The Tank and it's future.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

The big advantage I see in a light tank is one of mentality. Instead of IFVs which are battlefield taxis and fire support, tanks are dedicated soley to killing the enemy. Additionally the main cannon of a tank has a bit more ability to destroy enemy positions at long range opposed to lighter guns such as the M2's 25mm which lacks the HE blast of a 105 round. Perhaps if the Army were to bring back 90mm and 106mm recoiless rifles and mount them on humvees (in place of TOWs due to lack of enemy armor in current threat environments) then infantry would be able to have organic direct fire support again. Though this would be with a lack of survivability that even a light tank has over wheeled vehicles.

I think waht you're looking for is the Ontos. That was a beast. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontos It may have basically been an M113 with six recoilless rifles slapped on it in a lot of ways, but the thing scared the pants of the NVA and Viet Cong and could bring tremendous firepower on a target with relatively low weight, and the ability to carry some troops. I'm not saying we need something exactly like the Ontos as six recoilless rifles that need to be loaded from outside the vehicle obviously limits the capabilities of an IFV, but something similar with better close quarters capabilities, like a GMG or light cannon, would be great.

[Marshal Murat]

True helicopters are a good aerial form of tank busting.

Helicopters are effective so long as infantry AA can't get a lock on them, mobile AA can't get a lock on them, or if the helicopters are deployed without sufficient air cover. While these can only do so much to prevent helicopters from attacking armored targets, it does limit the occasions where helicopters can be deployed safely. Without control of the air, it's impossible to use helicopters or tank-busting aircraft.

[Mangudai]

AA is very important. The Egyptians and Syrians had decent AA. Israeli pilots could and did "hotshot" and try to destroy many AFVs per sortie as they could. But, they had to be ordered not to do that because the losses to AA were too high. The primary target for air power was enemy artillery. Today AA is becoming more ubiquitous. The US puts stinger SAMs on Bradleys and other vehicles. AA is becoming more of an organic capability, less dependent on specialized vehicles or installations.

The greatest victory of air power over armor occurred late in GWI.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_of_death

This occurred while an armored division was retreating in column on a road, in the open, in broad daylight.



Armor has another huge advantage/capability that air power lacks. Staying power. Airplanes and helicopters tend to carry missiles for only a few targets, they must quickly return to base to rearm. Armor takes ground, holds it, and fights all comers.

[Abokasee]

The Tank, will probably go back to the role that it once was, a Infantry support vehicle, I can see Tanks being equiped with AA equipment, as well some AT and Anti-Infantry equipment, the Tanks will probably have to have stronger "top" armour, probably strong as the front, because in Urban combat, there are, quite obviously, buildings with multiple floors, so you can fire down on Tanks, where they have disadvantages (Some tanks will not be able to swing there turrets to aim at the Attackers and those with Manned Machine guns it would be to dangerous for them to pop-out of there)

Just my thaughts

[Oleander Ardens]

Many good posts here on this topic.

The modern tank faces an ever growing number of perils. "Intelligent" artillery rounds with EFP, huge and sophisticated IEDs and mines, a wide array of guided rockets fired from the ground by man and machine and delivered by air, powerful kinetic penetrators and possibly an ABC attack. It is a huge strain on logistics because it difficult to deploy and needs huge amount of fuel, with all the cascading effects through the supply system. Still it brings unique qualities to a battlefield and profits heavily from modern technology. Hardkill defense system may shield tanks from a great part of its thread spectrum, better and more integrated sensor allow for greater agility, better situational awerness and combat effectivness. Modern rounds give them a fighting chance against helicopters and better abilites in Urban Combat.

I guess that in the future MBT will be number-wise a smaller part of a modern army, but still one of intrinsic importance.

[Kralizec]

A couple of decades ago people started predicting that helicopters like the AH Apache would make the tank obsolete. That, at least, was wrong.

I think they'll be around for a long time.

[aimlesswanderer]

Well, maybe tanks will be replaced by 'armoured suits', or even Mechs/big robots. Kinda depends on how technology evolves. If much better defensive technology is created, then they will once again rule the battlefield, but if offensive tech moves ahead then they may be just big targets, and smaller, more agile, and stealthier substitutes will be used. Or they may just put AIs into them and let them loose, oh dear.