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What's stopping remote controlled unmanned tanks? Tanks are a huge bullseye target on the battlefield and everyone inside seems pretty vulnerable from anything

What's stopping remote controlled unmanned tanks? Tanks are a huge bullseye target on the battlefield and everyone inside seems pretty vulnerable from anything but small arms fire.

ISL 6y ago
Any jammer that thrashes the entire EM spectrum? When a modern war big-enough to involve opposing forces of main-battle tanks kicks off, most of one's intuition about what is fair or possible goes out the window. This is particularly the case if the other side knows you have remotely-operated hardware. Blinding oneself can be a great strategy if your opposition is rendered both blind and ineffective. Edit regarding armor: it is my impression that modern main-battle tanks are designed to survive attacks from everything up to, and sometimes including, weapons whose only purpose is to kill main-battle tanks.
- nickthemagicman 6y ago
  The amount of power that one would need to jam the electromagnetic spectrum would have to be massive though right? Seems like anything from a plane could take down a tank? I don't know how prevalent air forces are in countries though.
  - ISL 6y ago
    Jamming selective bands requires some care. Filling the RF environment with noise may only require a powerful generator and a suitably mis-configured spark-gap transmitter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark-gap_transmitter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark-gap_transmitter
    - nickthemagicman 6y ago
      You would mess up all of your communication as well though. So its kind of a double edged sword. Additionally accompanying infantry can potentially use lasers to guide the tank. Or line of site drones that make full laser communications possible until the spark gap can be identified and destroyed.
vkou 6y ago
> Tanks are a huge bullseye target on the battlefield and everyone inside seems pretty vulnerable from anything but small arms fire. Tanks operate supported by infantry, and tanks really do not like infantry pointing anti-tank weapons at them. You may get one surprise shot at a tank, but unless you're truly suicidal, you're probably not going to stick around for a second.
- paganel 6y ago
  Tanks were really vulnerable in Syria against Kornet-like [1] weapons, I think only the Russians providing T-90s to the Syrian Army helped made things a little better for them, but by that point the Government-supported army had already lost dozens (probably more than 100 even) of tanks. Also judging by what happened in Syria, tanks are not that efficient in densily built urban environments. The Syrian Army tanks had almost free reign in the Damascus neighborhood called Jobar but with not that much showing for it. Similar thing happened in East Aleppo, but at a smaller scale. What helped tip the balance in favor of Assad’s army were the Russian air bombardments (a quick search for “Syria cluster bombs” will help clear things up). [1] https://wikipedia.org/wiki/9M133_Kornet https://wikipedia.org/wiki/9M133_Kornet
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- greedo 6y ago
  Infantry only helps tanks when the opposition is close; if your opponent is using Kornet/Javelin type launchers and maneuvering after launch, the infantry won't matter a lick. What does is artillery matched with UAVs to spot the hunter/killer ATGM teams.

What's stopping remote controlled unmanned tanks? Tanks are a huge bullseye target on the battlefield and everyone inside seems pretty vulnerable from anything but small arms fire.

ISL 6y ago

Any jammer that thrashes the entire EM spectrum? When a modern war big-enough to involve opposing forces of main-battle tanks kicks off, most of one's intuition about what is fair or possible goes out the window. This is particularly the case if the other side knows you have remotely-operated hardware. Blinding oneself can be a great strategy if your opposition is rendered both blind and ineffective. Edit regarding armor: it is my impression that modern main-battle tanks are designed to survive attacks from everything up to, and sometimes including, weapons whose only purpose is to kill main-battle tanks.

nickthemagicman 6y ago
The amount of power that one would need to jam the electromagnetic spectrum would have to be massive though right? Seems like anything from a plane could take down a tank? I don't know how prevalent air forces are in countries though.
- ISL 6y ago
  Jamming selective bands requires some care. Filling the RF environment with noise may only require a powerful generator and a suitably mis-configured spark-gap transmitter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark-gap_transmitter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark-gap_transmitter
  - nickthemagicman 6y ago
    You would mess up all of your communication as well though. So its kind of a double edged sword. Additionally accompanying infantry can potentially use lasers to guide the tank. Or line of site drones that make full laser communications possible until the spark gap can be identified and destroyed.

vkou 6y ago

> Tanks are a huge bullseye target on the battlefield and everyone inside seems pretty vulnerable from anything but small arms fire. Tanks operate supported by infantry, and tanks really do not like infantry pointing anti-tank weapons at them. You may get one surprise shot at a tank, but unless you're truly suicidal, you're probably not going to stick around for a second.

paganel 6y ago
Tanks were really vulnerable in Syria against Kornet-like [1] weapons, I think only the Russians providing T-90s to the Syrian Army helped made things a little better for them, but by that point the Government-supported army had already lost dozens (probably more than 100 even) of tanks. Also judging by what happened in Syria, tanks are not that efficient in densily built urban environments. The Syrian Army tanks had almost free reign in the Damascus neighborhood called Jobar but with not that much showing for it. Similar thing happened in East Aleppo, but at a smaller scale. What helped tip the balance in favor of Assad’s army were the Russian air bombardments (a quick search for “Syria cluster bombs” will help clear things up). [1] https://wikipedia.org/wiki/9M133_Kornet https://wikipedia.org/wiki/9M133_Kornet
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
greedo 6y ago
Infantry only helps tanks when the opposition is close; if your opponent is using Kornet/Javelin type launchers and maneuvering after launch, the infantry won't matter a lick. What does is artillery matched with UAVs to spot the hunter/killer ATGM teams.