Posted on 08/18/2014 12:39:08 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
The Ukraine crisis is pushing European governments to review the role of the weapon that dominated Cold War defenses as the strength of Russian ground forces stirs political concerns: the battle tank.
The cost and war-fighting benefits of developing common armored vehicles for the region could also spur consolidation beyond the pending merger of Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and France’s Nexter Systems, said Frank Haun, chief executive officer at KMW, maker of the 62-ton Leopard 2.
Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea and massing of troops on the Ukraine border has left front-line nations pondering the strength of armored brigades that have shrunk since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Haun said in an interview at KMW’s Munich base. Nordic countries including Finland and former communist states such as Poland are among those reviewing capabilities.
“They are beginning to increase spending because of concern regarding Russia,” Haun said. “We are in closer touch with those countries and getting more visitors from there.”
Demand for Cold War hulks like the Leopard 2, which fires shells that can penetrate 22 inches of steel from over a mile, faded in Europe as relations with Russia improved, with the focus of tank deployment shifting from the north German plain to the deserts of the Middle East. The most recent new-build Leopard 2 was produced in 2009, after 3,200 were previously sold to 16 armies worldwide.
The last major pitched tank battles took place in the war against Saddam Hussein after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, when the M1 Abrams — of which the U.S. Army has received more than 8,000 — saw action alongside Britain’s BAE Challenger 2s. The pair are the Leopard’s main rivals for the mantle of the world’s best performing model.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.com ...
Well, this is one of the very few benefits of the reign of Obama. Europe is going to have to take responsibility for their defense. America is no longer willing or capable of guaranteeing any country’s security.
>Haun said. “We are in closer touch with those countries and getting more visitors from there.”
Ukraine is also getting more of “those visitors”.
For those paying attention, Ukraine is teaching us a how sustained Warfare in the 21st century is REALLY going to work.
Expensive weapons systems will only last so long, as they are degraded by losses by much lower tech weapons. Air support, especially helicopters, gets canceled out by increasingly capable shoulder-fired launchers.
Any large concentration of vehicles will be blasted by hundreds of low-tech $125 Grad missiles of varying types, fired from dispersed locations.
Once the forces are forced to spread out, the higher-tech advantage gets canceled out by individual, equally low-tech systems. As Iraq showed us, a buried 155mm shell is very effective against an Abrahms tank.
The key to all of this, on both sides, being leadership.
> “Britain will lose its last assembly line with the shuttering of a historic BAE plant in Newcastle upon Tyne in the second half following final deliveries of Terrier combat-engineer vehicles.”
Sounds like bad planning.
Perhaps the reality.
British military has 500 horses and 330 tanks.
By the armor depletion rate Kiev junta experienced in the east, 330 tanks could be destroyed within a month in a low intensity conflict or in no time in a conflict with a formidable opponent.
Tanks without mechanized infantry to protect them on the battlefield are worthless.
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