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Old 09-08-2020, 12:10 AM
Askold Askold is offline
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a) Although I am convinced that no matter how warfare changes, infantry will still have a place on a battlefield, I am not that certain about tanks. Who knows if in a few centuries there will be hover-plasma-DVD-whatever things that have replaced the tanks we see today. It is not like the tank is an old invention either, it's been here for a relatively short time in human history.

b) When the Dutch sold their tanks, they sold their old obsolete versions of Leopard 2 rather than spend money on upgrading them (and they immediately regretted it when Russia invaded Ukraine and Finland made the totally unfair decision to not give the tanks back because we also share a border with Russia.) They had plans to buy new tanks to replace the old ones even back then, it was never about completely abandoning tanks. Though their eventual solution was a novel one, they offer crews for German tanks in a form of combined military unit between the two countries (with EU integration slowly advancing, this type of thing will likely become more and more common.)

c) As for USMC, much like the Netherlands, even if they have no tanks of their own this does not mean that they go into combat without tanks. US military is huge and they have simply made it so that marines use their budget for things that they consider important and in case of a war, the army will fight alongside them with tanks. It's not like USA would go "Yeah, we will send these marines to die in that battle because they have no tanks of their own and there is no reason for other armed forces to help them even though we are perfectly capable of doing so. Sucks to be them."
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