But still important today.A tank is simply an infantry support vehicle that's worth fuck all by itself in the modern missile environment. You need lots of them to advance because they're extremely vulnerable. And you need lots of infantry to suppress the antitank teams. Above all, you don't need the best and the most expensive, you need a lot of good enough to provide the direct fire support for the advancing infantry. Russian tanks are very good at killing their own crews, but are also light enough to be dragged away for repairs and are designed to be easily fixable as long as the shell is not blown open. And tank versus tank? Why would you risk an expensive asset in the uncertain outcome when at fraction of the cost a grunt with a missile can achieve the same result? We have seen that EVERYWHERE in Ukraine in the last year- tanks are being taken out by missile teams, precision arty strikes and mines. The one thing that will help Ukrainians in the western tanks is the superior fire control that can reach and hit farther than Russians can. That will be helpful in suppressing the antitank teams, but will still leave them extremely vulnerable to the Russian counter battery fire.
Drones are doing recon and dropping small explosives, accurate artillery follows. Troops with tank support can move forward once mud season ends.
Most of the western reports on Russian losses are exaggerated nonsense. Absolutely none of them can be trusted. No one really knows.
BTW apparently Ukraine lost more than half its tanks in this war. Lets talk about that.
Oryx has been documenting losses by photos, those numbers are pretty good and not 'western' reports.