The evolving technology of war is the seesaw battle between offense and defense, sometimes one dominates, sometimes the other.
Time was when armored knights on massive war horses dominated combat. Then, the offense technology of war evolved. Archers and, later, gunpowder-propelled bullets made suits of armor mostly obsolete. Vestiges of body armor still persist in helmets and ballistic vests.
Mechanized armor, particularly the tank, is the armored knight of today’s battlefield. Sure enough, the offensive technology of war, via drones, loitering munitions, etc., are having that same effect, defeating the defense that is mechanized armor.
Defensive technology is scrambling now to find affordable ways to defeat cheap suicide drones and loitering munitions, without bankrupting the defender. The battlefield envisioned in the early Terminator films isn’t too far away.
Consequently, this piece on our new tank prototype feels somewhat obsolete.
