DEATH OF THE TANK

Is this the end of dominance of the battlefield bully?

- AJAI SHUKLA

When Russian tanks lined up on the border with Ukraine in February 2022, experts harked back to the Soviet invasions of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. Once again, Moscow's expectations were a quick seizure of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and the replacement of Ukraine's recalcitrant government with a more pliant one that received and obeyed orders from the Kremlin.

Such an ending is nowhere in sight.

Instead, the war rages on, and Russia's President Vladimir Putin may be closer to an exit than his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Russia's vaunted military, especially its mechanised forces, lie battered and scattered while social media networks are filled with videos of charred carcasses and deadly attacks on Russian tanks.

According to the British specialist site, Warspotting, as many as 2,796 Russian tanks have been destroyed as of July 1 this year.

Thus exposed, the question of the tank's vulnerability is a grave concern for India, where the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is engaged in developing two new tanks: A25tonne light tank for the mountains, and a 50 tonne main battle tank (MBT) for the deserts and plains.

Battlefield bully This inevitably raises questions about whether the dominance of the MBT-the bully of the battlefield since the Somme campaign in 1916- has ended. Given its paramountcy over the battlefield, military planners have relentlessly devoted resources and attention to countering the tank's three battle-winning attributesmobility, protection, and firepower.