This includes threat tanks firing KE projectiles, guided and unguided (infantry fired) anti-tank weapons and high precision and conventional artillery delivered munitions. Survivability must be maximized against any weapon system capable of engaging in the close combat battlespace.

The operational capabilities of survivability, lethality, and mobility are defined by the need to fight and win against any system entering or engaging tanks in the battlespace. In the defense, mounted units must also fight and destroy enemy forces moving into this battlespace. In the attack, tanks functioning as a part of a combined arms mounted force must enter the close combat battlespace in order to win driving the enemy from an objective or destroying him. They embody the mobile protected firepower needed to fight the close combat maneuver battle.

Since its inception during the First World War, the tank has been the preeminent system used in maneuver forces. The driver gets the vehicle to firing position, the tank commander selects targets, the loader ensures the weapon is loaded with the correct ammunition for the target selected, and the gunner makes sure the round strikes the target in the area of maximum vulnerability. The crew exists solely to serve the main gun. The armor is provided to ensure that the crew is protected from shrapnel (the main cause of battlefield casualties) and small arms fire. The entire purpose of the tank is to carry the main gun into battle.

Tankets modern small tanks battle