Tom de Castella ponders if the era of the battle-tank might be coming to an end:

• The decline of tanks began in WW2 with the rise of air power. Tanks were sitting ducks for fighter jets.
• Since then tanks have often seen action – but only in flat areas where there are wide open spaces. In the jungles of Vietnam and the mountains of Afghanistan helicopters have ruled supreme.
• In fact the British Ministry of Defense even commissioned a paper asking if all its tanks should be replaced with helicopters.
• Tanks still serve a symbolic value. They were used by China to clamp down on Tiananmen Square protesters and Saddam Hussein liked to use them as a status symbol.
• And while the use of tanks might be falling in NATO and the west, the number of tanks is increasing in Asia and the Middle East.
• Future tank battles though are likely to be fought with drone-tanks rather than the one we’re used to seeing.

Read more about the history of the tank, how the defeat of the Axis powers was due, in part, to the decline of the tank, and more over here.

Source: BBC