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,
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.