I don’t expect tanks to go away, I just think in many urban environments or closer range engagements (which for a tank, “close” is still a pretty damn far distance) a vertical launched missile system contained within armored vehicle with guidance by a suite of unmanned surveillance vehicles makes way more sense than a big direct fire cannon.
I think the problem is mainly recovery and launching of unmanned vehicles in a quick, reliable matter that doesn’t expose the crew, or some long haul ability for the unmanned vehicles to loiter for extended periods… which may prove to be a very big problem idk.
Yeah a trophy system that detonates antitank missiles before impact definitely provides a deterrent but I’m not so sure that those systems will keep functioning after the tank has been attacked by any significant caliber weapon or artillery. It also seems like a sensible counter to just launch multiple dummy missiles. How smartly can a trophy system really differentiate between real threats and false ones? I feel like direct fire tanks will always be a thing but it seems odd to not pair them with the kind of anti armor vehicle I am thinking of at this point unless the tank expects to encounter no armor.
yes, missile spam is always a threat. sometimes two is enough (see RPG-30). sensors need to be outside, so if you can destroy them, things get easier. same goes with ERA, but the first hit tends to alert crew pretty reliably
do you want to put VLS on IFV? this gets expensive really quickly, and you don’t always need this capability. sometimes you need to clear a trench, or a bunker, or level a building, or something like mortar site, you can do it all with a big gun and it’s cheap, easy and fast. tank vs tank fights do seem to be pretty rare in current war, but happened in ie desert storm. TOW can do some of these things you’re thinking of, and it seems that few people considered these corner cases
Yeah I am not talking replacing a tank as a mobile machine gun nest/cannon used for creating and exploiting holes in a defensive line during an assault, a normal direct fire tank is as you say better suited for that. I am talking about normal tanks having an armored mobile close range vertical missile launch system that also manages unmanned surveillance vehicles as a compliment for extremely high threat situations as well as edgecases where cannon isn’t ideal.
When people say the tank isn’t going to die anytime soon I get what they are saying it is easy to sit in an armchair and speculate but I just don’t see how direct fire tanks make sense operating without a vehicle nearby with the capacity to hit non-LOS targets with guided missiles.
I don’t expect tanks to go away, I just think in many urban environments or closer range engagements (which for a tank, “close” is still a pretty damn far distance) a vertical launched missile system contained within armored vehicle with guidance by a suite of unmanned surveillance vehicles makes way more sense than a big direct fire cannon.
I think the problem is mainly recovery and launching of unmanned vehicles in a quick, reliable matter that doesn’t expose the crew, or some long haul ability for the unmanned vehicles to loiter for extended periods… which may prove to be a very big problem idk.
Yeah a trophy system that detonates antitank missiles before impact definitely provides a deterrent but I’m not so sure that those systems will keep functioning after the tank has been attacked by any significant caliber weapon or artillery. It also seems like a sensible counter to just launch multiple dummy missiles. How smartly can a trophy system really differentiate between real threats and false ones? I feel like direct fire tanks will always be a thing but it seems odd to not pair them with the kind of anti armor vehicle I am thinking of at this point unless the tank expects to encounter no armor.
yes, missile spam is always a threat. sometimes two is enough (see RPG-30). sensors need to be outside, so if you can destroy them, things get easier. same goes with ERA, but the first hit tends to alert crew pretty reliably
do you want to put VLS on IFV? this gets expensive really quickly, and you don’t always need this capability. sometimes you need to clear a trench, or a bunker, or level a building, or something like mortar site, you can do it all with a big gun and it’s cheap, easy and fast. tank vs tank fights do seem to be pretty rare in current war, but happened in ie desert storm. TOW can do some of these things you’re thinking of, and it seems that few people considered these corner cases
Yeah I am not talking replacing a tank as a mobile machine gun nest/cannon used for creating and exploiting holes in a defensive line during an assault, a normal direct fire tank is as you say better suited for that. I am talking about normal tanks having an armored mobile close range vertical missile launch system that also manages unmanned surveillance vehicles as a compliment for extremely high threat situations as well as edgecases where cannon isn’t ideal.
When people say the tank isn’t going to die anytime soon I get what they are saying it is easy to sit in an armchair and speculate but I just don’t see how direct fire tanks make sense operating without a vehicle nearby with the capacity to hit non-LOS targets with guided missiles.