The Chieftain's Random Musings Thread

The_Chieftain: Well, here's your counterpoint. When anti-gravity is sorted out (or at least, hover tanks) are they still tanks?   In the shorter term, however... Advances in wheel technology have resulted in wheeled vehicles below a certain weight being as mobile if not better across all terrain types as the equivalent tracked vehicle. Now, is the requirement for a tank to be "heavily armored" or to be "heavily survivable"? If, all of a sudden, we discover that EM armor, active defenses and whatnot provide the same level of effective protection to a 30 ton vehicle as a 60 ton vehicle has today, can it not perform the same functions of a tank? Surely a tank is a vehicle which combines high levels of survivability, acceptable mobility, sustained presence, and a direct fire weapon system. Does it matter if it's tracked,wheeled, has a laser cannon or rail gun? So, by logical extension, I would argue that a wheeled tank is not far in our future.