The once-dominant tank is getting humbled on the battlefield

livemint.com:

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. POKROVSK, Ukraine—Even as tanks help Ukraine push into Russia, armies are rethinking how the powerful vehicles are made and deployed after a recent history of being humbled in combat. Tanks were once the king of the battlefield.

But the proliferation of drones in Ukraine means the large, noisy vehicles can be spotted and targeted within minutes. That has seen dozens of cutting-edge Western tanks used only sparingly in the battle they were meant to shape, while others have been damaged, destroyed or captured. In response, armies are adding technology to tanks to spot and protect against drones while also exploring design changes to make the heavy, armored vehicles more maneuverable.

Battlefield tactics are already changing and lessons from Ukraine are being integrated into training. “In the near term, we absolutely need to urgently make some adjustments to maintain the survivability of our armored formations," said Gen. James Rainey, who heads the U.S.

Army Futures Command, which looks at ways to equip and transform the army. The rethink is another sign of how drones are reshaping warfare. Adapting tanks for the drone age is vitally important if Western armies, some of which have placed the vehicles at the heart of their land strategy for decades, are to maintain their edge in conventional warfare.

Tanks have adapted to new adversaries before, including planes and antitank missiles. In recent weeks, tanks have helped Ukrainian forces sweep through Russia’s Kursk region, an area where a pivotal World War II battle took place in 1943. Ukraine’s use of tanks shows how a military vehicle that the British army first rolled out in 1916 still has a role in fast-paced maneuvers, though in this