Conflict Special Study 1

Paper Tanks

by TP Schweider

Some military commentators, members of the Armed Forces, and armor buffs are fond of expounding the superiority of Soviet tanks over Western tanks. Armed with bales of printed matter they volley away with dimcnsions, performance data and statistics, proving conclusively how advanced Soviet tank design is compared to Western tank design-on paper.

Unhappily for them, the Yom Kippur War was a rude jolt, for the performance of Soviet armor was inferior to that of Western tanks on the battlefieldnot on paper. And this time, there was no longer the excuse that the Arabs didn't know how to use their tanks. Six years of intensive instruction by Russian advisors should have remedied that. For a comparison between Arabs and Jews of the number of manhours devoted to training would clearly demonstrate Arab, therefore Sovict, superiority-on paper.

The Soviets and their admirers think in conceptual fragments. They are obsessed with verifiable phenomena, which can be readily expressed and defined by numbers.

Thus design perspective is focused on numbers: numbers which describe the largest gun, longest radius of action, lowest sdhouette. Numbers which, when added together, give them the best tank. The whole is equal to the sum of its parts-on paper anyway.

A tank is more than just an accumulation of figures, it is an integration of components. Nor can the crew be converted to computer data with any degree of accuracy; intangibles, such as motivation, cohesion, and experience remain. And how does one reduce tactics to a relevant number?

On paper, the Arabs had more troops, better tanks, more of them, and better tactics-therefore they should have won. In reality, the Jews had better weapons, better training, better tactics -- so they won. Their tanks were part of a system composed of the many tangible and intangible factors that make up an army. And finally, the Jews know that wars are won on the battlefield-only wargames are won on paper.

More Arab-Israeli Armor 1973

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© Copyright 1975 by Dana Lombardy.
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