US and Jordanian officials inspect the new M1A1 Abrams main battle tank and the M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle during the capabilities exercise portion of Exercise SHADOW HAWK'87, a phase of Exercise BRIGHT STAR'87. The exercise will evaluate procedures used to deploy US tactical and logistical forces

Tanks in mass culture. Tanks were first developed separately and simultaneously by Great Britain and France as a means to break the deadlock of trench warfare on the Western Front. Their first use in combat was by the British Army in September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. The name "tank" was adopted by the British during the early stages of their development, as a security measure to conceal their purpose.