The classic scene of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has finally been repeated in the battle between the Israeli army and the Hamas armed group, that is, the extremely sophisticated and advanced modern main battle tank, which is as vulnerable as a lamb to be slaughtered in the face of modified civilian consumer drones. The tank that originally withstood the aura of the "King of Land Battles" was difficult to cope with the fatal blow from the direction of Tianlingai. If the T-90 series tanks that the Russian army is proud of were destroyed by civilian drones on the Ukrainian battlefield, it is still a new combat method that has just emerged in recent years, then the fact that the "Merkava-4" tank, which is also proud of Israelis, also died at the hands of civilian drones, which may show that this is no longer a new combat method, but is becoming a mature tactic in asymmetric operations, which is an important military topic worthy of careful study by all walks of life.
"Merkava-4" from the perspective of Hamas UAVs
The story of Hamas forces dropping bombs on Israeli tanks with civilian consumer multi-axis drones and successfully blowing up the "Merkava-4" tanks with thick armor and active defense systems has been going viral on online social media for a while. In the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, don't look at the current Russian army has repeatedly beaten the Ukrainian army to the point of temper with low-cost suicide drones/patrol missiles, and even cheaper civilian drones. But in fact, the party that initially suffered from civilian drones on the battlefield was the Russian army, which recognized the battlefield value of civilian consumer drones after repeated losses, and relied on the country's complete manufacturing system and production capacity to grasp the initiative in this regard with the numerical advantage of "you more, then I have more than you".
Suicide drones and civilian drones threaten the safety of tanks
Many people may think that after the extremely low-cost civilian consumer UAV goes into battle, the threat to the tank has changed from the traditional two-dimensional to three-dimensional, that is, the tank crew has to allocate more energy to guard against sneak attacks from ultra-low-altitude drones flying below 100 meters. This is precisely a blind spot in traditional tank design, because the main task of the tank is still for land combat, and the means of observation and defense against ultra-low altitude threats are quite limited. As a result, a tank with a unit price of several million dollars was killed by a civilian consumer drone worth several hundred yuan.
MANPADS need to be deployed in front-line positions
To be fair, this view is true, but it is still slightly inadequate. After civilian consumer-grade UAVs go to the battlefield, it not only expands the latitude of the land war battlefield, but also blurs the concept of "first-line positions and second-line positions" in traditional military doctrine. Specifically, the portable anti-tank missiles equipped by the front-line troops often have a maximum range of about 4~5 kilometers, although the average effective range of the main gun of modern tanks is longer, but it is still a typical first-line combat weapon, and the shooter is unlikely to launch an attack in the second-line position more than 10 kilometers from the tank. That is to say, armored forces can still approach the enemy's front-line positions with a relatively fast impact speed, and after rushing to the effective firing range, they can carry out fire strikes, which greatly reduces the combat effectiveness of enemy anti-tank missile shooters.
A civilian drone that can hang bombs after modification
But after the advent of civilian drones, this approach did not work. For the advancing armored forces, a drone strike and losses mean that they have engaged in fire with the enemy. However, for the UAV operator, it can completely kill enemy tanks in the second-line position 10 kilometers away, that is, "over-the-horizon dimensionality reduction strike". For one side, the current battle is fierce first-line combat, while the other side is in a safe second-line position. This is the blurring effect of first- and second-line positions brought about by extremely low-cost civilian UAVs, which makes traditional land warfare weapons such as tanks extremely unsuitable for the same traditional land warfare methods.
Domestic new "625" wheeled self-propelled anti-aircraft gun
Since Russia, a world-class military power, and Israel, a military power in the Middle East, have both overturned their cars due to civilian drones on the real battlefield, their experiences are obviously enough to sound the alarm for the PLA, and the land battlefield is ushering in a revolution, from combat forms to weapons and equipment will be changed as a result. At present, it seems that since last year, the PLA has newly installed a number of small-caliber rapid-fire self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, such as the "625" wheeled self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, which can effectively deal with various suicide drones/patrol missiles and civilian drones flying at ultra-low altitudes.
Automatic anti-aircraft weapon station on the turret of a domestic VT-5 tank
Of course, hard means of destruction are important, but if the tank unit cannot get the accompanying anti-aircraft cover of self-propelled anti-aircraft guns in time, then it can only rely on itself. Therefore, both small anti-air electronic jamming devices that come with the tank; or a remote-controlled machine-gun station that can detect and automatically strike at incoming UAVs; and vehicle-mounted drones that can increase its situational awareness, or will become an important supporting equipment for China as it explores the next generation of tanks. The big pit that the Russian and Israeli armies have stepped on, we must not step on again in a potential military struggle in the future.