Posted on 10/09/2020 1:18:02 PM PDT by RomanSoldier19
Unmanned combat air vehicles have notched up kills against armored fighting vehicles all over the world. Does it mean the end of the tank
In the first days of the new war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Azeri military claimed a number of destroyed tanks and other armored fighting vehicles. Those strikes seem to have been made — and filmed — by a Turkish-designed armed drone, the Bayraktar TB2. With armed drones bearing anti-tank ordnance increasingly cheap, accessible and capable, does it spell the end of the tank’s century of battlefield dominance?
Two decades ago, the U.S. rushed the first armed drones into service for its post-9/11 campaigns. They carried no more than two Hellfire missiles and were propelled by an engine producing less power than a contemporary Toyota Camry. But what they had was endurance: a drone could circle its target for hours on end before striking, whereas a high-performance jet or attack helicopter would have to return to base for fuel and crew rest in a fraction of that period. This was a crucial factor in the irregular campaigns the U.S. employed them in, where the targets had little or no anti-aircraft capability. Most strategists, however, assumed that in a high-end war, drones flying lower and slower than a Second World War fighter plane would be shredded by an adversary with integrated air defenses.
(Excerpt) Read more at thediplomat.com ...
That’s going to be more than a stretch for the Tunguska, but the SA-11 can certainly handle it. Not what I’d call cheap, though. Armenia has them, but I don’t know how many.
APS is great technology. But Trophy costs nearly $1 million per tank. You can buy a lot of missiles for the cost of outfitting just one company of tanks with those.
At some point, the cost of protecting the tank outweighs the benefit of having it in the field at all.
The current 2K22M1 carries the 9M311-M1, which tops out at an advertised 6km ceiling, which is roughly 20k feet. The previous 9M311-no-suffix has the 3.5km ceiling.
https://www.deagel.com/Defensive%20Weapons/9M311/a000996
Yes, but Trophy isn’t a one-and-done system - it can fire repeatedly and even when it’s empty, it’s not a million dollars to reload it.
By the way, various flavors of APS are likely to be put on all NATO combat vehicles in the future.
You can kill a drone with another drone
Right, but that’s still $1 million per tank on top of the already high cost of the tank’s Chobham armor, to protect one 120mm gun and three machine guns. Not to mention the logistics of transporting, fueling, and maintaining it all. Also, while it is reportedly very effective against individual missiles, how well will it handle saturation by larger number of cheaper missiles or drone swarms, which aren’t too far off in the future.
Tanks are not yet obsolete, but they are well into their senility.
Haven't checked Cheaper Than Dirt lately, but probably get one for less than $500...🙄
I have to agree. Drones have changed the battlefield.
One indicator of how well various APS may do against missile swarms is provided by the Second Chechen War. The Chechens found that against tanks with the then latest Arena APS, they had to fire at least six heavy ATGM in a saturation attack to have a reasonable chance of getting just one hit.
It is also likely that with the APS, tanks will evolve to be lighter and less expensive/less heavily armored. At least in the latter case, it will echo naval development, where anti shipping missiles have made armor above the level needed to repel small arms and maybe 40mm fire pretty much pointless.
I saw that they were thinking about that.
I think they are going back to their beach landing basics.
Everybody likes Light Infantry until the artillery starts falling.
“...A drone chugging along at FL25 at 130kts will be/is helpless.”
What about 2000 drones?
One drone, maybe. 500 drones....that’s a different problem.
L
I can’t think of anything better for making an occupation stick. The occupying soldiers need a safe and moveable base.
“The current 2K22M1 carries the 9M311-M1, which tops out at an advertised 6km ceiling, which is roughly 20k feet. The previous 9M311-no-suffix has the 3.5km ceiling.”
Literature says -M1 is downgraded export version. I will do a fly-over tomorrow and let you know which is correct.
On the offense side, drone development is drilling down to the platoon and squad level. Deployed now is a drone recon system in a backpack for platoon level recon and fire spotting. At the squad level, field testing is going on with drones smaller than a hummingbird for CQB and to see around that next corner.
Drone swarm devices are in advanced development. These can be autonomous or man-in-the-loop. Think of a swarm of inexpensive and expendable drones that’s that are are a mix of anti-armor, anti-personnel, radar homing, electronic jamming, etc. and are delivered by cruise missile or aircraft. For these, think of a clusters bomb dispenser that releases a mass of small drones with several hours of loitering time.
It’s either the -1 or the -M1, but it’s advertised as having the 6km engagement ceiling.
No, for the Hellfire.
That would be APS, like Trophy. It works by all accounts, but it’s expensive.
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