[ ArmyTimes ] How Army scientists are developing the next tank that’s not a tank

But rather than swapping a tank for a tank, most experts in the field are looking to a family of vehicles option that will take tank-like capabilities and spread them across crewed and crewless platforms for better survivability.

The Army is doing more than simply upgrading existing vehicles and fueling the next steps in ground fighting over the coming decade. Scientists at ARL such as Zabinski and Dr. Scott Schoenfeld, senior scientist for terminal ballistics, are envisioning how to do the work of armor without armor.

The key to that is distributing the functions of a tank, from sensing and firepower to protection. Some of that does still involve heavy metal moving around the battlefield — sometimes with a crew; sometimes without. But protection can also mean not being seen, or even being seen as something else. That’s where electronic warfare, masking and hiding in plain sight of sensors can play a role.

Space onboard, now designed for humans, can be shrunk or gotten rid of, making smaller machines that can do similar or new tasks.

And rather than simply taking a hit to heavy armor and surviving, the future of armor’s function and protection could be pushing, deflecting, coaxing or turning an adversary’s attack rather than absorbing it, Schoenfeld said.

Regardless of the defense, some strikes will get through.

That’s where “intelligent, sacrificial robots” can put themselves between humans and harm, Schoenfeld said. That’s in a scenario where humans are still on the battlefield, likely in a tank-like vehicle.

Some future robot armor could even have materials that allow bullets to pass through.

Schoenfeld painted a picture: imagine a robot that looks like the coronavirus, a central ball or sphere with many “arms” protruding from it.

Say this robot could both roll and crawl around the terrain. If it takes a hit, the arms might be made of materials built to deflect those strikes from the center, where the valuable components that control, communicate or explode, reside.

All of these advances may not look like the diesel-driven behemoths of the battlefield today, but at their core, they’ll do what armor has always done — protect soldiers while delivering firepower.

“It may not look like the ‘heavy’ armor on a tank, but it will be armor nonetheless,” Schoenfeld said.