By Editor Mike Hanlon
He has had a long run since the Battle of the Somme, but he is dying violently, spasmodically before our eyes in his 107th year. The Tank in his time was a global celebrity, an unambiguous statement of military might cherished by every army in the world, desired to be possessed in ever-greater numbers. Ironically, his passing is leading back to the very malady he was designed to cure—stalemate by trench warfare and attritional warfare. The longtime titan of the battlefield has been tamed by a combination of his old adversaries, mines and artillery—but vastly improved, robotic, precision targeted, AIed, and dynamically penetrating—with swarms of kamikaze drones possessing visual and infrared monitoring capabilities, armed with lethal smart rockets. Surprise — the Information Age has gifted mankind with inexpensive electronic gadgets that are adaptable for military applications. What is evolving as one commentator pointed out is "a slow grinding war of attrition. . . fought with robots."
The Tank's demise became most obvious in the last months of 2023 when the Russian counter-response to the failed Ukrainian offensive also bogged down. While reports from the front are not reliable and often contradictory, one telling news item seems to come from multiple sources, including the Washington Post. Its substance is that the overwhelming number of mines has forced the Ukrainian commanders to withdraw all their Tanks, including the highly-regarded Leopard Tanks from Germany, while infantry deals with the mines. This will prove perilously challenging for the troops, though, since a) there are also anti-personnel mines protecting the anti-Tank mines, and b) they will be exposed to the same surveillance technologies, drone-launched weapons, and old-time, but vastly improved artillery, and the latest mobile rocket launchers, as the Tanks were. Good luck, men.
Ukraine’s top military commander, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, might have sounded the death-knell for the Tank, when he pointed out: “You can no longer do anything with just a Tank with some armor, because the minefield is too deep, and sooner or later, it will stop and then it will be destroyed by concentrated fire,” In the meantime Russia has announced a new gadget it has been testing, a Tank-killing robot, sort of a ground-based drone, which may make things even more interesting for those American Abrams Tanks that are soon to be deployed on the battlefields of Ukraine.
The views expressed here are solely mine. MH
Tanks still look really great in Mayday parades
ReplyDeleteFreedman observed that the advent of torpedoes (was supposed to have) doomed big boats. Oddly, the big boats evolved (or sank). Tanks will do the same.
ReplyDeleteEh, when there's no stand-up fights, like in Gaza, armor has limited use except as a gun platform. As peer-to-peer conflicts remain infrequent, armor's role in actions with non-state actors becomes questionable. The Israelis have the right idea, using their Merkava as a personnel carrier and an AFV, but they sacrificed mobility, especially air mobility. The future of the full-size AFV was put in doubt with the Abrams, which is a tank destroyer, not an armored helper for the infantry.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. Might these same devices also spell the end for ground attack aircraft and close in naval support?
ReplyDeleteMeh. A LOT of people have predicted the end of the tank over the years. Then along comes a "Desert Storm" or some other action where the need for mobile, protected firepower demonstrates that there is still a need to have such a vehicle in the nation's armory. In Afghanistan, soldiers had to use horses in places where neither tracked or wheeled vehicles could operate. Horses. How long have military strategists written off the horse as a military asset other than for ceremonial use? The improvements in drone and AI technology may mean that the crew is no longer needed inside of a tank, but tanks will still be around.
ReplyDeleteBTW - the old Soviets and the Germans had various machines designed to remotely kill tanks. Probably the best known was the German "Goliath" series. These were the electrically powered Sd.Kfz. 302 and the petrol-engine powered Sd.Kfz. 303a and 303b. They met with some success, but the tank survived as an effective force multiplier.
Your points are strong ones and well thought through. In the fight to defend Ukraine, the tank deployments represent the willingness for nations who understand the Russian initiatives and consequences of allied inaction to show an outward and visible sign of support. Tanks as an assault weapon have always had issues with weather, terrain, minefields and mobility. The most pressing issue is the encouragement to the infantry of seeing those new mechanized monsters in the fight with them, even if as only a mobile gun platform. In the near future technology will evolve to make the tanks invisible to the toy store drones and the tanks themselves will evolve to include electronic and physical shields from those attacks. Let's face it, the Panzers of WWII found the same problems in Ukraine that are occurring the in the current conflict. The one thing mankind is getting really good at is killing each other with technology as every weapons platform ever deployed can testify.
ReplyDeleteIt’s always about building the better mousetrap. The quest goes on and progress is made, but the mice still chew on the wires and pipes.
ReplyDeletePerhaps USMC was prescient in eliminating its armor in recent years.
ReplyDelete