Then-Chief of Staff of the Army General Douglas MacArthur promoted the mechanization of the Army to equip cavalrymen with armored fighting vehicles as well. Light tanks were defined as weighing five tons or less so that they could be carried by trucks. After the war, America got to work developing its own armored doctrine and vehicles. Patton crewed French tanks like the Renault FT-17. However, America didn't have a tank of its own during the war. It’s a damn tank.ĭefense News land warfare reporter Jen Judson contributed reporting to this story, but said she would not wade into the murky depths of this debate.The introduction of the tank during WWI changed the face of war forever. We’ll leave it to the maneuver doctrine nerds to figure that one out.īut for now? Stop gaslighting us. Perhaps modern warfare requires an un-merging of the tank’s intellectual family tree. military maintained a medium tank capability through the M551 Sheridan until 1996 - ten Sheridans from the 82nd Airborne Division’s 3rd Battalion, 73rd Armor completed a combat jump into Panama for Operation Just Cause in 1989. The Booker is a tank, even if it defies the modern armored imagination.īefore today’s main battle tanks devoured their siblings and became one tank to rule them all, armies around the world had different tanks for different functions.Įven the U.S.

We at the Military Times Observation Post hereby reject the Army’s final, most essential command.

The white paper’s authors argued, then, that dropping the “light tank” moniker was meant to “dissuade” troops from using it like a main battle tank rather than in the infantry support role they envisioned. The Booker is much smaller than the Abrams main battle tank, which officials say will allow it greater maneuverability and reduced maintenance needs while also providing powerful support to the infantry brigades they’ll join.īut for its advantages, the Booker isn’t supposed to square off against enemy main battle tanks. Army, and recently resurfaced by Task & Purpose - in which two officers argue that the service intentionally moved away from the “light tank” label. So why does a faction within the Army tell us to reject the evidence of our eyes and ears?Ī potential answer comes via a 2019 white paper - first published by the Association of the U.S. So are tanks.Įven Dean, a prominent Booker tank denier, confessed that it “looks like, smells like feels like” a tank. It’s protected enough to withstand attacks from enemy armored vehicles. Its controls mimic those of the M1 Abrams main battle tank.

Us army main battle tank history