Is the age of tanks over ?

Philip the Arab

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In my opinion, not for another decade or two. Tanks are easy targets when you have absolutely no competent air defense, nor air force. But Russian, Chinese, or Americans versus a tier 2 military power would defend their tanks quite well. If robotic tanks were the future the US would be working on them, US army is still developing Abrams higher and higher every year. There is also the problem of jamming, and on the battlefield maintenance. Can a tank work if its jammed, what about if its tracks come off how can it fix it by itself?
 

Test7

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I also think it is worth discussing. At least WWII tactics don't seem to work very well with smart guided ammunition and uavs.
 

Hexciter

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Yoyo

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Tanks with effective APS (and air cover) will continue to play an important role in raiding and holding territory. That's why many countries continue to invest in modern tanks.

 

Test7

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Nowadays, worth of million dollars tanks can be out of war with worth of thousand dollars smart ammunitions. This opinion does not mean that tanks are unnecessary, but I think their value is decreasing, not increasing.
 
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Yoyo

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Nowadays, worth of million dollars tanks can be out of war with worth of thousand dollars smart ammunitions. This opinion does not mean that tanks are unnecessary, but I think their value is decreasing, not increasing.
Same with APCs, IFVs, ships, subs, etc. Any military is useless without units that compliment and support each other.
That said, I think air force (and in the near future SPACE FORCE) elements have become absolutely crucial.
If you can control the skies, you can control what's beneath you.
 

Ryder

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Im yes and no at this point.

I think tanks might evolve to counter such measures.

But lets be honest planes have always destroyed tanks so many times. Drone strikes are just continuing where planes left off albeit cheaper.

Tanks becoming dinosaurs is still hotly being debated and the current situation in Karabag is now being revaluated again.

I still do believe tanks are important in modern warfare they are like bread and butter they are not going to go away soon and still important in conventional warfare.

But atgms, drone strikes and constant artillery barrage done with pin point accuracy has shown how vulernable tanks are becoming unless they evolve and adapt. Lets not forget the use of smart munitions. Tanks are also easily indentifiable which makes them easy targets.
 

Ryder

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Anmdt

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As long as there is human infantry, there will tanks or armored assets. But i think tanks will eventually evolve into something more agile with guided munitions and self-protection.
My approach to the unmanned systems are directly related to this questions: what happens when system suffers a mechanical fail? the answer is easy for flying unmanned systems, it falls, destroyed and rendered useless in terms of intelligence loss. But what happens when an UUV -USV or Unmanned tank sustains a mechanical failure?, it will continue operation but will not be able to move or to conduct certain movements, pose a threat possible to friendly assets will require "rescue" by infantry, will be used as a bait by enemy or even acquired by enemy for intelligence.
Loss an active, but disabled unmanned system can reveal some bothering encryption, operation frequencies and etc. easily.
In my opinion if a system is going to become unmanned eventually it should also be designed to reveal minimum sensitive information.
 

500

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Tanks are perfect support and sentinel devices. They have long range high quality observing devices. Main gun can take out sniper nests and fortifications with extreme precision from around 4 km. Tank's coaxial gun has precision of sniper rifle. Tank carries 40+ main gun rounds and 10,000 7.62 rounds - much more than infantry company.

In every war tankers died much more per capita than infantry soldiers but they saved many lives of friendly infantry.
 

Balamir

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This debate had previously started with the development of ATGMs. The destruction of a $ 4-5 million tank by a $ 100k $ ATGM revealed the need to develop new self-defense solutions for tanks, and APS, LWS systems were born. In addition, development work, especially ERA, in armor solutions has accelerated. Without armored vehicles, especially tanks, infantry cannot advance on land. Therefore, it would be wrong to think that armored vehicles will withdraw from the field in the short or medium term.

The common feature of the vehicles hit by TB2 with the MAM-L in Libya, Syria and finally Karabakh is the absence of the LWS system and most of them are 2nd generation armor from the 60s and 70s. The MAM-L can't destroy the latest generation of MBTs, but it can damage systems such as periscopes, destroying the tank for a short time.

The way to shoot SAM systems with an altitude of at least 20 thousand feet and a range of 20 km with an ammunition with a range of 8 km is to blunt the radar of the SAM system with EW systems such as KORAL. The main secret behind the effectiveness of TB2 is MAM-L and KORAL EW.

It is the humanoid semi-autonomous/autonomous robot soldier/tank systems that will turn the tanks obsolete, the first examples of the world will see in the next 10 years and will take important tasks in the field in the next 10 years.

These systems will act completely autonomously with the support of artificial intelligence in the first phase, and in the second phase, where people will use them by entering the system themselves, and in the third phase, where they will be remotely controlled as in the UAVs.

Humanoid robots will first begin their first trials in the field in the US by 2030. There are also studies by Russia and S. Korea.

However, until these robotic systems arrive, the APS measure taken for ATGMs on land against tanks can also be developed for airborne ammunition. It may be by making the C-RAM missile systems more miniaturized and integrating radar systems for airborne threats to tanks. Thus, the tanks will serve as both air defense and assault on land.

Both ASELSAN and STM have concept studies on humanoid robots. Tübitak had also started humanoid robot studies. In addition, studies were initiated in 2018 under the presidency of SSB to bring universities and companies to work on this subject.

An example of concept robot tanks

Mech.png
 

TR_123456

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Manned tanks will be useless in the future(10/20 years) but for now they are still useful.
I guess it all depends on the capabilities of the enemy,on the ground and in the air.
Unless they can develop some kind of a deflector/force shield.

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