The proliferation of autonomous anti-tank drones that we'll see in coming years will be not unlike when the spread of the crossbow signaled the beginning of the end of the heavily armored horseman in the middle ages.

Advances in AI, batteries, energetic materials for more powerful explosives, and metamaterials for lighter airframes will enable a new generation of smart loitering swarms.

From around 1200 the armored knight was no longer invincible w/ the reinvention of the crossbow and the longbow that exposed him to death from afar - breaking something like 500 years of military dominance.

The tank had a good run, something like a hundred years of land warfare prominence. Rarely does a military technology remain relevant for so long. But the age of the swarm will be to tanks what crossbow bolts were to armored knights.

I think we'll also see a shift back to smaller formations, such as haven't been the norm since before the Napoleonic era. The mass industrial armies of the 19th and 20th-centuries were an anomaly.

I mean, it's not hard to imagine what you get when you combine these things that already exist:

The future is now https://twitter.com/Faytuks/status/1311053739776671753?s=20