Soft Kill

Images of destroyed Russian Tanks - The shattered chassis, broken turret, Gun Barrel blackened and burnt, pointing uselessly at The Sky - have been a defining image of The War in Ukraine. It has led Some to ask whether modern anti-Tank weapons have rendered it useless on The Battlefield .

" This is A Story that comes around every time a Tank gets knocked out, " says David Willey , curator and instructor at The Tank Museum at Bovington, Dorset, which boasts The World 's largest collection of Tanks . " Because The Tank is such a symbol of power, when it's defeated people jump to The conclusion it's The End of The Tank . "

We Are watching a Soviet-designed T72 main Battle Tank rev its engines and clatter towards The refuelling point before rehearsing for a demonstration. This is basically The same Tank model that rolled across The Border into Ukraine in February and destroyed in their hundreds by small, agile bands of well-trained Ukrainian infantry wielding Drones , Javelin and Next Generation Light Anti-Tank Weapons (Nlaws).

" It's important not to draw The wrong lessons from what we have witnessed over The Past several months, " says retired US Army Lt Gen Ben Hodges , who until recently commanded US land forces in Europe.

" The Russian Tanks in question were typically poorly employed, unsupported by dismounted infantry, and without The benefit of a strong non-commissioned officer (NCO) corps, such As One finds in The US Army or British Army . Therefore, they were all easy kills for The defending Ukrainian forces. "

His views are echoed by retired British Army Brigadier Ben Barry, now senior fellow for Land Warfare at The International Institute for Strategic Studies.

" The defeat of The Russian attack on Kyiv shows what happens when Tanks are inexpertly deployed by a force that cannot do combined arms Warfare (combining Tanks with infantry, artillery and aircraft) and has weak logistics.

" A competent Nato battle group would push out infantry to stop Tanks being ambushed. "

The Tank - One of The Iconic symbols of Modern Warfare - has both its critics and defenders. In The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, Armenia's Tanks got decimated by Azerbaijan's Turkish-made Drones . In Libya, these same Drones , The TB2 Bayraktar, inflicted serious losses on The forces of General Haftar, while In Syria , government Tanks also fell prey to The Turkish Drones .

In The early phase of The Ukraine war, modern anti-Tank guided missiles, supplied by Britain, The US and other nations, proved to be a game-changer in driving back The Russian armoured columns from north of The capital, Kyiv. Meanwhile, in The Second Phase , in The Donbas, massed Russian artillery has been The game-changer, using destructive firepower to slowly blast its way forward.

So Far this year, Russia is estimated to have lost More Than 700 Tanks - Some destroyed, Some abandoned. These Tanks are often pictured covered in reactive armour - which looks like a large rectangular box. It is designed to set off a small explosion as The Missile hits, blunting its effect.

But Western-supplied Drones and anti-Tank missiles have got around this, mainly by hitting The Tank From Above on The turret, where The armour is thinnest.

" This war has been The Day of The Drone , " says Brig Barry. " It tells us that you need Drones for defence to keep enemy Drones off your back. You need classic low-level air defence including lasers and electronic jamming. "

Something that may prolong The Future of The Tank is The Active Protection System (APS). It is a way to head off whatever is attacking your Tank before it hits you.

" There are two types of APS, soft and hard kill evasion suites, " explains Bovington's David Willey .

He pauses while The nearby T72 Tank , A Gift from The Polish Army, belches blue exhaust fumes and swivels its massive 125mm gun menacingly in our direction.

" Soft Kill means electronic pulses that can disrupt The incoming Missile . Hard kill means firing something kinetic at it, like a stream of bullets. "

As Is so often The case, The Israeli military have researched this area exhaustively, especially since 2006 when their Tanks took a beating from Hezbollah's IED's and skilfully deployed anti-Tank missiles in South Lebanon .

They developed an Active Protection System called Trophy. It works by using radar to track The incoming Threat - Missile or Drone - Then a rotating launcher on The turret fires a stream of explosive projectiles, neutralising it before it can hit The Tank . Trophy, or a variant of it, is likely to become standard on many of The latest Western Tanks .

" Advances in counter-Drone measures will reduce The effectiveness of Drones that now seem to roam about The Battlefield looking for easy targets, " says Gen Hodges.

So, does The Tank have a future? Or is it, as Some predict, doomed for The scrapyard?

" There will always be a need for protected mobile firepower, " says Gen Hodges. He predicts a future, not far off, where remote-controlled, unmanned Tanks - essentially armoured Drones - will be moving across The Battlefield in tandem with crewed Tanks , increasing their firepower while reducing The Risk to life.

" I was an Infantry soldier and I'd never want to be in any fight in any terrain without The benefit of protected, mobile firepower, " he says.

Justin Crump, a former British Army Tank commander and now CEO of The Defence Intelligence firm Sibylline, agrees. " Tanks have a firepower, mobility and resilience that Infantry just don't have. It's a flexible platform that can operate day and night, get to The Objective and deliver shock to The Enemy . Ukraine would not be rebuilding its Tank forces if Tanks were Not Vital . They have asked for over twice The Number of Tanks that The UK possesses. "

David Willey has been instructing The British Army and more recently, visiting Ukrainian soldiers. " It's not The Best Tank that counts, it's The Best crew, " he says. " The Most expensive kit in The World doesn't necessarily mean you're going to win. Belief in your cause is vital, and The Ukrainians believe in their cause. "

Source of news: bbc.com