Syrian Army, Iran, Russia, PKK all started using FPV racing drones with RPGs attached. Drone costs $200, RPG head costs $300. Only reason there are still tanks around is because China restricts exports of drone parts. If they didn't there could be tens of millions of those. Single DJI drone factory produces millions of them. Those things do not care about the things you keep obsessing about here. Drones like that took out modern Israeli Merkava 4, British heavy Challenger 2, Leopard 2 and all Russian tanks with equal ease despite cope cages etc. They should have at least add full auto ATOM and 360 IR camera for instant automatic response to fast FPV drones. Even then you have those almost same price bigger ones who drop tank mines from far above... Top secret armored Challenger 2 tanks hide in forests out of fear of cheap drones. So what good is a top secret, cutting edge armored super heavy, super duper modernized western tank that can't even move forward 1 meters out of fear? Tanks are just cooking pots for those who insist on living 80 years in the past in the era of fast mechanized blitzkrieg. Their time has come and gone. Like I said we are now living in CHEAP drone age.
Next Generation warfare. Return to origins
By this logic we should remove any kind of vehicle and infantry because it can't protect itself from a drone (it actually can). No of the tanks you are talking about is super-duper or whatever. They are decades old technologies and concepts at best. Warfare is changing every day so are concepts. There are enough companies that are aware of the current and future concepts by taking note from different points of the world and their unique environment.
Also bro, no offence, but my longest hike in mountainous terrain was around 30km in a day, 1200m denivelation (there are people doing so much every day for a week or so) with little to no equipment (only a light backpack). Despite my "super-duper" hiking boots in the end of the day the small part of hard road managed to fuck up my feet so good that it was like someone tried to burn the sole of my feet. I got the same feeling by going only 5km downhill in the mountain with no hard road to fuck up my feet (just a bit heavier on the weight) with 600-700m negative denivelation.
I don't know what kind of experience in walking or what kind of background you have, but I am sure you wouldn't talk like this if you experienced such a thing. I experienced it many times, know what it feels to walk in the snow or in the heat for many kilometers in mountainous terrain or on the asphalt road and if I know that after this I would have to fight I surely would prefer to ride in a pickle can with a smell of diesel, grease and shit all around me instead of hiking with an anti-drone gun on me for 20 or 30 kilometers.
Now lets imagine doing this with a full kit, accumulated stress, physical and psychical fatigue and people with different levels of fitness all around you. I can tell you what happens:
People are dropping like pears and ambulances are picking them up like taxies. The bad part is that, there are no taxies on the battlefield.
I don't even want to talk about days of hiking on foot like the example of the Azerbaijani Special Forces during the Karabag war. We know very well how stressing was the experience for them and they are both excellent warriors and good athletes as well. If it was not for the tanks in Operation Euphrates Shield our casualties would be even at least 2 times higher. Reinforcements at the Hospital Hill came in ACV-15s and even with transport they were late. There are many examples like this.
Mechanized, motorized infantry or the tank are there for a reason and no, they are not going anywhere. First it was the Little Willie, then the Centurion and the Tiger, now it is Challenger, Abrams or Altay. Times change, technology changes, armaments change and armor also changes. In 15 years I am sure tanks would be very different from what we see now, but they are not going anywhere anytime soon. I don't even feel the need to comment on transport (armored).
