A Stupid Story(no relation to WW2)

[Hoplite]

I agree with you that the U.S. seems to be moving away form the heavy armor that has so long dominated the battlefield. The M1 is darn near invunerable from the front. Unfortunately, it takes a thirsty gas-turbine engine to move that frontal armor around and it costs a lot of money to manufacture those large slabs of Chobham armor.
The problem I see is in weapons like the Javelin or the Bill or some of the air dropped autonomous munitions. They all purposely dodge around the frontal armor of the tank in order to attack the top where the armor is thin.
If the vehicle designer were to thicken the top armor to defeat or deflect this attack, then that armor weight has to come from somehwere else or the tank will become too heavy to use normal bridges. With weapons designers able to conitnually change the attack method of guided munitions, I see it is a losing battle for conventionally armored vehicles.
What's the solution? I think it will have to be a combination of countermeasures, speed, and lethality. A tank of twenty years from now will have to be able to kill atgm's in flight, confuse the guidance system, and kill the attackers before they get their missles off.
In other words, tanks will have to go to an active form of defense. I think that lighter, faster moving platforms will be ideal for this kind of fighting. It's just a perk that you will also be able to move an armored brigade in 20 or so C-17 loads.