The same is about ALL moving on the ground vehicles - so APC's, IFV's, tanks, MRAP's etc.
So tanks here are in not better and not worse situation then other vehicles.
So? What's point?
Frontal tank armour? Propably not.
Side and top armour? Yes, they are. Of course if tanks have not APS...
Defiently not, in fact there is exatly opposide direction now.
21st Century Warfare Renders the Tank Obsolete : RIP: Army Tanks, 1915-2014
21st Century Warfare Renders the Tank Obsolete
See if you can identify the following pattern and guess what comes next...
A fist, a rock, a club, a spear, an arrow, a sword, a cannon, a musket, a machine gun, a tank, a _____.
Each of these is a weapon whose widespread use made the previous one obsolete. So what comes next? What is the next weapon that will make the tank obsolete?
"The manufacturing of tanks — powerful but cumbersome — is no longer essential," the Washington Post recently wrote, citing U.S. military commentary. "In modern warfare, forces must deploy quickly and project power over great distances. Submarines and long-range bombers are needed. Weapons such as drones — nimble and tactical — are the future. Tanks are something of a relic."
The Tank's Demise
While the tank, the airplane, and the submarine all emerged at about the same time and were first used together in warfare in World War I, the tank quickly rose to become the dominant unit on the battlefield.
Although air superiority grew in importance throughout the 20th century in clearing the way for advancing troops, the tank remained utterly essential to storming and securing enemy targets and installations. In the Six-Day War in 1967, for example, more than 2,500 tanks were used between Arab and Israeli forces.
That dominance is no longer. Rapid advances in miniaturization and computer automation have produced the weapon of the future: the aerial drone.
It can be equipped with fearsome firepower while costing only $3 or $4 million — half as much as an $8 million Abrams tank, a quarter as much as a $15 million Blackhawk helicopter, and a sixth as much as a $25 million F18 fighter.
While ground forces will still be required to capture and secure buildings and territory, that task can now be performed by a much cheaper infantry platoon without any tanks at all — just a few inexpensive and well-equipped drones circling overhead.
Already in the U.S., two major defense contractors have been scaling back the production and refurbishing of tanks and armored personnel carriers. The York, Pennsylvania plant of British contractor BAE Systems (LSE: BA), which had been building and refurbishing the Bradley Fighting Vehicle for the U.S. Army, has already dismissed half of its workforce, with more layoffs last December.
"The reality of it is we've already started shutting down," manufacturing executive Alice Conner informed the Washington Post. "If BAE does not get any new Bradley funding — or win new work from commercial firms or foreign governments, it will close the line in 2015."
In another defense spending casualty, General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), which builds M1 Abrams tanks — the most powerful tank in the world — is scaling down its Lima, Ohio factory. Over the past decade, the contractor's workforce has been slashed from over 1,200 to some 500 today.
The Army simply doesn't see the need for more tanks. Speaking before Congress in 2012, General Raymond Odierno, the Army's chief of staff, put it as simply as possible: "We don't need the tanks. Our tank fleet is two and a half years old on average now. We're in good shape, and these are additional tanks that we don't need."
In response, defense contractors and their over 500 suppliers have lobbied hard, convincing Congress to write them huge checks worth $140 million for Bradley vehicles and $74 million for Abrams tanks for fiscal year 2014.
The fear isn't just over the loss of jobs, but over losing the technology and manufacturing skills as well.
But experts like Angela Canterbury of the Project on Government Oversight criticized the move. "It is really making us less safe when we're throwing money that's hard to come by at programs that don't meet what should be our current national security strategy."
Just what should the national security strategy focus on? Many believe it's the weapon of the future... the drone.
The Rise of the Drones
Besides being cheaper to build and maintain than fighter jets, the greatest advantage of drones is that they are unmanned and are thus capable of long-range, long-endurance flight.
The world record for the longest flight belongs to the QinetiQ Zephyr drone built by British defense company QinetiQ (LSE: QQ) for a flight lasting 336 hours and 22 minutes — just over 14 days straight.
Another advantage is not requiring a pressurized cockpit, saving space and cost. Drones can fly to altitudes of 60,000 feet and higher and perform high g-force maneuvers which pilots cannot.
And there is something else they can do, as was recently demonstrated for the first time in Australia last week: They can auto-detect potential collisions.
Researchers at Queensland Unmanned Aircraft System in conjunction with Boeing Research & Technology Australia (BR&T-A) and unmanned aircraft developer Insitu Pacific have developed an onboard aircraft detection system enabling drones to detect other aircraft in their vicinity.
During a test flight near Brisbane, Australia last week, the equipped drone "provided real time warnings back to the ground control station, resulting in a successful manual collision avoidance manoeuvre," Phys.Org reported. It is a critical development in making unmanned drones safer for use in civilian/commercial airspace.
"Project ResQu," ARCAA director and QUT Professor Duncan Campbell explained, "aims to fast-track the development of smart technologies that will enable unmanned aircraft to fly safely in the civil airspace. Ultimately, this will allow UA to provide public services such as assistance in disaster management and recovery, as well as in environmental, biosecurity and resource management."
There is just one more obstacle to overcome in the development of the ultimate drone...
"The final technical hurdle to UA operating in civil airspace," Campbell identified, "is their ability to land safely in an emergency."
But rest assured, his team is working on that too. "Our collaborative research is expected to make significant strides towards overcoming this hurdle, too, in the coming months."
Once all those systems are in place, all you need to add are guns and missiles to produce the ultimate fighting machine. Low cost, high maneuverability, long endurance, collision detection and avoidance, and self-landing — drones will soon change the way battles are fought and won.
And that is just for military applications. There are countless uses besides, including firefighting in remote areas, search and rescue, wildlife monitoring, volcanic studies, emergency aid deliveries, even criminal pursuits.
Investor Opportunities
Is the field of drone technology too new for viable investment opportunities? Hardly. Just have a browse through this list of 490 companies worldwide ranging from UAV manufacturers to software designers to drone operators.
More than 90 of them are American, including AeroVironment (NASDAQ: AVAV), Boeing (NYSE: BA) — which owns Insitu, noted above — Honeywell (NYSE: HON), Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC), Rockwell Collins (NYSE: COL), and Textron (NYSE: TXT).
Yet as we have seen in the recent awarding of over $200 million to manufacturers and refurbishers of armored vehicles and tanks, we are still in that middle stage between the old and the new. It's a lot like the First World War, which saw a motley blend of brand new tanks and planes mixed with rapidly antiquating sabres and bayonets.
But anyone with an eye for practicality and cost-efficiency can see how drones will usher in a whole new era of working and fighting from the air. We are in the midst of a major shift from conventional to ultra-modern. Government funding priorities will eventually shift with it, as will commercial investment priorities.
Welcome to the 21st century. Nothing lasts for centuries anymore. A technology's shelf life is down to mere decades now, getting shorter all the time.Until next time,
Joseph Cafariello for Wealth Daily
