"The tank is dead. Long live the tank." Foolish things are a fact of history, and many such utterances will come in the future. Predictions of the tank's death were very loud in the 1990s. Such musings resurfaced after the U.S. overran Iraq (twice). The "experts" said the tank had no real role in future U.S. military operations. Future conflicts would involve light forces, small wars, and counterinsurgency campaigns, they confidently proclaimed. Well, those same experts once said fighter aircraft no longer needed guns and that ground forces were obsolete in an era of nuclear weapons and precision-guided munitions. The tank is alive and well. Tank production will exceed 3,500 vehicles through 2026. As long as tanks are around, armies will need countermeasures. This is where anti-armor missiles come in. Yet, anti-armor missiles are taking on an added mission of engaging bunkers and other reinforced structures. The fighting in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom), Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom), Lebanon (the July War), and Libya (Operation Unified Protector) saw large expenditures of anti-armor weapons (missiles and rockets). Syrian rebels say acquiring effective anti-armor weapons is key to the defeat of Bashar al-Assad's security forces. In all of these operations, the majority of these missiles, as well as rockets, hit targets other than tanks and armored vehicles. In Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. soldiers used Javelin man-portable missiles against strongpoints and other fixed structures. The anti-armor missile will likely experience an evolution similar to that of its anti-ship and strike counterparts. The anti-ship and strike missions, once performed by individual missiles, are slowly merging. In the future, a single missile may be able to engage aircraft, ground-based targets, and warships. The fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere has soldiers thinking about a missile that can defeat armored vehicles, attack fixed structures (bunkers, strongpoints, etc.), and even engage helicopters. For now, separate versions for anti-armor and anti-materiel missions are available.
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