Russia’s wider war on Ukraine didn’t make the tank obsolete – but it did make the men and women who operate tanks much more careful.
Small drones are everywhere all the time over the 700-mile front line in the 31-month wider war. The threat from these all-seeing drones, many of them carrying grenades or rigged with explosives, forces the tankers to hide and sneak around if they’re going to have any chance of surviving.
“Enemy and friendly drones criss-cross the air space, hunting for valuable targets like heavy armour and artillery,” David Kirichenko wrote for the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington DC. “This aerial cat-and-mouse game has fundamentally altered tank tactics.”
It’s a new “era of the cautious tank,” according to CEPA.
There was a time, in the early decades of armoured warfare, where tanks could roll across the battlefield in broad daylight – and their crews could expect to survive. Yes, rough terrain, mines, artillery, handheld anti-tank weapons and other tanks posed a threat. But not an existential one.
Russia’s wider war on Ukraine didn’t make the tank obsolete – but it did make the men and women who operate tanks much more careful.
Small drones are everywhere all the time over the 700-mile front line in the 31-month wider war. The threat from these all-seeing drones, many of them carrying grenades or rigged with explosives, forces the tankers to hide and sneak around if they’re going to have any chance of surviving.
“Enemy and friendly drones criss-cross the air space, hunting for valuable targets like heavy armour and artillery,” David Kirichenko wrote for the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington DC. “This aerial cat-and-mouse game has fundamentally altered tank tactics.”
It’s a new “era of the cautious tank,” according to CEPA.
There was a time, in the early decades of armoured warfare, where tanks could roll across the battlefield in broad daylight – and their crews could expect to survive. Yes, rough terrain, mines, artillery, handheld anti-tank weapons and other tanks posed a threat. But not an existential one.