25 February 2020
Analysis
Will unmanned ground vehicles replace tanks?
By Harry Lye
The march of autonomy continues in the defence industry, with unmanned ground vehicles in development for armed forces around the globe. Harry Lye asks whether this could spell the end of the era of the manned tank.
Tanks have dominated battlefields for the past hundred years since being introduced in the First World War to devastating effect. Now, with autonomous vehicles seeing a flurry of development in the military arena, the tank as we know it may be on its way to become a thing of the past.
The merits of these new unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) are their size and affordability with the added benefit of survivability, a cocktail that militaries across the world are keen to get hold of as they face threats from increasingly unconventional foes. From Russia to Estonia, the UK and US, the potential of UGVs as both force enablers and combat vehicles is being explored with a range of systems turning the heads of commanders, among them Milrem’s TheMIS UGV, Russia’s Uran-9, BAE Systems’ robotic technology demonstrator and Textron’s robotic combat vehicle.
https://www.army-technology.com/features/will-unmanned-ground-vehicles-replace-tanks/
