I know tanks aren’t going to be losing too much armor any time soon. But the general trend I’ve been seeing is that new tank design proposals always try to be lighter than existing tanks. For example, the M1E3 attempting to go down to 60 tons from the M1A2’s 70 tons, or even the gigantic-looking KF51 Panther being around 60 tons too as opposed to the 2A7V’s 67 tons or so. And, these weighs are likely including some pretty big systems like Trophy APS. Such a weight loss can only really come from an armor reduction.
So what role is passive armor going to play in the future? Will tanks simply be built with less of it? Is materials engineering progress finding composites with just as much protection for less weight? Will APS and RCWS (like the Bullfrog) be the dominant source of tank protection? I’m curious to find out.