In February of this year, during live fire training conducted by the 15th Jiritsko Mechanized Brigade, the scene of the brigade's tank soldiers firing K6 machine guns equipped on the K2 "Black Panther" main battle tank attracted attention. The K6 machine gun is a Korean made version of the American made M2HB machine gun. Although it is nominally an anti-aircraft machine gun, in this training, it struck ground targets in the snow field. Anti aircraft machine guns are more commonly used to strike ground targets, and the "situation" of the K6 machine gun is generally the same as that of tank anti-aircraft machine guns in other countries. Since the anti-aircraft machine gun "boarded" the tank, it has been dubbed as "air defense". As an important means of tank air defense in various countries during World War II, anti-aircraft machine guns did play a role at that time. Subsequently, due to the emergence and use of jet aircraft and other technologies, anti-aircraft machine guns were temporarily phased out of tank platforms in some countries. The anti-aircraft machine guns retained on tanks are more often used to eliminate the threat of enemy anti tank firepower teams, suppress or destroy enemy firepower points. The continuous growth of urban combat demand has provided new opportunities for the development of tank anti-aircraft machine guns. Due to its usual installation at the top of the turret, it can achieve a large angle of pitch through a circular seat or bracket, allowing it to shoot high and low targets in complex terrain. The advantages of low ammunition cost and sustainable shooting make it possible to buy more time for tanks to adjust their posture or achieve infantry tank coordination. In recent years, drones have rapidly entered the battlefield and played an increasingly important role. In response to this new threat, some countries have begun to find ways to counter it, such as developing small and micro air defense missiles, interceptor drones, and so on. During this process, tank anti-aircraft machine guns received renewed attention. The increase in detection and perception methods, the improvement of fire control system performance, and the application of artificial intelligence technology have endowed tanks with the ability to counter unmanned aerial vehicles with anti-aircraft machine guns. Currently, some anti-aircraft machine guns have been integrated into remote-controlled weapon stations. With the stable thermal imaging and ranging functions of remote weapon stations, the ability of anti-aircraft machine guns to respond to incoming drones has been significantly improved, and the exposure risk of tank crew has been effectively reduced. The same remote-controlled weapon station can replace different weapons and optoelectronic components, including anti-aircraft machine guns, according to mission requirements, to carry out diverse tasks such as firepower suppression, convoy anti ambush, and anti drone in different combat environments. From this perspective, for a period of time, anti-aircraft machine guns will not "walk away" from tank platforms, but will exist as part of the tank's embedded self-defense link and firepower module for a long time. (New Society)