

Many of the “worst” tanks are badly designed or built, their flaws hidden for decades before finally being revealed in actual combat. Tank warfare is highly competitive, and bad tanks are quickly destroyed in wartime. The armies of the world operate a grand total of 73,000 tanks of all types. 🎖Don’t miss any of our best-in-class military and defense coverage. The result has been six weeks of intense, grinding warfare, the scale of which has not been seen in Europe since World War II, with tanks fighting on both sides.

In late February, at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s command, more than 1,000 tanks marched on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. The Russian invasion of Ukraine reintroduced Europe to something many thought had been relegated to the proverbial trash heap of history: large-scale, mechanized warfare. Some tanks, however, are either poorly designed, poorly built, or should have headed to the scrap heap a long time ago. In a world where there’s no room for second place, most tanks are actually quite good. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put a new focus on mechanized land warfare. Army Infantry officer.Photo credit: Laski Diffusion - Getty Images He is an Emerging Threats expert and former U.S. Eastwood, PhD, is the author of Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare. Hopefully, the latest upgrade will raise the bar on performance.ġ945’s new Defense and National Security Editor, Brent M. It has a great reputation, but ISIS really pulled a number on the older version. But how would it hold up against old but numerically superior North Korean tanks in a resumption of the Korean War? The Black Panther has no combat experience on the Korean peninsula, but that KSTAM-II smart munition is dynamite. This would likely combine urban terrain, plus obviously hilly and wooded areas, and not the flat deserts of the Middle East. Nonetheless, as the modern battlefield is constantly changing, all three tanks face challenges.įor example, the Abrams will have its hands full if there were ever force-on-force conflict with Russia and China. What Does the Future Hold For These Tanks?Ĭlearly, all three tanks are truly deadly weapons of far and would be welcomed into any modern army.
