Leading a Dead Horse to Water
The tank is not dead; The Drone is key and Jon Bon Jovi said halfway is good enough
“Is there a continued role for mobile, protected lethality on the battlefields of the future? If the answer is yes, or even maybe, then the next act in the ongoing drama of how to protect the tank is to enable it to do what only it can do. And, given the events of the day, this question must be addressed objectively and urgently.”
Leading a dead horse to water and how to beat it.
Is it true that the Tank is a dead battlefield weapon, gone the way of the horse when it comes to modern warfare? I think not. It doesn’t even take too much reworking on the matter to determine that every battlefield needs a dinner jacket.
Need for more effective deployment of drone swarms with anti-tank capability - “heavy bomb” with drones that are manned from the tank “cavalry” already heading into the line of fire but outside of 5000meter reach.
“Changes in the air combat environment, for example, have led rapidly to incidents of Russian fratricide.” [Meatgrinder: Russian Tactics in the Second Year of Its Invasion of Ukraine Watling and Reynolds]
What if drone deployment was from aircraft - like dropping cluster munitions, but instead of something inherently frowned upon, it was forward recon drones by the swarm of hundreds, operable from tanks and infantry on the ground? Side note; Can a toy drone be fitted with a Javelin missile, asking for a 13-year-old?
I think that these tiny expendable toy drones like those that are being utilized in the current conflict in Ukraine should be the eyes of the tank to increase its maneuverability in urban settings. Settings where barreling through terrain at full send aren’t going to be beneficial. And where the firing and munitions portions of the battlefield cavalry (read: tanks) are being reworked, give these operators remote controls for the drones.
Certain species of spiders spawn their offspring who launch a silk thread out their butt and immediately deploy themselves off to their new home. Imagine baby drones dropping out the belly of a mama drone and being carried wistfully across the sky to its awaiting tank regiment & infantry. Drones lead the calvary of tanks (and I will now forever imagine tanks as angry little zombie-horses, revived by spider-drones) manned and armored vehicles, dropping grenades and clearing the trenches before the tracked horses barrel through the streets. These drones have the ability to maneuver through urban areas, manned from within the tank perhaps, as these cute little kamikaze death eyes track out in four directions. Some suggestions are a drone per tank, but if you had four you could have a forward, a kamikaze, and two to go off-sides toward the marching boots on the ground.
Over, Under, Around & Through
Combined arms teams with urban maneuverability.
UAV reconnaissance dropped in as a swarm from above, is the forward and in-place eyes of the tank and armored vehicle. UAVs could be manned from those tanks or vehicles. Some from the infantry even, maybe. Infantry - those guys are the “around” guys. Infantry is always necessary, especially if some of those little dudes are manning the controls for the spider-baby drones. Tanks are the “through” guys. Drones are the “over” guys. I guess we could employ highly trained literal moles for the under. I really don’t know - only that “Over, Under, Around & Through” is a song, and it’s catchy, and it’s what I am stuck with as an earworm, so that’s where we are at.
What is the opposition using to counter these little drones? Seems pretty wasteful to be firing short-supply munitions at the swarm of the equivalent of flying squirrels. Wouldn’t they rather save those bullets for the column marching in from the side - certainly, but they can’t just stand there and take it, so they would inevitably be wasting more precious munitions. Side note: 120mm mortar launched kamikaze - exists with rapid fielding technology.