Live data from Hacker News

Does the Tank Have a Future?

economist.com

1–10 of 490 posts

Re: Does the Tank Have a Future?

#3
Tanks are not going anywhere. Especially depending on your definition of "tank". The initial Russian push to Kiev was a disastrous blunder as they ran into unexpected resistance; no one just rolls unsupported tanks into a city they are expecting to have to fight for. But taking (and holding) a city means taking (and holding) the streets, which is impossible for the infantry alone without direct fire and armor support. You will be decimated by sniper and indirect fire otherwise. If anything, this conflict underscores just how crucial armor is to modern warfare. With GPS guided artillery, and omnipresent drone threats, the days of infantrymen defending trench lines in the open are over.

Re: Does the Tank Have a Future?

#7
Judging by the current situation, it seems that there are more resources for building tanks than there are for building anti-tank weapons. Once the anti-tank weapon stocks have been depleted, tanks still play a devastating role in warfare.

EDIT: I'm just relaying what I read in several articles about the difficulties in making anti-tank weapons because they rely on rare-earth minerals and because they rely on silicon chips, which are in short supply worldwide. Here's one of the articles I read: https://news.clearancejobs.com/2022/04/26/managing-the-dod-s...

Re: Does the Tank Have a Future?

#8

A lot of people are asking whether tanks are survivable anymore, but nobody is asking whether unarmored infantry are any more survivable in the era of small-drone warfare. It's all relative.

Infantry can more effectively hide, disperse, and bring down aerial drones.

Re: Does the Tank Have a Future?

#10
post #3

Tanks are not going anywhere. Especially depending on your definition of "tank". The initial Russian push to Kiev was a disastrous blunder as they ran into unexpected resistance; no one just rolls unsupported tanks into a city they are expecting to have to fight for. But taking (and holding) a city means taking (and holding) the streets, which is impossible for the infantry alone without direct fire and armor support…

> no one just rolls unsupported tanks into a city they are expecting to have to fight for

An example counterpoint is the Iraq war "Thunder Runs." Of course the US had air superiority, etc, etc. However, sometimes the resistance level cannot be known in ways other than getting out there and seeing if your unit draws fire.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Baghdad_(2003)#Thund...

Post reply on HN