Has the main battle tank seen its best days??

Question

Do you feel in the near future(15 yrs) our main battle tank will begin to disappear?

Or do you feel we will always need a large battle tank as we have now?

Answer 1

There will be a place for a battle tank for many years to come. It will depend on the battle field terrain and the enemy technology.

Not all engagements will be suitable for armor, especially if we engage a force with Tank Killing Helicopters & Air Craft, or in jungles or steep mountains where Tank Mobility is limited.

But against a less technological enemy, on open dry ground, armor will be a necessity to protect infantry and break up enemy battle formations / defenses.

Answer 2

We will always have one, but it won't be used as much as it once was.

Answer 3

We will always have a tank. While we might not be fighting a very organized enemy right now, it can always happen in the future. Remember that one of the main reasons we won desert storm so fast was because of our tanks. The abrams dominated those soviet death traps.  

Answer 4

Depends on the next war we fight; after WW2 the thought of light infantry was funny which is why the Army went heavier and left the light stuff to the Marines, then came Vietnam and the light infantry was needed, after the fall of Russia the importance of the MBT started to decline but who knows what will happen with Russia and China next?  Every war we start planning to fight the next one just like it was.  MRE's were initially freze dried because their is no shortage of water in the jungle so we go the dessert.  MBT's will be needed some day but no doubt short sighted politicians and generals will decide otherwise.

Answer 5

15 years i think that we will not have as many but we will still need them but they will have to be a h**l of alot stronger but i think we still will need some but i think in 15 or more years it will be all computers like the navy and airforce and satellites

Answer 6

a) If you are talking as an American I would say yes.

b) No, but in lesser numbers.

c) Yes, but in lesser numbers.

Answer 7

I think in ten years it will be as obsolete and unusable as the battleship. The replacement will be the Stryker or some similar armored vehicle capable of also carrying a squad of troops because the nature of the Long War calls for small unit tactics as opposed to grand armored battles like Kursk or El Alamein.  

Answer 8

Always is an awfully long time.  But for now, the M1A2 is the state of the art in main battle tanks.  There is not always a place in a specific conflict for a tank, but there is always a place in the military for them.  I do not believe we will ever go back to the Battle of the Bulge style trench warfare.  All of our enemies have learned too well the lessons of the Viet Cong and the insurgents in the Middle and Far East.  But the tank will stay around, if for no other reason than it provides a heavily armored mobile response force for force protection of established positions.

Answer 9

Dessert Storm may have had the last true large scale tank on tank battle.  I do believe the Main Battle Tank has a place in modern warefare.  It will be used much the way they were in the early days of WWII.  Instead of a Infantry Company and an Armored Company working together well see Combat Teams of half Armor half Infantry or a MBT added to a Mechanized Infantry Company.  One suporting the other.

The MBT will be around until the Mobile Infantry suits from "Starship Troopers" come along.

Answer 10

Yes, I believe so. For many of the same reasons that the Battleships have been retired. The cost to build and maintain, but the main reason is the advances we are making in airpower. Both fixed wing and rotory. Combine that with the advances in weapon ordinance and I'd say that the days of the MBT are numbered.

The Down & Dirty - The AH-64 Apache can carry 16 Hellfire missiles, effectively taking out 1 tank per missile. Though the U.S. may lead the world in this technology at this time, eventually, the other superpowers will develop something along the same lines (if they haven't already). This will turn the MBT into an iron coffin.