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Tanks have rarely been more vulnerable

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TANK BATTLES are rare these days. Crews that wish to prove themselves can turn instead to the Tank Biathlon, part of the International Army Games—a sort of Olympics with guns—organised each year by Russia. On September 5th Russian tanks raced and blasted their way to victory over teams from China, Belarus and Azerbaijan.

A century after its debut at the Battle of the Somme, the tank—an armoured vehicle typically equipped with a cannon on a turret—remains the backbone of most armies. The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a think-tank, counts over 5,000 in Europe, and 54,000 globally.

Nothing else can move soldiers around, shield them and wield big guns all at once. Russia was able to slice through Ukraine’s defences with its superior T-72s in 2014. Their absence can be keenly felt. The mostly tank-free offensive against Islamic State in 2016-17 was grinding and bloody, even with help from American bombing. “High-intensity combat operations between technologically comparable countries is unimaginable without the large-scale use of tanks,” says Viktor Murakhovsky, a retired colonel of Russia’s Tank Troops.

Yet in some recent conflicts, tanks have struggled. In February Turkish drones destroyed dozens of Syrian tanks in a two-day killing spree. In the past, camouflage could hide tanks from most...

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