“You have to remember, the tank was a Cold War design, aimed at a threat that was always to its front. It’s still the most survivable weapon in the arsenal from the front,”
Every weapon system ever was built for problems and environment presented in the last war. Hope they show a little more imagination next time they build a major system. Looking at the Russian experience in Cheneya or Israel's in the territories might have taught them more about what we might face in urban combat. Admittedly, however, it's very tough to assimilate these lessons until you have your own casualities and your own strategies are affected.
Armed Services committees might pay heed; it's not overengineering when the military asks for these capabilities and they get blown off by staffers and Representatives who just can't understand why they are needed---until the body bags show up.
But then it's the Service fault because they didn't write the RFP correctly and foresee this (~KongressKritter is a)running for reelection, b)has a grieving Mom on his back and wants to get reelected by blaming the service, c)grandstanding for the MSM to make a run for the BIG office, and d) is John Kerry or Nancy Pelosi.)
At the time the Abrams was designed people were worried about 10,000 Warsaw Pact Tanks pouring over the Inter-German Border. It's design was perfectly understandable and reasonable.