle Tanks, the Tier 10 Challenger 2 ATDU is armed with an experimental 140mm cannon capable of firing both kinetic and high-explosive shells. Powered by a 1500 horsepower engine, the Challenger 2 ATDU stands as a testament to both British engineering skill and ingenuity.

We hope you enjoy these newest additions to Armored Warfare and we'll see you on the battlefield.