A very important tool in combat. Tanks make a soldiers job much easier. They provide the soldier with firepower and protection which is very important. It is very hard to capture an area without Tanks, and sometimes it's even imposible to capture an area without them. Modern MBTs are very fast and manuverble, they have great firepower and protection. since new anti-tank weapons are being developed all the time, new protection systems for Tanks are also being developed all the time, the same way that airplanes are being fitted with new protection systems to protect them from new anti-air weapons. since today our main enemies are terrorist which usually use old Soviet weapons, mostly small arms, they dont have an airforce or airpower, so Tanks don't have to worry about being attacked from the air. If a war breaks out between 2 countries that have an airforce, than Tanks will be escorted by AAA. Why do you think that the US lost so much Tanks in Iraq? Because their Tactics were wrong! Their Tanks drove on ahead of the main force and basically fought alone with no infantry support. These Tactics were good in 1991 because in 1991 Iraq had an army and it had Tanks aswell, so there were Tank battles in open ground, and American Tanks didn't need infantry support because they were superior to Iraqi Tanks and could deal with them easilly, but in operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraq had no Tanks left and there were no Tank battles on open feilds, this time it was mostly Urban combat, and in Urban combat, Tanks that travell alone with no infantery support are a great target for ambushes. In WW2 everyone waited for the Tanks to come and help, because Tanks were slow and not very manuverble (especially German Tanks). But Today the Tanks wait for everyone to come, because modern MBTs are very manuverble and very fast! Tanks can also make the enemy's moral very low, because when you see a Tank driving at your direction (even if you have an anti-tank weapon) you will probably get out of your trench and start runing away, or surrender, or if you are going to try and destroy, you will know that you only have one chance, because if you miss than your dead meat and you can't always be sure that your anti-tank weapon is enough to stop him. Modern MBTs also have the abillity to destroy low flying air targets like Helicopters, which means that helicopter pilots have to think twice before attacking a Modern MBT, because they can't be sure if they will return home safly or not.