How the Army could customize tanks for future urban warfare

Michael Peck

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For steel beasts, the most dangerous habitat is urban. Tall buildings and narrow city streets are unfriendly territory for a 12-foot-wide tank that weighs 70 tons.

Yet, as the world becomes increasingly urbanized, and combat in cities and villages has become the norm, armor will have to prepare for more combat in built-up areas. But if the terrain can’t be changed, then how about changing the tank itself? Is it time for the U.S. Army to develop a specialized tank for urban warfare?

“A tank designed for urban terrain would have radically different design requirements than a main battle tank designed for open warfare,” wrote Michael McCabe in a June article for Armor Magazine.

Main battle tanks, which rely on long-range firepower and speed, “are willing to sacrifice extra armor to retain mobility,” McCabe wrote.

“In urban combat, however, the reverse is true: fights are at much closer ranges, mobility is measured by the ability to navigate sharp turns and tight/narrow streets, and speed can be sacrificed to retain maximum armor protection.”

In addition, urban terrain imposes unique demands on tanks, such as the ability to shoot around corners and engage targets at high elevation.

Armies have tried various street fighting vehicles over the years. In World War II, Germany stuck a 150mm howitzer on a Panzer IV medium tank chassis to create the Brumbar, while the Sturmtiger was a Tiger heavy tank with a 380mm rocket mortar. Yet their lack of a rotating turret proved a disadvantage.

“The Germans felt that tanks were better all-around for MOUT [military operations in urban terrain], and that developing AFVs [armored fighting vehicles] for that specific purpose was a waste of time, money and soldiers’ lives,” Douglas Nash, a retired Army colonel and an historian of the Eastern Front in World War II, told Defense News. More recently in the Ukraine war, Russia has fielded the BMPT Terminator, a T-72 tank chassis armed with four anti-tank missiles, two 30mm autocannon and two 30mm grenade launchers.