Ukraine ping
Psalm 73: [M1 Abrams are unlike any other main battle tank in the world - maintenance and logistics would be a bear for the Ukes.
Unless American maintenance and logistics personnel are provided.... ]
A tanker who spent time in Kuwait within the confines of an M1 during Desert Storm talks maintenance:
here is the simple truth, we are here to help ukr, not say things that may hurt them.
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many people in the political world do not want to give ukr tanks for political reasons.. fine, if thats the case please say it out loud. thats fine i can respect that. i dont agree but who am i? no one.
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some people dont want to give ukr tanks due to cost... ok 100 tanks + parts + training + support + ammo is about 2.5 billion. got it that can buy a lot of himars rockets.. if thats the issue than fine at least say that.
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BUT most are saying things that are totally untrue, and a simple google search or talking to people in the military that know what they are talking about would fix in 10 min.
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fuel, the M1 can run on ANYTHING from gas to oil, the best fuels are JP4,5, 8, and diesel. the new versions of the tanks have a APU installed to run the tank systems and keep the batteries charged. this makes the M1 more fuel efficient than the leo2 overall
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thats right THE M1 WITH THE APU IS MORE FUEL EFFICIENT THAN THE LEO2.
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weight. the current M1A2 is 71 tons, the leo A6 is 68.9 tons... 2 tons different. if a bridge can take a leo it can take a M1. and ukr has bought a bunch of french premade 100 ton bridges that are being installed all over ukr right now.
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but maintenance??? the M1 motor has 1 moving part.... the leo2 has over 200 in its motor and the motor lasts about 1/2 the time of the M1s.
it takes less time to change a M1 motor than a leo 2.
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also as we have seen with the (GER) PZH2000 and the (US) M109 the US 109 is fixed in the field for everything. the PZH2000 has to be sent out of country due to it being german and to complex to be fixed in ukr (due to its turret having to be removed for service)
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parts.. the leo 2 parts CAN ONLY BE MADE IN GERMANY (due to contracting). so the stockpiles of parts are in germany. thats why people are reluctant to send tanks to ukr. germany will sit on the needed parts and after a week or 2 the tanks wont work any more.
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major parts where houses for M1, permisance, honenfelds ger, poland, Egypt, saudi, aust, etc..
ANY part needed is just a DHL/C17 flight to poland, a short MI-17 hop to the front in ukraine.. anything (part) short of a motor is doable in just 2-3 hrs.
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training and upkeep.. please dont bring up training. the 1st tank brigade with old T64s kept the best of the russian army from kyiv for 2 months. probably the most experienced crews in the world right now.
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upkeep and maintenance... ukr is one of the FEW countries in the world that has made there own modern tanks. upkeep is NOT a issue.
the M1 is one of the most easiest tanks in the world to keep running with a motivated crew. its proven that ukr troops are motivated.
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the motor, is a jet engine made for fighter aircraft...
in europe the countries that can make jet aircraft.. UK, GER, IT, SW... and UKR... ukr has plenty of exp with jet engines... but most would be fixed by GD civilian tecs in poland
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training, a again... if Iraqi, Saudi, Egypt troops can use the M1... my god dont make me say it.... in the hands of ukr troops (again probably some of the best in the world right now) will have no issues. so please no.
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ammo....
no shortage, over 1 million rounds for the 120mm are in europe, and thank god most are not swiss. ammo is NOT a problem.
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so in closing please if anyone can retweet this to
@MarkHertling i would love to have a talk with him on why he still thinks why the UKR forces should not get the M1.
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again i got it politics, cost, etc... but be up front about it.. there is NO practical reason why the M1 should not go to UKR. and if you dont know, thats ok to, thats what NCOs are here for, to help officers figure things out. i am willing to help. ]
Look, I've spent many years intimately involved with the Abrahms.
And many more involved in weapon systems logistics and maintenance - the M1 (and variants) is still the best MBT on the planet, but it's not something you just hand over to someone and say "here, have at it".
And that we are getting dragged ever deeper into the Ukraine quagmire is sheer madness. It's way past time to cut ties with that corrupt regime/Biden money-laundering operation.