VDARE-heavy-armor

Is Armored Warfare Obsolete?

By Steve Sailer

04/04/2022

Here’s a video from Bucha, a suburb of Kiev, where in a two minute stroll down a single street, there are at least ten obliterated combat vehicles, most of them tracked rather than mere wheeled trucks. Granted, the VDV (Russian Airborne Forces) uses armor light enough for planes to carry, which has been said to be particularly likely to be a deathtrap in this war. But still …

Video from Bucha of that VDV formation that was destroyed at the beginning of the conflict with a BTR-82A and ~10 BMD-2 or BTR-D vehicles.https://t.co/qn4YmMWvxA pic.twitter.com/8uttU161Xe

— Rob Lee (@RALee85) April 4, 2022

Is armored warfare becoming obsolete? It looks like riding around in a combat vehicle these days is just pinning a big “Target Me” sign on yourself.

Drone warfare is spreading to the Third World. Remember all the articles about how the rebels were only 200 miles from the Ethiopian capital, which was clearly destined to fall real soon now? But then we stopped hearing much about it. Apparently, the Ethiopian regime was saved by its drones.

But Third World armies are in turn taking up an old tool to spread out and move fast:

Cheap combat drones have completely transformed the modern battlefield. But there is a countermeasure… MOTORCYCLE INFANTRY! THREAD on how some armies may soon look like Mad Max. pic.twitter.com/oCpHzxQmG5

— 🏝Peter Paradise🏝 (@byPeterParadise) January 9, 2022

On the other hand, we’ve been down this road before as well. I can recall an anecdote, perhaps told by Churchill, of attending a pre-Great War military exercise where the highlight was a magnificent cavalry charge. All the observers were most impressed, except for one spoil-sport who pointed out that two men with a .50 caliber machine gun, if they kept their heads, could take out out the whole cavalry force.

Maybe this whole war thing is increasingly becoming a bad idea?

[Comment at Unz.com]

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