Author Topic: AbramsX: The U.S. Army’s Next-Gen Tank Faces Uncertain Future  (Read 427 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Online rangerrebew

  • TBR Contributor
  • *****
  • Posts: 179,326
AbramsX: The U.S. Army’s Next-Gen Tank Faces Uncertain Future
« on: September 30, 2024, 05:30:52 am »
AbramsX: The U.S. Army’s Next-Gen Tank Faces Uncertain Future
Story by Sarah Wilson • 5h

Introduced decades ago in the 1980s, the M1 Abrams has been a mainstay within the U.S. Army's armor corps for the better part of several generations.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/abramsx-the-u-s-army-s-next-gen-tank-faces-uncertain-future/ss-AA1rrvBh?ocid=widgetonlockscreen&cvid=ca065cb42e814fd6abd5f648510bd721&ei=50
The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth.  George Washington - Farewell Address

Offline Weird Tolkienish Figure

  • Technical
  • *****
  • Posts: 13,248
Re: AbramsX: The U.S. Army’s Next-Gen Tank Faces Uncertain Future
« Reply #1 on: September 30, 2024, 06:53:21 am »
Not sure how relevant MBT's will be in the future of warfare, not without some huge changes. Obviously drones are now a major threat to them as shown in the Ukraine conflict.

Offline Smokin Joe

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 62,175
  • I was a "conspiracy theorist". Now I'm just right.
Re: AbramsX: The U.S. Army’s Next-Gen Tank Faces Uncertain Future
« Reply #2 on: September 30, 2024, 07:32:37 am »
Not sure how relevant MBT's will be in the future of warfare, not without some huge changes. Obviously drones are now a major threat to them as shown in the Ukraine conflict.
Keeping the hatches closed would reduce that threat quite a bit. With ammo stored in the floor of the Soviet style turret, a grenade dropped in can have devastating effects on the platform as well as the crew (it isn't good news for the crew, in any case).
But with the vertical deployment of RPG warheads designed to penetrate armor, and the tendency for the armor on top of the turret to generally be less robust than side or frontal armor, designers might have to rethink armoring the upper surfaces, something which will add weight to the platform. Slat armor (deployed as a defensive device against RPGs on Strykers) may help, but then the tank starts resembling a Lobster trap, and adroit drone operators have already proven themselves up to the challenge of getting through that.
We have reached the end of one era in warfare and are seeing the dawn of another, especially with the deployment of drones in the Ukraine/Russia conflict in both aerial and maritime contexts.
The tank, and perhaps the capital ship may yet become dinosaurs in future battles.
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis