Posted 17 July 2008 - 05:10
There are nothing in sight to replace tank, things in sight can only make it take less part in a conflict/war/global war/whatever but it will stay in the military arsenal.
Drones/infantry/airpower/whatever thing maybe are more suited for urban conbat, but in open ground, they will be all suppressed by the firepower of MBT+AA+Artillery. Tank's main usage is to use them in open ground. In cities, infantry has bonus of garrison, aircraft moves freely above, and drones are small and fast enough to move in between sewers, small roads, buildings, etc. But on the open ground, tanks moves fast, runs longer time without resupply, has range/firepower bonus, and has a psychic shock on the enemy. True, tanks can be killed by saturation bombing, guided missiles, weapons of mass destruction, AT Weapon, arty bombing, but do you think weak and fragile infantry stands more chance? Also, the urban-suited MBT are started to be produced and armed, for example: M1A2 TUSK, Leopard 2 "Urban Leopard", Merkava Mark 4, they can do most job that infantry/drones can do, although supports are still needed, they can do the jobs.
Now, look at drones/infantry/aircraft.
Infantry has the bonus of garrison in city, they can turn a building into a fortress and hold it for a long long time. But, their range/firepower are lesser than tank's: 1000m for AT missile compare to 3000m for MBT Gun. The Russian T-series has cannon-fired-missiles, which reaches a longer range. Due to short on supply, they will eventually die, surrender or retreat.
Drones are small and fast, but looks how fragile they are, 1 shot from MBT and they are scrapped.
Aircraft can kill tank in no time, but look, they need to return to base for rearm, then field commander will hame time to call in AA and repair vehicles and be prepared for next attack.
In general, the history of weapon is the relation of attack and defence, while tank has those two finely combined first time, as a milestone on weapon history it will not be removed. In the future there will be something that do the jobs of a MBT, but in the deep design target is still the same: Something that perfectly combines attack and defence.