Posted on 03/19/2024 7:14:27 PM PDT by Trump20162020
By a long shot, the enduring image of a NATO-standard modern main battle tank in the Russo-Ukraine War is a video of a stopped vehicle getting hammered by cheap FPV drones, before it gets set on fire and burns down to a six-million-dollar hulk.
Combat video posted by the 79th Air Assault Brigade on Tuesday, reportedly from the eastern Avdiivka sector, was typical, showing a stationary US-made M1A2 Abrams tank hit with a detonation in the back of the turret, probably by a Russian FPV drone.
Three crew hurl themselves from the main battle tank (MBT) as ammunition stored in a bin on the back of Abrams’ turret catches on fire. The vehicle appears to have taken minor damage. Shells inside the ammo bin start cooking off and the blaze spreads to the tank’s hull. Thirty seconds later the American fighting vehicle is burning fiercely and appears well on its way to becoming a total-write off. The fate of the fourth crewman isn’t clear.
(Excerpt) Read more at kyivpost.com ...
The Russians are using that technology in Ukraine. I posted a story about the Ukes recovering one with a 10 kilometer fiber optic wire.
Most modern Western tanks store ammo in a separate compartment with blowout panels and automatic loading doors to the main turret compartment. This is meant to shield the crew from the effects of ammo cookoffs. This compartment is in the tanks turret bustle in the rear.
Ex Soviet tanks store ammo in the hull or in the autoloader magazine around the inside of the turret basket. This often causes the catastrophic destruction of the tank (the now infamous “turret toss”) with the instant loss of the crew.
The Ukrainians have just announced their own version of the wired drone.
This is accessible tech for anyone who has been making wire guided atoms.
Given that, I expect laser communication at some point. Many atgms use that already. That should be good for 10km, the conditions permitting.
The other interesting tech is the aerial WiFi repeater, already in use.
Old tech checking new tech.
At the cost of range and size/weight/power of the drone probably. Everything is a tradeoff.
A common platform for armor that incorporated advanced sensors and drones for exceptional situational awareness. It incorporated new active defense systems such as countermeasures, soft and hard kill, but also ERA.
The idea of simple massive armor (only possible for a small area because of weight constraints) ended.
The idea was that you would have a common platform regarding powerplant, sprocket, tracks... Logistics is easier.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Combat_Systems_Manned_Ground_Vehicles
Tech fights are constant trumps as opponents respond to each other.
Conscripts with marginal training....do stupid things.
Yep, since the first guy picked up the first shield.
There were less than 100 modern Western tanks delivered to Ukraine. In about 9 months of warfare they have suffered 20-30% losses. This is in a war with thousands of tanks, and tank losses running at 100+ per month.
And artillery. Still queen of the battlefield.
Older tanks store the ordnance inside. One hit and they turn into a fireball. The Abrams puts a blast shield between the interior and ordnance.
Sure, keep the tanks in underground storage in Lviv, and they won’t be destroyed as the Ukes essentially did for nearly a year.
But that doesn’t mean very much.
Artillery is terribly vulnerable to whomever has aerial supremacy. In Ukraine neither side can freely roam over the others rear areas, to massacre their artillery.
Imagine a single pass by a B1 with 100+ JDAMs, each fed near-real time coordinates by surveillance drones. Just one scenario.
They were committed early, first the Leopard IIs. The M1s were held in reserve, apparently in the East near Kupyansk.
Taiwan makes for a good number of Carriers.
Smite them from Space, just to be sure.
No one can use their planes and helicopters. There's a lot of drones all over the place. Ukraine and Russia are "near" peers. Sort of like what you saw in WWI where Germany was fighting France and UK on the Western Front.
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