Why Protecting Tanks is Getting Much More Difficult

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0:00 Anti-Tank Weapons Are … Strange!
0:59 Short History of Tanks and Anti-Tank Weapons
1:47 How RPG-7 Improved on Bazooka and Panzerfaust
3:23 What Are Shaped Charges and How Do They Work?
5:20 The Achilles’ Heel of Shaped Charges
7:06 What Are Insensitive Explosives and What is Special About Them?
8:22 What is the Explosive Lens Inside a Nuclear Weapon?
9:05 The 1966 Palomeras Accident and The Invention of Insensitive High Explosives
10:10 How Does Explosive Reactive Armor Work?
10:43 How Does Javelin Work Against Explosive Armor?
11:11 Why Active Protection Systems Are Needed
11:53 Are Tanks Obsolete?

Explosive Reactive Armor (ERA) has been around for a while, protecting against shaped charges like RPGs. But the effectiveness of ERA is now being challenged by more advanced HEAT missiles, like Javelins. What RPGs have in common with nuclear bombs, and what active protection systems can do to combat modern anti-tank weapons, is #NotWhatYouThink #NWYT #longs

Music:
Rise of the Velcro – Gabriel Lewis
Refined Enlightenment – Howard Harper-Barnes
Cloak – Christoffer Moe Ditlevsen
Before Nightfall – Christoffer Moe Ditlevsen
No Stone Unturned – Brendon Moeller
Blue Texas – Rockin’ For Decades
Otherworld – Lama House

Footage:
Select images/videos from Getty Images
Shutterstock

US Department of Defense

Note: “The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.”

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46 thoughts on “Why Protecting Tanks is Getting Much More Difficult”

  28. tank now become just a normal regular moving artillery. they doesn't really have the ground march superiority anymore . and they become more and more ridiculously look with all those chicken coop look cage . all designs marvel are basically dead . why bother making a good loking and efficient design, when in the end it would look like chicken coop .

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  29. Light tanks are going to make a big comeback with drones. Cheaper, more, and expendable tanks, without survivability at such a significant priority, would free up a lot of opportunity for operations especially in cramped urban settings where combat is increasingly happening in. Or particularly challenging and not very flat terrain.

    For the cost of an MBT, there has to be a way to split that to a squad of multiple light drone tanks. Strapped with weapons more than capable enough to handle anything. Launchers don't need to be that big to do lots of damage. Especially with situational and varied ammo for whatever the need is.

    Losing a tank becomes no big deal. It won't happen often, and it can be recovered. It no longer costs human lives and their experience. More aggressive, and potentially very effective, options and operations become viable. Especially with improvements in speed and agility with sacrifices to armor weight.

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