page_title: Tank
section_title: Crew
hierarchical_section_title: Tank / Design / Crew
caption_attribution_description: U.S. Army Sgt. Rice and Spc. Mike Seif, 3rd Infantry Division, both in an M1A1 Abrams tank equipped with a recently updated tank urban survivability kit, conduct a counter improvised explosive device mission in Baghdad, Iraq, Dec. 22, 2007. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Luke Thornberry) (Released) (Released to Public)
context_page_description: A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat. Tanks have heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield manoeuvrability provided by tracks and a powerful engine; usually their main armament is mounted in a turret. They are a mainstay of modern 20th and 21st century ground forces and a key part of combined arms combat.
  Modern tanks are versatile mobile land weapon system platforms that have a mounted large-calibre cannon called tank gun in a rotating gun turret supplemented by mounted machine guns or other weapons such as anti-tank guided missiles or rockets. They have heavy vehicle armour which provides protection for the crew, the vehicle's weapons and propulsion systems. The use of tracks rather than wheels provides operational mobility which allows the tank to move over rugged terrain and counter adverse conditions such as mud. These features enable the tank to perform well in a variety of intense combat situations, simultaneously both offensively and defensively. Fully integrating tanks into modern military forces spawned a new era of combat: armoured warfare.
context_section_description: Most modern tanks most often have four crew members, or three if an auto-loader is installed.  These are the:
  Commander – The commander is responsible for commanding the tank, most often in conjunction with other tanks and supporting infantry. The commander is provided with all-round vision devices rather than the limited ones of the driver and gunner. Oftentimes the commander has access to a machine gun attached near or on the commander's cupola, usually in the .50 calibre range. Depending on the design of the cupola, the commander either has to operate the machine gun by physically grasping the gun's controls with the cupola open, which exposes the commander to enemy fire, or operate the machine gun from the safety of inside the tank using a remote control.
  Driver – The driver drives the tank, and often also serves as the tank's day-to-day engine mechanic.
  Gunner – The gunner is responsible for laying the gun, the process of aiming an artillery piece at targets. It may be laying for direct fire, where the gun is aimed similarly to a rifle, or indirect fire, where firing data is calculated and applied to the sights. The term includes automated aiming using, for example, radar-derived target data and computer-controlled guns. Gun laying means moving the axis of the bore of the barrel in two planes, horizontal and vertical. A gun is "traversed" (rotated in a horizontal plane) to align it with the target, and "elevated" (moved in the vertical plane) to range it to the target.
  Loader – The loader loads the gun, with a round appropriate to the target (HEAT, smoke, etc.) as ordered by either the commander or the loader. The loader is usually the lowest ranked member of the crew. In tanks with auto-loaders this position is omitted.
  Historically, crews have varied from just two members to a dozen. First World War tanks were developed with immature technologies; in addition to the crew needed to man the multiple guns and machine guns, up to four crewmen were needed to drive the tank: the driver, acting as the vehicle commander and manning the brakes, drove via orders to his gears-men; a co-driver operated the gearbox and throttle; and two gears-men, one on each track, steered by setting one side or the other to idle, allowing the track on the other side to slew the tank to one side.  Pre-World War II French tanks were noted for having a two-man crew, in which the overworked commander had to load and fire the gun in addition to commanding the tank.
  With World War II the multi-turreted tanks proved impracticable, and as the single turret on a low hull design became standard, crews became standardized around a crew of four or five. In those tanks with a fifth crew member, usually three were located in the turret (as described above) while the fifth was most often seated in the hull next to the driver, and operated the hull machine gun in addition to acting as a co-driver or radio operator. Well-designed crew stations, giving proper considerations to comfort and ergonomics, are an important factor in the combat effectiveness of a tank, as it limits fatigue and speeds up individual actions.
caption: A view in a M1A1 Abrams tank of the gunner's station (bottom left) and commander's station (top right)
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