Tanks are just armored vehicles with guns? The long-standing debate in the military circle about which vehicles belong to tanks has become heated as Western countries discuss what to offer Ukraine to fight against Russia. The US "Star and Stripe" website reported on January 23 that recently, after US officials said that they were considering shipping the "Bradley" chariot to Ukraine (as shown in the picture), the debate was rekindled. Mark Kansain, senior consultant of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that the "Bradley" chariot "is actually a light tank". This remark was refuted by a large number of military fans on social media. Twitter user Mike Glenn wrote: "The 'tank' (at least in the sense of ground combat) has a specific meaning. Although they all wear helmets, the receiver in the football team is not a quarterback." This storm became more intense when French President Emmanuel Makron called the AMX-10RC vehicle that France will send to Ukraine as a "light combat tank". Ukraine has repeatedly asked the West to provide tanks to help it drive out the Russian army. These weapons, such as the "Abrams" M1A2 of the United States, the "Challenger" - 2 of the United Kingdom and the "Leopard" - 2 of Germany, are used to break through the enemy's defense line and destroy the enemy through direct fire. In terms of design, the main battle tank should have a closed turret and a large artillery, which can be moved by tracks and equipped with armor that can resist most weapons. However, some people who participated in the debate on this term believed that other types of armored vehicles used in combat should be accepted as tanks, even though their firepower was far inferior to the main battle tanks. Michael Akopijan, the research assistant of the New American Security Center who specializes in defense issues, said: "This is a reasonable statement, as long as the argument is not 'it has tracks and can shoot, so it must be a tank'." Akopijan has no concern about calling some vehicles other than the main battle tank (such as the "Bradley" tank) light tanks. However, many active and ex-servicemen do not think so, and many objections on the Internet come from them. The strongest objection often comes from the former tank crew, or infantry who have conducted cooperative combat training with armored vehicles. James Cunningham wrote on Twitter: "The Bradley is not a tank. This offends me. I used to be an infantry combat vehicle crew, but it is not a tank." Tank purists believe that although these different machines have important functions, if they can't do what the main battle tank can do, they should be called "armored vehicles". (Xinhua News Agency)