"Lessons Relearned from WWII - MBTs/AFVs in Ukraine" Topic

Yep … lesson learned sometimes have to be relearned.

1)The WWII Germans over engineered many of their AFVs. Making them harder to maintain/repair.

2) They would be often KO'd by much cheaper and easier to produce AT weapons.

3) Numbers – no matter how many they made it was never enough to combat the more numerous, more easily to produced & maintained Allied MBTs/AFVs. E.g. the US M4 Sherman …

The new big game hunter on the battlefield – The Drone being the new cheaper weapon to mass produce. That can kill AFVs effectively. Along with the newer very high-tech Infantry AT/weapons also very deadly. Can be very dangerous to MBTs/AFVs until tech and tactics can evolve to minimalize the new AFV killers on the current battlefield.

Both tech & tactics/techniques are coming about/being worked on to mitigate the "deadly killers". To increase AFV survivability, etc. E.g. in WWI, aircraft and tanks appearance in combat for the first time. Made it important to find a way to limit their effectiveness. I.e. AA & AT weapons along with tactics …

All that being said, the Russians only marginally being able fight modern combined arms warfare. Being poorly trained, motivated, lead, and supplied/supported. The Ukrainian Forces still have KO'd about half of the Russian AFV inventory. Even with the challenges of keeping their armor/mech units' mission capable. While fighting understrength in many situations.

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Seems like you need some additional lessons

4) You need to seize air (drone) superiority
5) Never launch unsupported armor attacks

It is impossible to protect a tank along the entire perimeter with equally thick armor. A drone attacks from any side – from behind, from the side, from above, even from below. Moreover, at your choice – in the most vulnerable points.
Conclusion – thick armor loses its meaning, at least at the current stage. The tank turns into just a self-propelled gun and loses its role as the main means of breaking through the enemy's defense. Too vulnerable, too expensive.

I can assume that tanks will still be replaced by heavy assault infantry in armored exoskeletons – hello "Warhammer" 40000 ;)
Although it is possible that these will also be some kind of robotic platforms – terminators in action …

Aircraft are also extremely vulnerable to modern air defense. Aviation is deprived of the ability to cross the front line, which means that at this stage, aircraft are too expensive platforms for delivering cruise bombs and launching missiles from their own rear. I think such functions will soon be successfully performed by unmanned systems – at least it will be possible to avoid large losses of experienced and extremely expensive pilots.

The future, without a doubt, belongs to unmanned aircraft…

At sea, any surface ships of traditional design will also become very vulnerable to attacks by drones (flying, floating, underwater).

In general, war has changed. When all this diversity begins to be fully controlled by artificial intelligence, war will change beyond recognition.

The future, without a doubt, belongs to unmanned aircraft…

For now. The dominance of the Trench lasted only 3 years before the introduction of Tanks.

Already we see furious activity to codify drone warfare into doctrine, no doubt leading to a scenario in which a redesigned Tank once again has a role, supported by combined arms.

1. Tank designs can incorporate better active anti-drone defenses and measures that can include active LIDAR/Radar tied to either area denial munitions like big shotgun blasts, or lasers, and even their own defensive drone swarms whose only role is to stop incoming drones

2. Formal Drone dominance requirements. Call Drones what they are – RCAS: REALLY Close Air Support. Any successful operation must include a Drone Superiority phase in which a combatant must suppress enemy drones and take control of the RCAS space. This will see the deployment of pure "air superiority" drones whose only role is to seek and destroy enemy drones, probably with multiple types of drones like a stealthy sensor platform loitering high above helping spot enemy drones to queue drone dominance platforms into play.

3. Better personal, squad level drone defenses to protect against FPV drones. Its horrifying and painful to watch FPV drone attack footage on some poor guy trying to crawl to safety. There's a clear need for infantry drone defense and support. This can take the form of dedicated antidrone weapons, EMP type projectors, personal aerosol smoke, and even personal or squad level defense drones.

4. EW and Battlefield Cyberwarfare – expect a new evolution in antidrone EW and Cyberwarfare, perhaps with AI-enhanced signal warfare to scramble enemy drones or take control of an enemy's drones

5. More battlefield robotics – perhaps the Tank is supplemented or partially replaced by robotic armored systems. Perhaps each Squad or Platoon gets its own Robo-Dog or battlefield robotic helper and defense unit. We could see the deployment of "Aliens (the movie)" style robotic sentry guns to help infantry defend and against enemy robotics and drones.

And so the cycle continues -- meaning any near future tabletop wargame designers have a LOT of new rules to figure out!

Yes, the eternal competition of sword and shield…

SBm +1

4) You need to seize air (drone) superiority
5) Never launch unsupported armor attacks

That should be a given … but as we see … lessons are forgotten. Or even if they could remember, can they execute those lessons effectively ?

It is impossible to protect a tank along the entire perimeter with equally thick armor.

Not really … MBTs/AFVs, etc. have MGs that can be used for AA. The US uses the SAM Umbrella tactic. Mech Cos. may get a MANPAD, e.g. Stinger. But the Area of Ops is covered with a series/layers of ADA weapons. Of various types with different ranges, etc.

And again, like any new weapon systems introduced to a current battlefield. There will be other weapons systems and tactics developed to counter new tech.

The future, without a doubt, belongs to unmanned aircraft…

For now. The dominance of the Trench lasted only 3 years before the introduction of Tanks.

Already we see furious activity to codify drone warfare into doctrine, no doubt leading to a scenario in which a redesigned Tank once again has a role, supported by combined arms.

Exactly right, I agree … Sometimes I think the Russians will have a harder time reacting to the new drone tech. Based on their marginal ability to attempt to use modern combined arms warfare. They seem to have advanced little from WWI mass Infantry ops supported by massive amounts of FA … To poorly handling armor/mech forces. Much like many armies did in the opening months and even years of WWII …

I think drones will become part of the Combined Arms Tm. But not dominate. Combined arms will just have new member. As we see in the Ukraine.

Russia's Krona-E Missile System Could Knock Out Ukraine's Strongest Weapon:

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