In one of our previous publications, we mentioned that the Russians do not understand what to do with tanks, instead focusing on artillery, drones, and long-range missiles. However, practice shows that not only the Russians are in such a conceptual deadlock.
It turns out that the Americans also currently do not know how to utilize tanks due to the dominance of drones on the battlefield, leading them to propose various exotic ideas on the subject. For example, they suggest using tanks as "power stations" equipped with self-defense capabilities.
The portal Defense One reports that during one of the forums, Ben Jensen, an expert from the authoritative analytical center CSIS, emphasized that the rethinking of Ukraine's experience in the war against Russia should begin with two vectors – that our country managed to quadruple the size of its armed forces during mobilization, and that the saturation of our troops with various types of drones has created an "unprecedented level of lethality."
In this context, General Ben Hodges, former commander of U.S. forces in Europe, decided to stress that if we continue discussing the "unprecedented level of lethality," we must highlight that this situation was primarily achieved due to the training of the personnel in the Ukrainian Defense Forces, and secondarily due to the development of drone technologies.
He also pointed out that the degree of drone saturation in our forces in modern warfare seems to have "pushed to the background" the issue of physical training for soldiers. This conclusion was particularly influenced by the casualty rates of North Korean forces in battles against the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kursk region.
However, the discussion here is more about the fact that the mere indicator of physical preparedness, including for the U.S. Army, is losing its previous leading role, as attention now needs to be paid to the actual level of training and the ability to manage units effectively on the battlefield under various conditions.
As the discussion progressed, it smoothly transitioned to the topic of tanks on the battlefield, leading to the following conclusion. The dominance of drones does not allow for the use of armored vehicles in the traditional format of mechanized columns, as this quickly leads to unfortunate outcomes.
A theoretical attempt to escape such a "deadlock," according to American analysts, could be the new U.S. Army light tank M10 Booker, which is designed to be more maneuverable on the battlefield compared to the M1 Abrams. However – it also has larger dimensions.
But the aforementioned CSIS expert Ben Jensen emphasized the need to seek nonlinear formats for utilizing tanks, which in modern conditions could serve as mobile power stations equipped with self-defense weaponry.
From Defense Express, as a conclusion, we can outline – it seems that the challenge posed by the dominance of UAVs will not lead to the disappearance of tanks as a type of weapon altogether, but it will certainly result in a significant transformation of their role, for example, as a kind of "mobile fortresses" in modern warfare.