Page 80 - Australian Defence Magazine June 2021

78 LAND FORCES TANKS
JUNE 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
WHY DO WE NEED TANKS?
To some, the tank is a ‘matchless combination’ of firepower, mobility, protection and connectivity. To others, it is ‘operationally unsuitable’ to the challenges of the future.
EWEN LEVICK | MELBOURNE
THOSE aren’t casual opinions. The former is an argument made by Brigadier Chris Mills, Director General Force Options for Army, and Lieutenant Colonel (Rtd) Leo Pur- dy as seen in a previous edition of ADM; the latter is the official position of the US Marine Corps (USMC), which has now disbanded its entire tank fleet.
This is not a new debate, but the Australian Army is undertaking a $1 billion upgrade to a fleet of 59 Abrams M1A1 tanks that haven’t been deployed overseas. In fact Australia has not deployed a tank in half a century. That upgrade, run under Land 907 Phase 2, is due for Second Pass approval later this year, and was approved by the US in late April.
Defence is also spending a combined total of somewhere around $30 billion dollars on Boxer combat reconnais- sance vehicles, which to most taxpayers look like tanks with wheels, and a fleet of infantry fighting vehicles that to most taxpayers are almost indistinguishable from an Abrams.
So the taxpayer has a right to ask: why do we need tanks? This article can’t answer that question.
THE TACTICAL UTILITY OF THE TANK
Let’s start by making the question a little more specific: why do we need tanks on the modern battlefield?
According to BRIG Mills and LTCOL Purdy, the tank is unique in its capacity to fight alongside infantry.
“The tank is unique amongst ground combat vehicles; it alone is designed to specifically enter, fight and endure alongside sol- diers in close combat,” they wrote. “Both guardian angel of the infantry and highly capable tank-killer, the tank is ideally suited to aggressive mobile action in concert with other arms and services.”
ABOVE: Australian Army Soldiers from the 2nd/14th Light Horse regiment conduct live firing with the M1A1 on Exercise Howling Wolf in the Wide Bay Training Area, Queensland.
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