Plans to Return Heavy Tanks Into US Land Combat Forces Could Backfire, US Marine Corps General Warns

01:01 GMT, 4 April 2023

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Efforts to reintroduce heavy US armored tank forces into land battles could backfire because of advances in missile, artillery, drones and targeting technology and increase the risk of mission failure and defeat instead, Brigadier General Mark Clingan told a Washington conference.

Sputnik

"We may be reaccepting risk as we try to reintroduce tanks into the battlefield," US Marine Corps Combatant Development Command Chief Brigadier General Mark Clingan told a conference at the Atlantic Council on Monday about the lessons to be learned from the first year of combat hostilities in Ukraine.

"Everyone is building new systems to kill armored [formations] at a distance," Hammes said.

The M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) supplied by the United States to Ukraine had demonstrated its ability to hit key Russian command and logistics bases or nodes in Ukraine and thus reduce the quantities of ammunition reaching front line fighting troops by 50% to 70%, Hammes said.