Ron Paul: "We Spent a Billion Dollars Fighting the Houthis…and Lost'
(ronpaulinstitute.org)
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How dare you question the high priests of the Military-Industrial Complex? Shun the unbeliever, shun. Next you'll be wanting an effective infantry rifle and a tank made this side of the Ford presidency.
Our tank is still the best in the world, it's fine as is. No need to make a new fuck up if the current thing works great.
Main battle tanks have the specific role of fighting other main battle tanks.
Air superiority of a modern air force makes a MBT redundant. They are slow, hot targets and very vulnerable to missile strike.
The advantage of a MBT is that they are a lot cheaper to field than an aircraft. That said, a modern mobile howitzer with the right support (scouts for fire control) is much more effective when used correctly. Check out the Archer Artillery System. Longer range and much better at hiding from hostile aircraft.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archer_Artillery_System
It is amazing how many warthunder players upvoted you and downvoted me. Internet warriors that have no fucking clue.
Tanks are flexible and direct fire. Artillery is not. Tanks are essential in any theater where air dominance, not air superiority, isn't assured. Tanks are also essential in theaters where we have AD if the goal isn't just "bomb everything and leave" because planes can't take or hold ground.
Your planes still being in the sky don't matter anymore when the enemy tank commander is eating breakfast in your cafeteria.
You may as well say infantry is redundant because we have nukes. Airforce makes MBTs redundant is such a stupid statement, boiling war down to a rock paper scissors equation of who wins in a fight between two isolated assets.
Look, you are right. Every point you made is correct.
However, unless there are tanks fighting tanks, all of those roles can be fulfilled by a medium tank or a light tank, which is faster, doesn't destroy roads and gets better fuel economy. For example the entire continent of Australia doesn't need a MBT because no one is ever going to land a MBT. If they do the Aussies will send sappers (combat engineers with explosives) and SAS to blow up their diesel tankage.
I misspoke when I said that a modern air force makes tanks redundant. The situation of air superiority makes them a big fucking target, and then on fire. See Gulf War 2, etc. The specific example I gave of a modern howitzer is because they are much better at "shoot and scoot" to evade attack by aircraft.
Frankly, I think we're better off building a new Ontos.