Putin's Invasion of Ukraine

[Cassia]

Tanks are a bit like battleships were in WW2. They are outranged. The soon-to-be, AI-driven, drone swarms may eventually become defeated by laser weapons in the future, but by then most tanks will also probably become drones.

[Hydra009]

Maybe. But as you say, laser weapons could counter drones and laser weapons may be housed in tanks. So tanks might be less vulnerable in the future.

And right now, they do have some utility. They just have to shoot and scoot FAST because there's always a reconnaissance drone watching and you only get so long between being spotted and an FPV drone crashing into the tank.

The Russians using them as breakthrough vehicles - just throwing a brick on the gas pedal and going headlong into Ukrainain positions - is a poor use of them and pretty much guarantees they'll get blown up. They fight like everything and everyone is expendable and the end result is that they get expended.

[Cassia]

Maybe. But as you say, laser weapons could counter drones and laser weapons may be housed in tanks. So tanks might be less vulnerable in the future.

And right now, they do have some utility. They just have to shoot and scoot FAST because there's always a reconnaissance drone watching and you only get so long between being spotted and an FPV drone crashing into the tank.

The Russians using them as breakthrough vehicles - just throwing a brick on the gas pedal and going headlong into Ukrainain positions - is a poor use of them and pretty much guarantees they'll get blown up. They fight like everything and everyone is expendable and the end result is that they get expended.

It will become air, land, and sea drones battlesphere, so tanks as they are today will become obsolete soon enough. I do wonder if Putin knew that was coming and decided to make his move sooner than later because tanks and guns are what they were all about. That would be a stretch, I don't think they are that smart. The US cancelled its new manned M10 tank program last summer in favor of drone development.

[theantithesis]

Tanks are a bit like battleships were in WW2. They are outranged.

The Japanese battleship Yamato needed spotter ships because its cannons could shoot around the curve of the Earth and they couldn't actually see what they were shooting at. It stayed in dock for most of the war until it was finally deployed and it was immediately sunk.

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Then it was retrofitted into a space ship and sent to Iscandar to save the Earth.