Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Updating the Wonder Tank

The Army and Marine Corps will have their Abrams tanks through 2027 at least, with programs to extend the life of the main battle tank.

As I wrote early in the decade, we have not been able to replace the heavy abrams with a light wonder tank. The Abrams has stubbornly refused to be obsolete despite the predictions of some who would ignore actual battlefield performance (though the tank is surely vulnerable to top-attack weapons).

We can certainly use lighter vehicles to bridge the gap between leg infantry and heavy forces based on Abrams and Bradleys. I've never doubted that.

But the Future Combat System manned combat vehicle tank replacement did not match the Army's ambitions to make our light armor needs meet our heavy armor needs, too.