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Germany supplies Leopard 2 tanks.
Chiara SchlenzEditor News
Challenger-2 from Great Britain, Leopard-2 from a number of European countries, Abrams M1 from the USA and Leclercs from France: the tanks are coming – and with them a logistical nightmare for the Ukrainian military. Because the many different systems are rarely compatible with each other, the soldiers have to be trained and the tanks have to be delivered in the first place.
Which tanks are delivered now?
With Germany’s announcement that it would deliver a company (14 units) of “Leopard 2A6” tanks, the federal government unleashed a wave of further “Leo” deliveries. Of the 14 European countries that have Leopard tanks in their arsenal themselves, Poland, Finland, the Netherlands and Spain have also declared their readiness to supply main battle tanks.
In addition, the UK announced a few weeks ago that it would be supplying Challenger-2 main battle tanks to Ukraine. The US is expected to announce a delivery of 30 to 50 Abrams tanks, but the news remains unconfirmed. And France does not rule out a delivery of Leclerc main battle tanks.
Almost every country in Europe will probably provide a different type of “Leos”. Germany and Poland could supply 2A6 tanks, Finland could supply 2A4 tanks and Spain could send both models. And just among all the “2A6” tanks, there are significant differences from country to country. Chaos inevitable. The different systems from the USA, France or Great Britain will probably also cause problems.
Never in history has an army used so many different systems of the same branch of arms at the same time. Sergei Grabsky, a colonel in the Ukrainian military reserve, called this situation a “logistics nightmare” on the American podcast “Geopolitics Decanted”.
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When will these tanks come to Ukraine?
According to experts, European Leopard deliveries could already take place in the coming months. If the USA actually sends Abrams, they would probably not be ready for use until the summer – after all, they still have to be serviced and shipped across the Atlantic. It is unclear when and if the French Leclercs will be ready for action in Ukraine.
Where and how are the soldiers trained?
Although Ukrainian soldiers have often proven that they can quickly familiarize themselves with foreign weapon systems, members of the Ukrainian military still have to be trained somewhere. This is also emphasized by retired soldier Mark Hertling on Twitter. For him it is particularly important that the soldiers learn how to carry out minor repairs on the tank themselves.
The Ukrainian troops are to be trained on EU soil, according to German media reports. But this is also associated with enormous effort for everyone involved. There is no experience with this so far, the mission is “uncharted territory”, says the German Lieutenant General Andreas Marlow in an interview with “Security.Table”. The Bundeswehr alone is involved in the training with 350 soldiers.
How are the tanks repaired again?
Maintenance, repairs, procurement of spare parts – the tank deliveries have a huge rat tail of consequences behind them. The “Tages-Anzeiger” explains that, for example, the German Panzerhaubitz 2000 can be repaired over the Internet, but this will not be an option for heavy battle tanks.
The problem: You can’t send every tank back to its country of origin if it needs repairs – that would be logistically impossible. How to solve the problem is still unclear.
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