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No, The Tank Is Not Dead.

The Chieftain · 942.6K views · 2022-04-16 · 31:36

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Overview

Armor expert The Chieftain explains why tanks still have a place on the modern battlefield despite drones and guided weapons. He responds to the 'tank is dead' debate, noting that tanks have been declared dead repeatedly since 1919.

On Hacker News

Pointed to as an authoritative answer, from a former Abrams commander and tank historian, to claims that tanks are obsolete.

Recommended by 5 HN people across 3 months · HN mentions 2022–2022

Topics

Military history & warfare
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tanksarmored warfaredronesmilitary historycombined arms

What people said

mellavora · 2022-11 · Recommendation

> currently completely overmatched by anti-tank weapons The Chieftan disagrees with you. [VIDEO] I suspect he has more practical and theoretical knowledge on the topic than the sum total of all posters on this thread.

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scottLobster · 2022-11 · Recommendation

Against an enemy with signal jamming capability remote operation is not a given. Plus tanks communicate in real time with infantry/other elements. The lag introduced by remote operation/communication would be a serious hindrance even if everything was working, which it often isn't. Tanks have to respond in real time, they don't have the luxury of seconds of delay like say an orbiting drone. There's also the case of not wanting disabled tanks to fall into the hands of the enemy. Short of rigging the tanks with a self-destruct system (which would likely just make them explode more easily when hit), you need soldiers to do that. Keep in mind that anything operating in battlefield conditions must be resilient. The entire situation is a constant stream of edge cases. Also, don't look to Russia in Ukraine for an example of how tanks are used. Tanks are generally not meant to act alone. Either they're operating with a lot of other tanks, substantial supporting infantry, or both. There are tons of other reasons as well, The Chieften, a former Tanker, has a good video on the subject: [VIDEO]

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some_random · 2022-06 · Recommendation

I really don't think that's a good comparison, cavalry didn't just fall from grace because they became easily slaughtered by infantry, they stopped being used because their role became irrelevant and were replaced. The role tanks play has not become irrelevant and while they aren't as survivable as they used to be they aren't nearly as vulnerable as clips from UA seem to imply. I'd recommend this video by a former Abrams commander and tank historian who presents this argument far better than I can. [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by The Chieftain, played through YouTube.

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