Expert Article: Tanks and Their Usefulness in Relation to Drone Warfare Draft

Picture this in your mind. You are a soldier, and you’re in a squad with eight other soldiers. You only have a rifle, seven magazines with 30 rounds meant to take out another human, and two of your squadmates have grenades. You are patrolling through a forest, but just as you almost make it out of the clear, your squad leader pulls you back with sweaty palms. What you didn’t realize among the cracking branches and brushing leaves were the sounds of tracks and squeaking. You peek and see a metal behemoth with treads spun by wheels with a main gun that is capable of sending out projectiles that can turn you into fine red mist out of its gargantuan barrel. You and your squad would have been wiped out had the enemy tank spotted you. Coming face to face with what is known as one of the most dangerous machines of war is considered an instant death sentence. Tanks, since their creation, have always been a subject of fear and deadly force, but in recent years, the countermeasures to dealing with them almost seem trivial. Now, the machine of war that draws even ethical concerns comes into view, the drone. With the drone dominating tanks and all around the battlefield, just how useful are the wheeled metal behemoths now?

Tanks have become a relic of a past age. The Ukrainian Russian war shows that armored formations are easy to take out with a drone with explosives attached. A multimillion dollar tank can be easily destroyed by a 4 or 5 hundred dollar drone. There's zero defense. If the tank can be seen, it's dead. Ukraine has temporarily sidelined U.S.-provided Abrams M1A1 tanks in its conflict with Russia due to the challenges posed by Russian drone warfare, which makes the tanks vulnerable to detection and attack. Despite the U.S. sending 31 Abrams in early 2023, the battlefield dynamics have shifted, complicating their effective use. So far, five tanks have been lost to Russian strikes. U.S. officials noted that the widespread presence of drones has changed the tactical landscape, prompting the need for revised strategies to incorporate the tanks safely. As a response, the U.S. is focusing on enhancing Ukraine's counter-drone capabilities and providing additional military support, including long-range missiles. Training for Ukrainian forces on the Abrams has occurred, but the tanks have not been used in the combined arms operations initially intended. Recent fighting, especially around Avdiivka, has seen Ukrainian forces heavily outgunned and struggling with ammunition shortages, underscoring the evolving challenges on the battlefield.