In the future, there is no way to deal with the Ukrainian military offensive using tanks provided by Europe and the United States.
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At the beginning of the new year, a large number of tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, etc. are regarding to be provided to Ukraine from the United States and Europe.
Since the First World War, tanks have been said to be the main characters on the battlefield.
After that, the power of anti-tank missiles was proven in the 4th Middle East War (1973), and for a time, the main players on the battlefield began to say that “tanks are unnecessary.”
In addition, attack helicopters equipped with anti-tank missiles (anti-tank helicopters) were one of the “tank killers” and the strongest in ground battles.
For this reason, the US military has a large number of attack helicopters “AH-1 Cobra” and “AH-64 Apache”, and the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force has similar models.
In the “comparison of relative strength” used in tactical training and map tactics of the Self-Defense Forces, one attack helicopter was calculated as being equivalent to seven tanks.
This view did not change when the author was a GSDF Command and Staff Course (CGS) student and a Strategic Instructor in the Advanced Advanced Course (AGS).
But in the Russian military’s battles in Ukraine so far, its attack helicopters have been largely inactive, except during the early stages of the invasion.
The Russian military had regarding 400 attack helicopters called “tank killers.” About 30% were shot down at the beginning of the invasion, but there are still many left.
In the battle so far, it has not been active as a “tank killer”.
In the future, we will consider how the battle between US and European tanks and Russian attack helicopters will unfold.
