battle tank

[Zap]

Playing SP:WAW stirred my curiosity in regards to the main battle tank.

I know there must be some expert opions as to how long the Tank will be useful as a spearhead attack weapon I just have not seen it. With the development of drones, air-guided missles, ect. there must be a limit to the usefulness of the tank?

So my questions are:

1)When is the battle tank expected to be obsolite?

2)What is the speed of the Main battle Tank for some(USA, Britain, France, Russia, China,Ect.) of the Major Players?

3)Do they see putting into use unmaned Tanks? And would this extend the life of the Main battle Tank?

[JudgeDredd]

I think there will always be a requirement for an armoured spearhead...wther that is called a tank in the future I don't know.

[Ursa MAior]

As long as it has thick armor and hard to destroy ther will be a need for it. There is a thing called UGV (unmanned ground vehicle) altough they are not tanks. Yet. Speed is around 60-70 kph on solid surface.

[gunny]

Very little R&D is being spent on Main battle tanks. Most research is going toward light patrol vehicles and how to make them IED resistant. Such as the Nyala.
Truth is our armies are very short of infantry, more and more armoured regiments are being moth balled, or disbanded. Pretty much any able bodied individual entering a recruiting centre goes to the infantry unless he is direct entry tech type.
Light vehicles with arty, tac air, attach helos, fighting an insurgent force have pretty much made it so. Tanks are basically mobile direct fire artillery platforms. The israelis have used them in this capacity.

[hank]

I watch all the shows on History, TLC and DIscovery that talk of armor.  A year or more ago I saw one show that talked about future developments in armor.  Survivability, speed, transportability, etc etc were the driving forces according to the narrator.
 
They showed off one US prototype that was very short and wide.  It only had two crew if I remember right.  They both sat in the front lower hull.  The main gun was an autoload and nobody operated from the turret.  The low profile and the location of the crew seemed to make it a very survivable design.
 
I don't see tanks of some type ever becoming obsolete as long as there's bad guys who need taken out.

[oi_you_nutter]

the demise of the tank has been predicted for many years, and has been proven false many times. the role of tanks have continued to evolve from infantry support to armoured spearhead and back to infantry support.

the tank will continue to evolve but as long as there is ground combat there will be a need for a large weapon with armour for protection and battlefield mobility.

a key to the next stage of tank development are smaller and better protected crews and that needs a reliable auto-loader for a large calibre tank guns. so far the only modern western MBT with an autoloader is the French Leclerc. designing the turret around the autoloader was the key design decision that has worked well.

because of the development cost of a new MBT, will the current generation of MBT designs will probably soldier on for another 10-20 years, untill they cannot be upgraded or re-lifed anymore ?

unless someone invents a new anti-tank weapon that renders them all obselete overnight [:)]


a tank without a main gun is an expensive target for the enemy.

[Fred98]

ORIGINAL: oi_you_nutter
the demise of the tank has been predicted for many years,

Once helicopters can be armoured as well as tanks, tanks will become obsolete.

But land armour will be required as tanks can hide whereas helicopters cannot.

[Raverdave]

When I was a grunt the ONE thing that used to worry the hell out of me was getting run over by a tank (or APC) at night.  I NEVER left my hole when we were working with tanks at night. 

[Kuokkanen]

ORIGINAL: Joe 98

Once helicopters can be armoured as well as tanks, tanks will become obsolete.

But land armour will be required as tanks can hide whereas helicopters cannot.

Did you forget something? Like helicopter needs to burn a lot of fuel in order to stay combat ready while tank does not. So if someone ignites fuel supply, helicopters are literally sitting ducks but tanks can still hold ground in defensive combat.

[edit]
How well can rotors be armored/protected?