Rheinmetall's answer to the T-14 Armata image - Tank Lovers Group

There are many other countries who develope good indigenous MBTs too, such as Israel, France, UK/GB, Japan, South Korea and of course the USA. And recently China and Turkey are also up. OK, the Turks and Chinese are just copying stuff, but they are learning from it so they will be able to develope their own stuff. There are many good MBTs in the world that deserve to get more attention. T-84 Oplot, K2 Black Panther, Merkava IV come to mind. These are just as good as a Leopard 2A6 or Challanger2 or M1 Abrams (or even better). Especially the Merkava IV with Trophy APS is one of the best protected tank in the world today. And the T-84 oplot has very unique and innovative "knife" ERA protection which can defeat any APFSDS penetrator. The Ukrainians are also developing lots of good stuff recently, they have developed their first indigenous APS. The South korean K2 Black Panther is a very advanced high tech MBT and the Chinese Type 99A2 is a pretty impressive as well, considereing that some 20 years ago Chinese tanks were only copies of outdated T-55/T-62/T-72. The first Merkava series didn't even have composite armor, just regular steel armor. It took the Israelis many years to develope their own composite armor. And now look at the merkava IV, it's a beast.

The Arjun, Typ 90, Type 10 and C1 Ariete could also be considered as some of the best MBTs in the world. Some of these tanks were influence by Western design though. For example, the Japanese Type 90 and Indian Arjun were influenced by Leopard 2A4, and the Chinese Type 96 is partly copied from T-72 and the South Korean K1 is influenced from M1 Abrams, and the Italian C1 Ariete was influenced by the Challanger. And the turkish Altay is copy from... all sorts of tanks.. mostly Leopard 2A6 and K2 Black Panther. But this doesn't change the fact that these are still very good MBTs nonetheless.

And the M1 Abrams is also still one of the best MBT's in the world of course, but even more crucial is that it was mass-produced. While Germany has only 250 Leoaprd 2A6 left, the USA have over 6000 (!) Abrams. So the Americans can replace much more losses in combat since they have so many of them. And then of course there are many other countries who import/buy our tanks, such as many NATO members who bought and operate the Leopard 2 or middle east countries who bought the Abrams, Challanger 1 and Leclerc. According to your logic they must all have great tanks too, since they are using our great tanks. What you probably meant is that some countries developed and invented more than others, while the other countries simply copied from the already existing tech. And that's where I agree with you. Germany, USA, GB, France, Italy and Russia were indeed the most contributing and influencing countries in military tech of the 20th and 21th century. But recently more and more other countries are catching up and starting to develope their own stuff. Some tanks are just better than others. But in the end they are all "great" tanks IMO.