A massive Ukrainian operation retaking territory from Russian forces has shown that assaults with tanks and armored vehicles are still possible in a drone-heavy war, but far more support and planning are now necessary to execute them.
Tanks and other armored vehicles have faced serious challenges on battlefields dominated by drones, mines, and artillery, prompting both sides to move away, tactically speaking, from large-scale mechanized assaults. Those decisions have led observers to question whether tanks still have a role in modern warfare.
Those discussions have taken a new turn in the wake of recent Ukrainian combat operations.
Ukrainian forces involved in Operation Vivaldi, a counteroffensive that has so far taken back 277 square kilometers of territory, carried out two successful mechanized assaults behind Russian lines this week, Brigadier General Andrii Biletskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s Third Army Corps, the unit conducting the operation, told the Ukrainian outlet Militarnyi.
George Barros, the director of innovation at the Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank, told Business Insider that this appears to be “the first successful mechanized tactical level breakthrough in a drone-dominated battlefield.”
Sharing details of the operation, Biletskyi said he had been skeptical it could be done, remaining unsure until the last minute whether armored vehicles could be used successfully, but he decided to allow brigade commanders to try.
The assaults required extensive preparation and coordination. “Today, the use of armored vehicles is effectively a special operation. It requires extremely detailed planning and the coordination of a huge number of assets,” Biletskyi told Militarnyi, a Ukrainian military news site.
Barros said that while the assault’s territorial gains were limited, he believes it is the most consequential and meaningful offensive in theater and in military science observed so far.
“It’s a really big deal,” he said. “It decisively proves that it is possible to achieve mechanized maneuver at the tactical level in a drone-dominated battlefield.”
The mission planning involved separate training for vehicle crews and infantry, fitting vehicles with additional equipment, and extensive support to shield the advance. Biletskyi did not specify the equipment used, but electronic warfare, additional armor, and supporting drones and robots are among the kinds of tools that can help protect assault forces.
“The big lesson here is that the tank isn’t dead, and the tank isn’t obsolete,” Barros said, “but rather the prerequisites to make the tank useful have become lengthy and extensive and very difficult to achieve, but all the same important and critical for success on the battlefield.”
The challenge is replicating that success. Such assaults require more resources and preparation time than some units can reasonably dedicate to the mission. Barros noted that very few Ukrainian units are as well trained and well equipped as the Third Army Corps, Vivaldi’s lead unit.
But if Ukraine is successful in proliferating these lessons and tactics into other elements of its armed forces, “then we will have a Ukrainian military that is extremely capable and able to roll back the Russians, whereas the Russians still lag potentially years behind the Ukrainians in terms of being able to conduct these kinds of maneuvers,” he said.
The recent Vivaldi assaults build on a broader effort to bring armored vehicles back into bigger offensive breakthrough operations.
ISW observed in May that Ukraine, for the first time since 2023, was beginning to carry out more frequent mechanized counterattacks, including using armored vehicles in front-line attacks.
In August, ISW assessed that Ukraine had been able to reintroduce limited mechanized maneuver through improved planning, suppression of Russian air defenses, and an emerging drone advantage. And by October, the think tank had detected an edge for Ukraine in these kinds of renewed operations.
Biletskyi said this week that the mechanized assault allowed his forces to achieve the partial encircling of the settlement of Nove and the deployment of infantry behind Russian lines to attack drone operators concealed in wooded areas.
He said the attacks degraded Russia’s ability to conduct drone operations and gather battlefield intelligence, setting conditions for a tactical breakthrough.
Eliminating drone operators is key, Barros said, because it allows Ukrainian forces to push forward. It’s something he said Ukraine has become better at over the course of the year, which was why Ukrainian vehicles were able to advance further. Vivaldi’s leaders have emphasized the importance of shaping the battlefield by weakening the enemy first, including through the use of artillery, drones, and robots.
The war’s dense networks of drones, land mines, and artillery have made large armored assaults difficult and dangerous. Inexpensive drones, in particular, make it hard to concentrate forces and complicate maneuvers. Both sides have added protective armor while decreasing tank activity, often keeping them farther from the front.
Vivaldi shows they’re not out of the fight, though.
Western partners are still betting on tanks and buying new ones, but they foresee changes in how they are supported and deployed. Officials say tanks still have a place, but their role may shift. They will need to work alongside assets like drones.
Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said in May that “legacy platforms are not obsolete” but “the decisive question is the force mix: how can we combine ships, aircraft, tanks and high-end systems with robotics, drones, sensors, software and new effectors to increase lethality and better protect our soldiers?”
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