Italy's Defense Ministry has opened a €5.14 billion ($5.86 billion) procurement for a new main battle tank and vehicles built on it, according to a record published Sept. 21 in the database of Italy's National Anti-Corruption Authority (ANAC). The entry,
Did somebody actually say tanks were dead after WWI? Tanks were brand new!
Yes, in fact, some people at the time declared the tank dead for the first time. Trench warfare was a thing of the past, and so the question arose as to why we would still need a vehicle that had only proven its worth through trench warfare (the first tanks were designed to break through heavy defenses and, in particular, to eliminate machine-gun nests).
These commentators were even correct in that the subsequent wars were no longer trench wars, and the tank diversified beyond its role as a breakthrough vehicle, evolving (among other things) into a system of one-on-one combat over the course of the next major war.
Wow, so I guess they were picturing everything reverting back to 19th-century warfare? Or maybe, they were picturing what actually happened, but they didn’t know what to call the heavy, but still fast and maneuverable, gun platforms we now call “tanks”.
I guess it goes to show that you have to consider what a new military technology adds, as well as what it subtracts.