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In the last two months, Russia destroyed five out of the 31 American-made M1 Abrams tanks that the US sent to Ukraine last year, a US official told The New York Times. At least three more were damaged since they were sent to the front lines in early 2024.
Not only this, since the war between Russia and Ukraine began in February 2022, the latter has lost 796 of its main tanks. In the same period, more than 2,900 Russian tanks were destroyed, according to Oryx, a military analysis site that counts losses based on visual evidence, a report by the NYT said.
The staggering numbers of destroyed tanks in the Russia-Ukraine war showcase the fact that in modern warfare, tanks have become increasingly vulnerable. However, countries including Russia continue to manufacture or use them at a large scale — on Friday, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said the country was ramping up the manufacturing of tanks.
Here is a look at what has made tanks so vulnerable and why countries continue to manufacture and use them.
Why have tanks become vulnerable in warfare?
In the Russia-Ukraine war, drones have emerged as the inexpensive yet effective tank killer. One such drone is the first-person view (FPV) drone, which costs $500 or less. Equipped with a camera and explosives, it is controlled by soldiers on the ground through a remote control and often crashed into targets.
Soldiers use FPV drones to hit tanks in their most vulnerable spots such as the engine, an open hatch, or the space between the hull and the turret, according to the NYT report.
One reason why Ukraine particularly has lost so many tanks is that it has not really provided them with full protection. FPV drone attacks can be deterred by using jammers that disrupt their connection to the remote pilot. Shotguns and even simple fishing nets have been used to destroy or catch some of them, the NYT report said.
Ukraine also has short-range anti-aircraft weapons, which can be deployed on front lines to defend tanks. However, the country has largely used them to destroy Russian aircraft and helicopters and not FPV drones.
So, have tanks become obsolete?
Despite their drawbacks, tanks provide a combination of firepower, mobility and shock effect.
Speaking to the NYT, Colonel Markus Reisner, an Austrian military trainer who closely follows how weapons are being used, said, “If you want to seize terrain, you need a tank”.
They have repeatedly underlined their importance over the years. Tanks were born towards the end of World War I but used effectively and cleverly, for the first time, by the Nazis in World War II, who made them a key part of their blitzkrieg strategy.
After World War II, it did seem like tanks were on their way out because most of the countries had by then invented far superior anti-tank weapons. This became even more evident during the 1973 Arab–Israeli War. The Egyptian military with the help of a Soviet-built anti-tank guided missile system, called 9K11 Maylutkas, destroyed Israeli tanks.
But soon after, defence strategists realised that if tanks are used with enough infantry support and their armour is upgraded, they can prove to be invaluable, especially in urban warfare. For instance, the M1 Abrams was widely used by the US Marines to fight against the insurgents in the Second Battle of Fallujah that took place in 2004. To protect their tanks, Ukraine and Russia would have to come up with a viable defence strategy.
An analysis published in Bloomberg quoted British military historian Basil Henry Liddell Hart, who in 1960 wrote, “Time after time during the past 40 years the highest defence authorities have announced that the tank is dead or dying. Each time it has risen from the grave to which they had consigned it — and they have been caught napping.”
This is an updated version of an explainer first published in January 2023.
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