Will wheeled tanks replace the main battle tanks in the future?

The wheeled tank is increasingly used by many armies around the world, will it be able to completely replace the main battle tank (MBT) in the future?

During the development process, the defense industry in many countries around the world has produced many different types of weapons. They were particularly interested in the idea of ​​installing a powerful weapon on a light-wheeled armored chassis. This weapon is called a wheeled tank.

As a result of all the design effort intensified only in the second half of the 20th century, the wheeled tanks were practically created that were not inferior to the classic main tank on the engine. crawler department.

So what are the advantages and disadvantages of the above combat vehicles? The first issue to mention is that the wheeled tanks are relatively light and this simplifies the transport of equipment to the battlefield.

The mass of a light wheeled tank, even with additional armor plates, does not exceed 20-25 tons, much less than any other main tank. Therefore it is much easier to deploy wheeled tanks with heavy weapons.

The ability to deploy wheeled tanks by military transport aircraft is one of the main reasons why this vehicle is used, developed and served by many armies around the world.

In modern armed conflicts it was necessary to quickly bring equipment to a conflict zone and the military came to a sensible decision: light armored vehicles such as armored vehicles, infantry fighting vehicles and Wheeled tanks will be brought to the battlefield first.

Furthermore tanks and self-propelled artillery units can be moved to the battle site. As a result, armored vehicles, including wheeled tanks, are assigned the function of a highly mobile combat unit to support ground forces.

Not only that, the wheeled tank possesses a higher travel speed than the crawler tank, which gives the advantage of maneuverability and maneuverability, much less harm to the road surface.

The downside of the wheeled tank, though, is its poor off-roading capabilities. Such vehicles travel very quickly on asphalt and dirt roads, but on rough terrain they immediately lose to a track armored vehicle.

Another downside is the poor degree of self-protection. The wheeled tank is light, mainly because the armor is thin and weak, which means both advantages and disadvantages.

Wheeled tanks cannot be used in combat like the MBT, they are also unsuitable against the MBT, it is better suited to destroy light armored vehicles.

This combat vehicle is more suitable for areas not planning to use tanks on rough terrain and large-scale military operations are not carried out, it is more suitable for urban combat.

In real world use of the wheeled tank, its downsides were noted – the wheelbase did not turn out to have any particular advantage over a crawler vehicle.

In addition, the maximum speed advantage cannot be determined due to the lack of good roads, and when used on off-road, much worse off-roading is evident. In addition, tire wear while driving on complex terrain is much higher than expected.

Based on the advantages and disadvantages described above, it is easy to see that the tire tank cannot completely replace the MBT, as it lags far behind in some basic characteristics.

What the future of a wheeled tank will be, of course it will continue to evolve and improvements could go the way of enhancing protection, while maintaining a sufficiently light combat weight.

And of course, the reality of modern military conflicts will play a big role in shaping the look of a future wheeled tank.