Ukraine's new armored assaults show the tank isn't dead, but the rules have changed

Ukraine's Third Army Corps said it carried out successful mechanized assaults behind Russian lines in its Operation Vivaldi.

Yevhen Kotenko/ Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images Mechanized assaults have been rare in Ukraine, but amid a major offensive, its forces pulled off two.

The Ukrainian commander behind the operation doubted the assaults would succeed.

He said using armored vehicles now needs extensive planning and support, much like a special operation.

A massive Ukrainian operation retaking territory from Russian forces has shown that assaults with tanks and armored vehicles are still possible in a drone-heavy war, but far more support and planning are now necessary to execute them.

Tanks and other armored vehicles have faced serious challenges on battlefields dominated by drones, mines, and artillery, prompting both sides to move away, tactically speaking, from large-scale mechanized assaults.

Those decisions have led observers to question whether tanks still have a role in modern warfare.

Those discussions have taken a new turn in the wake of recent Ukrainian combat operations.

Ukrainian forces involved in Operation Vivaldi, a counteroffensive that has so far taken back 277 square kilometers of territory, carried out two successful mechanized assaults behind Russian lines this week, Brigadier General Andrii Biletskyi, the commander of Ukraine's Third Army Corps, the unit conducting the operation, told the Ukrainian outlet Militarnyi.

George Barros, the director of innovation at the Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank, told Business Insider that this appears to be "the first successful mechanized tactical level breakthrough in a drone-dominated battlefield." Sharing details of the operation, Biletskyi said he had been skeptical it could be done, remaining unsure until the last minute whether armored vehicles could be used successfully, but he decided to allow brigade commanders to try.

The assaults required extensive preparation and coordination.

"Today, the use of armored vehicles is effectively a special operation.

It requires extremely detailed planning and the coordination of a huge number of assets," Biletskyi told Militarnyi, a Ukrainian military news site.

Tanks have struggled in Ukraine, leading to their reduced role in large assaults and reassessments about how they can be used in modern warfare.