01-23-2023, 06:27 PM
https://www.yahoo.com/gma/ukraine-expect...00990.html
100 all together sounds feasible to me. It probably won't be 100 all at the same time though. Some of them probably have to be re-furbished a bit first, and it will be necessary to make sure they can communicate with each other. The radios are all probably NATO Standard but from what years may be quite different. Also necessary to make sure they can talk to their surrounding infantry support. If they are in Bradleys/Stryker/M113s it probably is straightforward. If they are Ukrainian BMPs, maybe not so much. If they are leg infantry, something is wrong. The next problem will be if any of the Leopards are Leopard 1s. There are lots of those out there but they don't fire 120 mm ammunition.
There was an article in the news that said the Bundeswehr had 19 Leopard 2A7s in their training command that they could send. While it is undoubtedly true these tanks exist they are presently being used to train the German troops that will be upgrading to the A7 model. Seems to me very unlikely these tanks could actually be "spared", even if they have no immediate combat assignment. This upgrade also probably means there are some older model tanks that are in a "deferred maintenance" status in anticipation of their being declared surplus. These tanks would be better candidates for donation IF they aren't in too bad shape. It is important people realize exactly how gutted the German military is. They have outsourced all their tank maintenance to industry. They can't fix anything themselves. There is a big backlog in scheduled maintenance and upgrade installation. How combat losses are supposed to be dealt with is totally unclear. Germany itself is undoubtedly in no shape to release tanks to anybody.
Rheinmetall OTOH does have quite a few tanks that it has retained with hopes of upgrading and selling. However, these tanks are not ready to go and will take a year (supposedly) to be made ready for combat. It may be the best we can hope for that Germany just quietly acquiesces to other nation's donating tanks.
100 all together sounds feasible to me. It probably won't be 100 all at the same time though. Some of them probably have to be re-furbished a bit first, and it will be necessary to make sure they can communicate with each other. The radios are all probably NATO Standard but from what years may be quite different. Also necessary to make sure they can talk to their surrounding infantry support. If they are in Bradleys/Stryker/M113s it probably is straightforward. If they are Ukrainian BMPs, maybe not so much. If they are leg infantry, something is wrong. The next problem will be if any of the Leopards are Leopard 1s. There are lots of those out there but they don't fire 120 mm ammunition.
There was an article in the news that said the Bundeswehr had 19 Leopard 2A7s in their training command that they could send. While it is undoubtedly true these tanks exist they are presently being used to train the German troops that will be upgrading to the A7 model. Seems to me very unlikely these tanks could actually be "spared", even if they have no immediate combat assignment. This upgrade also probably means there are some older model tanks that are in a "deferred maintenance" status in anticipation of their being declared surplus. These tanks would be better candidates for donation IF they aren't in too bad shape. It is important people realize exactly how gutted the German military is. They have outsourced all their tank maintenance to industry. They can't fix anything themselves. There is a big backlog in scheduled maintenance and upgrade installation. How combat losses are supposed to be dealt with is totally unclear. Germany itself is undoubtedly in no shape to release tanks to anybody.
Rheinmetall OTOH does have quite a few tanks that it has retained with hopes of upgrading and selling. However, these tanks are not ready to go and will take a year (supposedly) to be made ready for combat. It may be the best we can hope for that Germany just quietly acquiesces to other nation's donating tanks.