Ukrainian drone teams demolished a brigade of US Army tanks and armored vehicles during a live war game held this year—but the US soldiers were lucky enough to get “respawn” attempts while learning from the experience.
The semiannual military exercise, called Combined Resolve, gave the US military a firsthand taste of how modern drone warfare has evolved on the battlefields of Ukraine. The Ukrainian drone operators participating in the exercise were easily able to spot and destroy US armored vehicles by mimicking the actions of dropping bombs from above or moving close enough to simulate a kamikaze strike, according to US officials and a participant who spoke with The Wall Street Journal.
Is there any situation in which tanks win over drones?
Tanks have always been best in combined arms situations where they have close air support and infantry support.
Even regular infantry can be devastating to tanks in certain situations depending on the terrain and tactics used.
I think the future of unit warfare will likely be some hybrid model where the close air support role is offloaded to drones that advance and maneuver along with ground units. Maybe sufficiently advanced militaries will also incorporate drone tank-like ground vehicles and scout vehicles.
All the worlds big military players are watching what’s happening in Ukraine and taking notes.
All those things are things Ukraine has tried or is trying. Unmanner vehicles are mainly used for frontline logistics, but some with machine guns have held positions that infantry couldn’t. Drones appear to be useful in pretty much any situation, but infantry is still needed for taking/keeping control of terrain. Tanks are well suites for assaults, even with drones buzzing arround, but again with the support of infantry and all those other things you mentioned. It seems that war had changed quite a bit, but everything still revolves around infantry.
The drones are in a truck being delivered to the front. They would probably win there.
Really depends on the tanks and drones in question, the soldiers involved, the commanders running the operation, the actual objectives of the mission, yada yada.
Just straight off the bat, drones aren’t great at securing supply lines or moving large volumes of cargo long distances.