Modern day Battle Tanks that combine speed, protection, and firepower are still needed to Hold ground , can sprint rapidly across the battlefield, shrugging off hits, engaging enemy forces with cannons and machine guns, and driving deep behind enemy lines.
[ Below : The 'flying tanks,' T-80BVM, are now being equipped as standard with protection against precision-guided weapons]
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Yet as powerful as they are, with right hardware & tanks can be stopped; even unarmored ground troops armed with the right weapons can kill the largest and best protected tanks dead.
Tanks are designed to kill enemy tanks - It was reported in Sep 2023 that the US-made M1 Abrams tank is at last in Ukraine, and while it has its limitations, it's more than just another piece of Western weaponry. It's heavy-duty, combat-proven armor that was built with a very specific mission in mind:
killing Russian tanks.
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Improvements in antitank weapons and techniques to suppress armour such as
"Top Attack Mode" are leading to Armor designs better able to withstand them and vice versa, with pendulum swings marking the temporary advantage of one or the other.
In recent years, the balance rested firmly on the side of well-trained infantry with both advanced guided missiles and unguided rockets.
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The greatest of these capabilities are fire-and-forget, guided, top-attack missiles—the premier model being the American-made Javelin.
This weapon allows a single soldier to target and destroy even the most heavily armored main battle tank with an almost guaranteed kill rate, at great range and with minimal risk.
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