Yet North Korea and Russia are both on big tank and armor buildups.
The Ukes are using drones to literally hunt down individual Russian soldiers and blow them up. Some of these ''soldiers'' are actually men in their late '50s and '60s! The looks of horror and desperation on some of their faces when they realize they're about to be atomized is chilling and tanks and armored vehicles? Forget it. Drones turn those things into Roman candles in a heart beat. A few hundred bucks or less and a multi-million weapons system is turned into junk.
That’s all Russia can do given the time, money, and industry.
Even the US, in Iraq 2003 - 2007 was throwing M113’s, armor kits on rag-top HMMWV’s, and fielding newer up-armored HMMWV’s early on into a war zone where these vehicles were ill suited (big mine and IED threat).
BUT THAT’S ALL WE HAD A BIG PREEXISTING SUPPLY OF AND COULD UPGRADE QUICKLY or COULD BEGIN PRODUCING RAPIDLY.
We had lot’s of HMMWV’s with added armor kits (many even makeshift and locally made) and newer up-armored HMMWV’s (those were designed to at least carry the added weight and had the power to move it). But none of these were ever really a good solution.
These were mere stop-gap solutions where we faced a huge threat and they were better than rag-top (998, 1097) vehicles susceptible to even small arms fire. I took my doors off because the rubber door provided zero protection while limiting the use of my weapon and ability to get out quickly.
Eventually, we began fielding significant numbers of vehicles specifically suited for the threat we faced: MRAP, Cougar, etc.
But those didn’t really hit the scene until year 5 in the conflict (production started in big numbers around 2007).
Russia faces the same dilemma today.
Something is better than nothing.
The Russians are taking their vast mothballed stockpiles of T72’s and older, BMP’s and BTRs and refurbishing and upgrading them. That’s what a T-90 is, a T72 on steroids. It wasn’t even a good tank in 1986.
It is NOT an ideal solution and many of these armored vehicles are meeting their demise soon after arriving the battlefield.
Do not use an emergency stop-gap solution as your shining guiding light towards some great future for the present day MBT. The present day concept of an MBT is dead, it has been dead for a long time.
The Russians got in trouble early on because we flooded Ukraine with massive amounts of AT weapons like Javelin (~10,000 missiles in the first year) which mauled the Russian mechanized force and contributed to why we are seeing trench warfare today.
(History lesson)
—It was the machine-gun which ended the frontal assault (end of US Civil War, Gatling gun and some other designs) and began the era of trench warfare.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/80/9e/3f/809e3f80bc60d8b78ebc51f6ee85d154.png
—It was the tank which ended trench warfare and began the era of maneuver warfare end of WWI.
https://c7.alamy.com/comp/2TA01GJ/ww1-world-war-i-tank-driving-over-a-trench-2TA01GJ.jpg
Tell me genius, why do you think we are back to trench warfare today?
Because of the awesome effectiveness of tanks for the Russians? Guess what happened to the Ukrainian armored/mechanized counter offensive in 2023 using our super duper invincible Abrams, British Chally and German Leo’s?
God I hope you weren’t in any decision making capacity while in the military!
