New era of warfare? Are tanks obsolete?

[MalO]

Leftist Arms Dealer Eric Schmidt Wants Army to Ditch 'Useless' Tanks in Favor of AI-Powered Drones

Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, a noted Hillary Clinton lackey, and CEO of a defense industry startup, has suggested that the US Army should replace its tanks with AI-powered drones, citing the effectiveness of drones in recent conflicts.

www.breitbart.com

An arms dealer is asking the US Army to scrap all its tanks and go all-in on drones. It's an interesting idea.

An M1 Abrams costs about 4.1 million dollars

I can't find anything concrete on the cost for an anti-tank drone, but costs range from six figures all the way down to $500:



That's a huge price discrepancy! But it's even more when you factor in costs for fuel, maintenance, and manpower. It costs a lot of fuel to deploy and operate a tank, as well as maintenance and repairs, and every time you lose a tank you are also losing the people who operate it.

Meanwhile drones not just cost less to manufacture, they cost less in fuel, and when you lose a drone you aren't losing a human operator.

As for maintenance costs, drones are so cheap they might as well be treated as expendable.

Is this a new era in warfare? Are tanks about to be scrapped as a useless and obsolete technology? A method of war going extinct just like mounted knights?

 

[MalO]

It's some serious sci-fi shit to think of future wars being fought with drone swarms instead of massed armor like in WW2, Desert Storm, and others.

I could see drone swarms being much more effective in urban combat where you might not be able to drive in huge numbers of tanks into a tight environment, where your tanks could be exposed to guerrilla fighters, mines, or get trapped by damaged infrastructure.

 

[AgEngDawg]

I know one thing. A aircraft carrier is not survivable in a great power war.

We need to be investing more in subs.

 

[MalO]

I agree. Aircraft carriers have phenominal anti-air capabilities but drones are about to wreck the way we have waged war since WW2.

Imagine if China starts mass producing them, Maybe $1000 drones that are armed with an RPG. Produce a million of them for only a billion dollars. Easily within China's ability.

An RPG can't sink an aircraft carrier it can't penetrate the hull. But it can kill anyone topside, can destroy antenna and electronics. Can destroy any planes that are topside. Send wave after wave of the things, 24/7 and just harass the fuck out of it. The aircraft carrier could try to shoot them all down, but it just depletes its ammunition and can't shoot them all down fast enough.

Those drones effectively disable that carrier, preventing it from launching any attacks against the Chinese mainland. All done for a fraction of the price of a 13 billion dollar carrier.

 

[MalO]

10,000 drones controlled by a single computer? Reminds me of the Trade Federation's droid control ship.

 

[Rebarcock.]

I don't think this will be the gamechanger they think unless there is a way to harden comms w the drone and sending unit. Jamming is too easy to make them go offline. While there is a bigger scope for the drone to work in, they won't replace mobile artillery