The question is not whether tanks will survive in the future but how they will they continue to adapt to meet future challenges. Modern technology, innovative tactics, superior training, and bold leadership will prevail over such challenges as in the past, present, and future.
Thus, the pendulum of tank versus anti-tank technology will continue to sway making neither obsolete. Anti-tank as the name suggests is a defensive reaction to stop this onslaught. Balanced survivability is a concept that entails technologies and tactics entailing not to be seen, if seen not to be hit and if hit not to be destroyed. Tanks will continue to prevail with counter technologies and adaptive tactics. New Generation Anti-Tank Platforms are a Potent Threat, Yet Surmountable. Anti-tank platforms will continue to evolve and hunt the tank. Further, high technology combat simulation systems and simulators must add to the training continuum. Additionally, unit training cycles and field exercises must not be curtailed. Adhoc and insufficient skills through conscripts have their limits and the proposed concept of “Tour on Duty” needs greater deliberation in the light of the Russian tankman’s poor performance. Tanks are as good as the tankman and the tankman is as good as the operational doctrine, technology enablement, and tactical skills 7. It is here that we require a mix of medium and light tanks 6. Their optimisation will be a factor in understanding their deployability, employability, and capability. In a 21st-century war, traditional tank versus tank battles are increasingly exceptional, yet tanks as mobile protected firepower platforms will find a predominant place across the entire spectrum of conflict including in the nuclear environment. Thus, tanks will dominate the time, space, force, and cognitive domain of warfare. Nations will need to invest in this dimension of perception management of information warfare. In this script tanks, ships and aircraft make impactful visuals and their employment adds to the plausibility of the narrative. There will no more be absolute victory or absolute defeat. The question of identifying victor and vanquished in these contemporary wars is complex and ambiguous. The war of narratives scripts the notion of victory in the cognitive domain 5. Tank is a Symbol of Military Power in the Information Wars of the 21 st Century. The need is to complement 2D terrain mechanised manoeuvre with 3D air enabled manoeuvre from fixed-wing and attack helicopters. In such a battlespace it has been proven that distance punishment unexploited by the physical domination of the ground is a wasted effect. The impasse in Ladakh Sector against the Chinese has once again proven the role of boots and tracks on the ground 4.ĭistance Punishment Versus Adaptive Manoeuvre. The modern battlespace demands the military to cope with increasing information overload, battlespace transparency, precision munition lethality, terrain restrictions, and logistical vulnerabilities. Their employment must increasingly be seen from the physical denial and domination perspective of deterrence and warfighting. They are the symbol of hard power and the signature of offensive intent. As long as nations have inimical adversaries and turbulent borders, boots and tracks on the ground will matter. It is this important factor in which tanks as mobile protected firepower enjoy a unique and indomitable position on the battlefield.īoots and Tracks on Ground Matter. Further, the aim of war is to impose one’s will on the adversary and the art of war is to achieve victory at the least cost and in minimum time. Hard power counts and this requires time-critical investment in terms of matching budgetary support and optimisation of indigenous capabilities. Yet the fact is their success could never have been achieved in the absence of tanks 3.Ĭonventional Wars are here to Stay and Tanks will play a Critical Role in Future Wars. The myth that war is not an option often professed by politicians and some defence analysts stands shattered. The Ukrainian conflict has certainly brought forth shortcomings in the Russian doctrinal construct, training, and tactical employment of tanks. Given the open-source narratives, it seems that the Russians fought a 21 st Century War with 19 th Century tank tactics 2. It may be premature to draw lessons from an ongoing war, yet a few facts that have been distorted need to be put in the right perspective less the larger picture gets painted with illusions and false messaging. Such leading statements show a deficit in understanding of tank and tank warfare.
One such aspect that is far from the truth is the obituary of the tank being signed. This is increasingly relevant in the war of narratives which dominates the contemporary social media battlespace 1. The first casualty in war is always truth.
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