Posted on 01/22/2023 4:00:43 AM PST by RomanSoldier19
Germany may transfer 19 Leopard 2A5 tanks to Ukraine, Der Spiegel magazine reported.
Germany is ready to transfer to Ukraine only 19 of the oldest Leopard 2 tanks, which are used in exercises to simulate the enemy, Spiegel writes.
In total, the German military had 312 Leopards in 2 different production series in the spring, the newspaper notes.
(Excerpt) Read more at greekcitytimes.com ...
Look at the little kid with the helmet on in the turret…
That would be one heck of a Christmas present… a motorized 1/3 (?) scale Tiger Mk I…
https://toybuzz.com.au/product/thunder-tank-ride-on-with-working-cannon-and-rotating-turret-24-volt/
I’d buy that for myself…almost.
i know it
I’d love one of those.
Does it make sense to have 19 units of one kind of tank if you don’t have the maintenance and repair infrastructure to support that type? It seems to me to be a logistics nightmare if you are running numerous different platforms that each require distinct training and support systems.
I hope so. So far, Germany war reluctant to do so and even blocked other countries (e.g. Poland) for giving Leopards to Ukraine.
According to export conditions, nobody can give/sell arms to other countries without the permission of the original manufacturer. And Germany so far have not given that permission to anybody!
Seeing one of those come down the street would have a certain intimidation value...
A possible explanation for Germany’s actions on the tank situation is this: Germany has a long memory on how WWII ended. They’re still very afraid of the Russians, and don’t want to antagonize them unnecessarily. By sending 19 of the oldest Leopard tanks, they’re sending two messages.
To the U.S. and other NATO allies, Germany is saying “See, we’re trying to help the effort in Ukraine, you asked for tanks, and we sent not one or two, but nineteen of them!”
To the Russians, Germany is saying “We only sent nineteen tanks, and they’re really crappy anyway.”
I would invade New Jersey with that…
But I was poor kid… My tank was an old refrigerator box with a cardboard tube, duct taped To the front to simulate the gun
Re close up:
Apparently, he’s “all growed up” now… Lol
I’d be standing in the turret singing “Der Panzer Lied” at the top of my lungs… With Robert Shaw saying “sing” in the background…
Probably not, the Leopard’s deployed in Syria were destroyed very easily, lots of them.
“ This was shockingly illustrated in December 2016 when evidence emerged that numerous Leopard 2s had been destroyed in intense fighting over ISIS-held Al-Bab—a fight that Turkish military leaders described as a “trauma,” according to Der Spiegel. A document published online listed ISIS as apparently having destroyed ten of the supposedly invincible Leopard 2s; five reportedly by antitank missiles, two by mines or IEDs, one to rocket or mortar fire, and the others to more ambiguous causes.
These photos confirm the destruction of at least eight. One shows a Leopard 2 apparently knocked out by a suicide VBIED—an armored kamikaze truck packed with explosives. Another had its turret blown clean off. Three Leopard wrecks can be seen around the same hospital near Al-Bab, along with several other Turkish armored vehicles. It appears the vehicles were mostly struck the more lightly protected belly and side armor by IEDs and AT-7 Metis and AT-5 Konkurs antitank missiles….”
As with most of the collective West’s welfare give away, much doesn’t even reach the battle fields, Vlads destroys them in transit. Our M777’s are a good example, 19 have been verified destroyed….
Too little, too late. The Ukies are spent, currently the largest welfare nation on planet Earth.
Two Leopards taken out by two Kurdish woman using a Russian Konkurs anti tank weapon…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YafzmkvVRiI
With the myriad of weapons that Ukraine is receiving, it must be a logistical nightmare.
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