Abrams tanks now teach how to shoot down drones from cannons

Here's a twist: American tankers have now been officially instructed to use their main weapons to fight enemy drones. The new tactics manual for M1A2 Abrams crews, recently published by the army publishing house, explicitly states that tanks must be ready to operate against drones on the battlefield.  

This is a serious signal that drones have become a real threat even to heavy armored forces. In modern warfare, a drone is no longer just an eye in the sky, but a full—fledged weapon capable of ambushing and setting fire to even the most protected tank.

What has changed?

The new guidance reflects an update to army doctrine, which previously focused on classic threats such as anti—tank missiles or mortar fire. Now kamikaze drones and combat swarms have been added to the list, which can attack in a group and literally bombard targets.

According to the document, tank crews are now required to be trained to recognize and destroy UAVs using their guns and machine guns. That is, if the drone is hovering overhead, you can try to simply shoot it down . It sounds cool, but experts still doubt how realistic it is to do it in battle.

 Why is this important?

The fact is that modern wars, such as the conflict in Ukraine, have shown that drones can be deadly even to tanks. And massive swarm attacks make this threat even more serious. Therefore, the US Army decided to rebuild and adapt its approaches to the new threat landscape.

In addition, new tactics may affect other NATO countries, especially those that are actively upgrading their armored vehicles and facing the same challenges on the battlefield.

Not everyone approves of this approach. Many analysts believe that using a tank cannon against a small, fast—flying drone is like firing a cannon at a sparrow. But the idea in itself speaks volumes — drones are becoming a major headache even for the most powerful armored formations.

In general, if the tank used to be the king of the battlefield, now it has to learn how to hide from a small bumblebee with a charge inside. This is the new reality.