German soldiers fire at their target during the Strong Europe Tank Challenge in Grafenwoehr, Germany, on May 11. (Javon Spence/U.S. Army)Posted on 05/17/2016 4:16:15 AM PDT by Freelance Warrior
Six NATO countries squared off last week in the Strong Europe Tank Challenge, a two-day competition that pitted some of the alliance’s best tank crews against each another in a series of events centered on armored warfare. The challeng was the first of its kind there since 1991.
The challenge featured seven tank platoons in total. Denmark, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Poland all competed with one platoon, while the United States sent two. Each platoon included four tanks manned by four men. Germany took the gold in its Leopard 2A6 tanks, followed by Denmark and Poland in second place and third place respectively, while the U.S. Army in the M1A2 Abrams didn’t place.
The challenge, co-hosted by U.S. Army Europe and the German Bundeswehr, is a nod to the Cold War era and a tacit acknowledgment that NATO will need well-trained conventional forces if it ever has to go to war with a newly-emboldened Russia.
German soldiers fire at their target during the Strong Europe Tank Challenge in Grafenwoehr, Germany, on May 11. (Javon Spence/U.S. Army)
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Wow.
The French Leclerc costs 5 to 10 times that of a German Leopard and is a maintenance nightmare, and some say a piece of crap. There is a reason they did not participate.... To prevent wear and tear their Leclerc sit in hangars all year long
Indeed, it would be more impressive if Germans had more munitions and battle ready Tornadoes and tanks. It was found that only 20 or 30% of their attack fleet was available to attack Daesh
It is inconceivable that the Army we had before Emperor Obama would send crews to international competitions and not be highly prepared for the event. But this Army and this Emperor are more into losing than being ready for combat. Will they surrender the tanks as our Navy did their two boats?
Quantity has a quality all its own
NATO is leading us to WWIII with its insane provocation of extending a missile shield into Poland, Romania and Ukraine. We know how we reacted to the Cuban Missile crisis when Khruschev tried to do the same thing to us. Well, lemme tell you, NATO will be useless when a thousand terrorist cells are activated inside the US and bring about civil war and a police state dictatorship. Them guys play chess for fun, we drink beer for fun.
See my reply 15. One win in seventeen tournaments.
The tanks sent from europe to Kuwait for desert storm were stuffed with cases of beer and kegs.
You can’t fight without beer!
>All British tank crews have 2 tanks. The one fhey fight in and one that’s in the sbop.
Sounds like Harly owners.
I am not too worried about people who play chess for fun. We have to worry about ourselves, because we know they aren’t going to help us out.
Normally I would say terrorist cells would come crashing down in the US in short order if indeed muslim oriented, but given the fact that liberals will probably join the terrorist cells and make it difficult to distinguish them and act against them, so I am not so sure on second thought.
A tank competition says nothing of an arm force. German soldiers are limited by union like 41 hour work week. It is a joke.
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htmurph/articles/20160510.aspx
You have it wrong. It is Russia that has never stopped fighting WWII.
As for Nato, no need to start war if you can dominate. Lack of do ination is a sure path to war.
>>Normally I would say terrorist cells would come crashing down in the US in short order if indeed muslim oriented, but given the fact that liberals will probably join the terrorist cells and make it difficult to distinguish them and act against them, so I am not so sure on second thought.
Muslim terrorist cells will find ready allies in Black Lives Matter and a host of Black Bloc type leftists agitator groupings. When Trump is elected, they will provoke demonstrations at first, which will be overreacted against by the cops or National Guard and then we’ll have an attempted civil war when the rest of the Lefty community shrieks about injustice. This is the “Arab Spring” game plan, to bring America to its knees and make us unable to exert moral influence in the World. But this scenario would unfold without Trump, prolly a little slower, and under Clinton be allowed to fester and totally divide the nation. Trump will act decisively and in surprising ways with the clarity of a Patton or a MacArthur or a Sheridan.
that would NOT surprise me
why do the english drink warm beer? they have Lucas refrigerators...
go hide under your bed.
You only have so much money and time for training.
You can spend it getting one platoon ready for a competition, or you can spend it getting a battalion ready for combat.
From what my armor and field artillery friends still serving told me last winter: they hadn’t run traditional armor and artillery training for most of the last decade. One artillery LTC said his bn had pulled perimiter guard and roving patrols in Iraq and never fired a single fire mission, in fact, they left their M-109s back in the states and there were only a couple of pieces for the bn to use in Iraq. It was similar for an armor LTC. When you don’t train, you can’t expect to be proficient.
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