![]() Both have recently benefitted from upgrade programmes that have enhanced their capabilities, including active protection systems, revised armour packages, new sensors and electronics, plus new ammunition types. Both offer a compelling blend of lethality, survivability and mobility. This could mean that the tank of tomorrow evolves substantially, while still performing many of the same roles as those in service today.Ġ2 State of the Art Leopard 2A7V (Image: Krauss Maffei Wegmann)Īt the time of writing, the Leopard 2A7V and M1A2C Abrams main battle tanks are the two most capable combat vehicles of their kind. There is also a growing realisation that these elements alone may not be sufficient to define the utility that future armoured vehicles need to provide. The issue is not that these elements have lost relevance, but that the balance between them may need to be altered. The next generation of vehicles will still offer an appropriate mix of protection, firepower and mobility. Over time, we have seen an enormous variation in concept and design, but the need to penetrate tank armour and the corresponding need to protect against anti-tank weapons are what have most guided the evolution of species.įor as long as we continue to conduct ground operations with the purpose of physically seizing and holding ground, it is reasonable to assume that we will need protected mobility to transport troops from A to B and protected firepower to support infantry in achieving their objectives and to neutralise other armoured vehicles. ![]() The most successful designs have tended to be an equal balance of these elements. We use the “iron triangle” to describe the utility offered by tanks in terms of three core elements: firepower, protection and mobility. Casualty figures from WW2, Korea, the Arab-Israeli War of 1973, the Gulf War of 1991, and from our most recent deployments, unequivocally show that troops who ride around in armoured vehicles suffer considerably fewer casualties than those who walk around on foot. ![]() The threat posed by IEDS in Iraq and Afghanistan mandated mine-resistant, ambush-protected (MRAP) armoured vehicles. Today, the concept of protected mobility remains relevant to contemporary warfare. The same concept was applied to warfare on a grand scale in WW2 with massive tank versus tank encounters taking place in France, Germany and on the Russian Steppe. This explains the concept of protected mobility provided by tanks, which can trace its origins to WW1 and the need to break the deadlock of trench warfare. Your vehicle will need to be able to negotiate all types of terrain and it will need firepower to degrade enemy vehicles like your own. As you advance, you will need vehicles that protect you from artillery and small arms fire. While you do this, the enemy will be doing everything possible to stop you. When you want to dislodge a firmly entrenched enemy, you need to physically eject them from contested ground. If this is true for defence, it is also true for attack. You literally have to dig-in and repel assault after assault until the enemy either gives-up or is killed. You cannot sneak-off to rest, re-arm, and re-fuel. When you’re trying to prevent vital territory from falling into the wrong hands, you have to be there in person. War is still very much concerned with seizing and holding ground. In fact, it spends a very short time on-station before it has to return to base to re-fuel. There is no doubting the Apache’s capabilities, but the trouble is it isn’t persistent. Artist’s impression of the KNDS Main Combat Ground System (MCGS) being co-developed by Nexter and Krauss Maffei Wegmann (Image: Marcel Adam)Ġ3 The Re-categorisation of Armoured Vehicles by Type and RoleĪny discussion about next generation tanks invariably starts with the question: is the future tank even a tank at all? When the US Army started to develop the AH-64 Apache, quite a few people said that attack helicopters would make the tank obsolete. So what’s next? Do they still have a role to play? If so, how do they need to evolve and what will the next generation look like in terms of features and capabilities? This comprehensive article looks at what could replace current MBTs. Today, tanks no longer enjoy the same level of battlefield supremacy that they used to. For just over a century, the tank has been the key symbol of land power.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |