By Franz-Stefan Gady
The main battle tank will remain part of Asian-Pacific military arsenals for some time to come.
A Washington Post headline from January 2014 succinctly summarizes a widely held belief about the utility of tanks in modern warfare: “The end of the tank? The Army says it doesn’t need it, but industry wants to keep building it.” The article goes on to state that, “The manufacturing of tanks — powerful but cumbersome — is no longer essential, the military says. In modern warfare, forces must deploy quickly and ‘project power over great distances.’ Submarines and long-range bombers are needed. Weapons such as drones — nimble and tactical — are the future.”
While this assertion may hold true for militaries worldwide in the long-run, for now it appears to apply uniquely to the United States, which like no other nation on earth has a history of expeditionary warfare and enjoys a high degree of security from invasion by a conventional foe. Consequently, with the U.S. tank force numbering around 6000 main battle tanks (MBTs), it makes sense for the United States military to allocate resources to other weapons programs.
However, looking to the Asia-Pacific the story is different. There, the majority of countries are in the process of upgrading their tank forces.
Read the full story at The Diplomat