During Operation Desert Storm, for instance, armored units could move up to 150 km from the central fighting zone in just one day. The casualties afflicted by AW are difficult to evacuate by medical support personnel if medical units are not equipped with dedicated vehicles, armored and with all-terrain capabilities as the rest of the AW units. 3, 4 Anti-tank weapons and mines cause blast waves, which may lead to traumatic brain injury, and repetitive blast exposures may lead to shell shock, a diagnosis coined in WWI and related to posttraumatic stress disorder.
Anti-tank missiles, and in combined arms warfare, anti-tank air strikes cause blast and burn injuries. Rocket-propelled grenades or high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) rounds are capable of penetrating tank armor, resulting in blast and burn injuries. Anti-tank mines aim at penetrating the floor of armored vehicles, causing blast injuries of lower extremities and pelvis, axial skeletal and traumatic brain injuries. Thus, for battlefield medicine, the introduction of armored vehicles implied specific challenges related to anti-tank weapons. As much as the armored vehicle protects the crew from small- to medium-caliber ballistic weaponry and shrapnel, it may become a death trap if exposed to armor-piercing anti-tank weapons. Indeed, the use of tanks and heavily armored mechanized vehicles facilitated troop mobility under fire and allowed maneuver warfare with force concentration unseen before. Armored warfare (AW) is, since World War (WW) I, a major component in ground warfare.
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