the british centurion is generally considered to have been the world’s first main battle tank, although the term was not popularised until long after it entered service. the british followed this up with the chieftain main battle tank, which entered service in 1966. the first soviet main battle tank was the t-64 and the first american mbt was the m60 patton. by the late 1970s, mbt's were manufactured by france, west germany, britain, india, japan, the ussr, sweden, switzerland, and the united states.