Are tanks obsolete?

The question has been raised, considering the tank’s increased vulnerability to low-tech and low-cost defense systems.

Western observers took note as Russia’s tank columns were decimated while advancing across Ukraine, suggesting that the era of tank warfare was over.

Now, as western powers rush to assist the Ukrainian defense, the utility of the tank is being considered in real-time,

Is the Tank Obsolete?

In a February 2023 Washington Post article, Antony Beevor wrote ‘They said tanks were obsolete. Now, Ukraine can’t get enough of them.’

“Over the past few months, we’ve seen what amounts to a remarkable revival of the role of the main battle tank – and by the very same people who seemed to be accelerating its demise last spring,” Beevor wrote. “Ukraine’s pleas for heavy armor have finally been answered. After long hesitation, 12 Western countries, known as the “tank coalition,” have responded with promises of Leopards, Abrams and Challengers – amounting to more than 300 of them, almost an entire armored division.”

Still, the Ukrainians are pressing their Western allies for more tanks – demonstrating that the Ukrainians are strongly of the opinion that tanks are still relevant in modern warfare.

Beevor proposes that if the Ukrainians can “master the art of combining its tanks with infantry, drones and air assets, the Ukrainian army might well want to punch a hole in Russian defense lines in eastern or southern Donbas to provoke a chaotic retreat.” And if the Ukrainians were able to punch a hole in the Russian defense lines, Beevor suggests “we would witness a full-blooded replay of World War II tank tactics” – with some exceptions, of course. Swarms of drones will be used to attack any attacking tanks – a defense option that did not exist during World War II.

Matthew Gault, writing for Vice in 2022, made similar points to Beevor with the article: ‘Stop Saying the Tank is Obsolete Just Because Russia Sucks at Using Them.’

Citing the then-hundreds (and now thousands) of Russian tank losses, Gault asked if tanks were obsolete. “Felled by mud, terrible logistics, and Ukrainians with anti-tank weapons, Russia’s tanks, which now appear on social media and news reports mostly as burnt out wreckage, would seem to indicate the answer is yes.” But Gault disagreed. “The death of the tank as the pre-eminent mode of modern war has been predicted for almost a century. It never takes.”

“Every now and then people like to suggest that tanks are obsolete,” said Nicholas Drummond, formerly of the British Army. “There’s some kind of new conflict, a few tanks get whacked and people start asking that question.”

Gault adds that “it’s almost a cliché to say that tanks are obsolete. At the end of World War I, people wrote that mechanized armor would probably never be used again on a battlefield. Tank combat, of course, dominated World War II.”

As one British historian noted in 1960, “Time after time during the past 40 years the highest defense authorities have announced that the tank is dead or dying. Each time it has risen from the grave to which they had consigned it – and they have been caught napping.”

Drummond added that “everybody says war in the future is going to be fought only with drones, aircraft, missiles, submarines, satellites, and so on. But none of them can physically seize and hold ground.” Drummond’s point echoes an argument made in John Mearsheimer’s seminal The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, that an army remains the most important facet of a nation state’s armed forces because only an army can seize and hold ground. And the tank, at least for the last one hundred years, has been a vital component of army forces.

“The ability to seize and hold ground is fundamentally vital,” Drummond said. “And you just can’t do that with a lot of these other modern bits of technology that people like to rant about. What I’m saying was true, Waterloo, Gettysburg, during the First World War, in the Falklands, Iraq, and Afghanistan. But it’s true today. And we’re seeing these guys on the ground, physically holding territory against Russian attack and inflicting damage.”

Drummond continued: “Artillery is the queen of the battlefield and it’s such an omnipresent threat that the only way you can move is under armor. What role do tanks play? Well, tanks basically support infantry in the assault, and they take out other tanks.”

US Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Jameson Mead added that: “The tank will always have some sort of role in the modern battlespace. The tank offers a massive amount of direct firepower. A tank is a force multiplier. The tank used to have godlike status on the battlefield…you can’t replace the role of having a 120MM cannon and a coax machine gun with a rocket that is self-propelled, able to travel rapidly, and influence the battlespace around you.”

About the Author 

Harrison Kass is a defense and national security writer with over 1,000 total pieces on issues involving global affairs. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.

All images are Creative Commons.