Role of tanks post 2020

[Spectre]

Tank are always going to be present in some ways. They are icons of war

Swords and cavalry, bow and arrows, spears etc were icons of war at one time. Battleships were considered to be ultimate in Naval warfare as recently as 70 years back until the aircraft carriers came.

Technological obsolescence is inevitable.

 

[jhungary]

If you talk about role of tank in future battlefield, the first thing you need to do is to define what is a future battlefield?

Warfare do progress and in each progression, some "breakthrough" will happen to totally smash the rule of the old warfare doctrine.

In a future battlefield, basically, it's hard to define as everything is possible, but the least thing we can do is to see how war are going to fight in a future battlefield. And for that, one thing never change, there are always going to be a ground element of any warfare,

And if ground element are here to stay, then tank would require to play an important role in it. But one thing we should noted is that future tank will be heck a lot different than today tank. but in all, unless they start making soldier armoured suit to wear, tank is needed in the future battlefield

 

[Spectre]

If you talk about role of tank in future battlefield, the first thing you need to do is to define what is a future battlefield?

Warfare do progress and in each progression, some "breakthrough" will happen to totally smash the rule of the old warfare doctrine.

In a future battlefield, basically, it's hard to define as everything is possible, but the least thing we can do is to see how war are going to fight in a future battlefield. And for that, one thing never change, there are always going to be a ground element of any warfare,

And if ground element are here to stay, then tank would require to play an important role in it. But one thing we should noted is that future tank will be heck a lot different than today tank. but in all, unless they start making soldier armoured suit to wear, tank is needed in the future battlefield

Excellent Reply!

Tanks are nothing but a version of cavalry in modern ages. Simply speaking the primary role of cavalry is to provide a function of fast moving spearhead on ground. The form the futuristic cavalry units may take can change but the role itself remains relevant.

 

[Ray_of_Hope]

As I recall in the Battle of Longewala - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia the Pakistani army was able to cross the border in a tank attack unopposed. It was only repelled because Hawker jets attacked them from the air. The Indian tank force was over 1.5 days away and thus basically useless.

That was 50 years ago.........Now its an altogether a different case....

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

2 assumptions being made.
Tank defences won't be able to physically intercept or confuse ATGM guidance.The new tanks like armata invest heavily in this.
Tank armor will remain static,We don't know for sure.

 

[Spectre]

2 assumptions being made.
Tank defences won't be able to physically intercept or confuse ATGM guidance.The new tanks like armata invest heavily in this.
Tank armor will remain static,We don't know for sure.

Agreed but then you have to take cost aspect into considerations.

Predators are close to 5 Mil USD, Reaper 13 Mil USD and T-14 expected to be around 5 Mil USD.

In drones, pilot life is not at risk. In tanks crew of 3 are at risk. In addition for the risk to human life, cost of training is immense.

Not saying drones can replace armor, but doctrines of warfare have to adjusted taking into account vulnerability of armor to drones. Arguably some can say nothing needs to be changed because aircraft filled a role similar to drones and tanks managed well enough but jets are expensive and countries can afford to field lets say 20-30 predators in comparison to 1 jet plus pilot and overwhelm the defenses of armored column.

Normally armored column would be met by another armored column and/or 3-4 jets which would then be challenged by your own jets.

In future you can have 100s of drones challenging a armored column.

P.S. Don't laugh me out, have very limited knowledge of such matteras