Often the earliest images we see in any war are of tanks seizing and holding land quickly.
But when Vladimir Putin deployed tanks in Ukraine, that's not what we saw.
This prompted many to pose the question: 'Is this the end of tanks?'
And after witnessing early heavy tank losses,
it's tempting to conclude that the effectiveness of modern weaponry has made the tank obsolete.
But the reality is not that simple.
So why did Russian tanks appear to fail in Ukraine?
Tanks are well armoured, fast moving weaponry, well suited to open country.
And they are used to intimidate, break through enemy lines and cut off forces from supplies.
The Russian strategy for how many tanks a unit needs dates back to the cold war,
with the doctrine of battalion tactical groups.
These typically consists of 10 tanks, alongside 30 to 40 armoured personnel carriers
which carry the infantry.
The infantry are vitally important for tank protection, as is air support.
So to understand why Russia's tried and tested tactics failed during the 2022 invasion of Ukraine,
we need to look at the last time it successfully deployed its tanks.
In the summer of 2014, Russia invaded and occupied parts of eastern Ukraine,
due in part to an effective deployment of its battalion tactical groups, as per its cold war-era doctrine.
But the invasion in 2022 saw a critical difference.
Russia deployed its BTGs with a dramatic reduction in the number of infantry,
and a reduction in infantry risks leaving a BTG's tanks and armoured vehicles vulnerable.
But in Ukraine 2022, it was made worse by the urban setting, where dismounted infantry is critical.
Worse still, Russia lacked air supremacy, which is needed to limit the threat posed to tanks
by ambush, enemy jets and drone attacks.
As a result, Ukranian troops were able to gain good positions to attack Russian tank columns
without worrying about meeting much resistance from infantry,
or being seen or attacked from the air.
By the beginning of June, Russia saw its tank stock of around 2,800 suffer heavy losses.
The lowest independent estimate claimed that more than 700 tanks have been destroyed or captured.
The Pentagon put the number at 1000 and Ukrainian estimates had it at 1,300.
Such were Russia's tank losses that it was forced to deploy modified Soviet-era models,
which were even more vulnerable to the modern anti-tank weapons used in abundance by Ukrainian forces.
A lot has been made of the Ukrainian army's use of British and US anti-tank weapons.
But how important have they been?
Both the British next-generation light anti-tank weapons and US Javelin anti-tank missiles
are extremely effective and designed to strike on top of the tank, where its armour is weakest,
immediately nullifying one of the tank's strongest attributes.
Modern anti-tank missiles are also light, portable and relatively cheap compared with tanks,
which has allowed Western allies to supply Ukraine with thousands of them.
But it's important to remember that, while Ukraine's use of anti-tank weapons
has been extremely effective,
their success has largely been permitted by Russia's strategic failures.
Mismanagement and modern weaponry have not been the only undoing of Russian tanks in Ukraine.
Logistical errors have seen tanks run out of fuel.
Bad driving or poor training has accounted for some losses,
and perhaps a combination of all factors is behind some tanks being abandoned by soldiers simply not wanting to fight.
In spite of all the setbacks Russia faced in Ukraine,
some military analysts say that, had tank battalions been used correctly, with sufficient manpower,
they would have faced fewer losses.
So even in the face of rapidly developing cheaper handheld weapons
there is still an important role for tanks in modern warfare,
for which there is currently no alternative.
As such, the era of the tank is far from over.