More On Armor

COIN and Hybrid War: The Demise of Armor? – Judah Grunstein, World Politics Review.

… two other items serve as anecdotal illustrations of what I’ve previously flagged as another consequence of COIN-centric thinking, namely, the decline not so much of conventional warfare, as has often been posited, but of armor, in particular, as a central pillar of ground operations. According to Jean-Dominique Merchet, as part of a budget-induced reorganization of its armored regiments, the French army will be reducing some from four to three squadrons of AMX 10 RC light tanks. Meanwhile, Ajai Shukla reports that following successful tests against the Russian T-90, the Indian army will be increasing its orders of the indigenously produced Arjun main battle tank.

The contrast illustrates the kinds of environments in which tank commanders enjoy promising career perspectives. India and Pakistan seem like obvious bull markets, as does Russia. (Georgia, too, although the career perspective is somewhat mitigated by the less-promising outlook for life expectancy). But I’m not so sure the same holds for Western Europe or the U.S. Again, that’s not to say that we no longer need to prepare for conventional war with a nation-state, but rather that even in the conventional wars we’re most likely to fight, massive armored formations are unlikely to play a role…

More at World Politics Review.