Posted on 01/25/2023 12:09:44 PM PST by 4Runner
Just last week, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl told reporters that the Abrams is a complicated, expensive, difficult to maintain and hard to train on piece of equipment. One thing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has been very focused on, he said, “is that we should not be providing the Ukrainians systems they can’t repair, they can’t sustain, and that they, over the long term, can’t afford, because it’s not helpful.”
For the Abrams to be effective in Ukraine, its forces will require extensive training on combined arms manuevuer — how the tanks operate together on the battlefield, and on how to maintain and support the complex, 70-ton weapon. The Abrams tanks use a turbine jet engine to propel themselves that burns through at least two gallons a mile regardless of whether they are moving or idling, which means that a network of fuel trucks is needed to keep the line moving.
(Excerpt) Read more at aol.com ...
We should have just shipped everything we had in Afghanistan to Ukraine.
Like everything DC/Biden has done, its piecemeal and slow.
it will allow Russia to see them up-close, but in amounts that make little military difference. They’ll probably capture a few also.
Rolling targets. Safer outside the vehicle than inside it. Especially, in this environment.
I guess Lindsey and his mad band of chickenhawks envsion a quick victory over Russia, and a triumphant return to massive parades down Broadway.
Unbelievable !!!
The A29 Super Tucanos (basically a turboprop p51) would have been amazing at shooting down the cruise missiles.
All the rest would be marginal.
What could go wrong?
There was not much in Afghanistan that’s a critical need in Ukraine.
That was a very different war. It was a counterinsurgency fought against guerillas in rough country.
No tanks, no SAMs, few antitank weapons, little artillery.
I suppose Ukraine could use the vast quantities of light vehicles, like the 20,000 Humvees, or the helicopters, or the small arms, but that all is not short in Ukraine.
Captured, destroyed or “lost” we’ll never get those back.
19 M777 howitzers have been destroyed. Much real time video from Russian MOD to not dispute this. The M1’s ( and Leopards) will no doubt be given higher priority for elimination by Vlad, stay tuned…
I expect much egg on the collective West’s face…stay tuned. To little, to late as we are witnessing.
The Super Tucanos, being slow, would have to be very lucky to be in the flightpath of a cruise missile, would have to acquire them visually, lacking radar, and they would only be able to use Sidewinders to engage them at very short range.
A pilot in a Tucano would have to be very lucky to catch a cruise missile.
Pure Insanity!
Think about this:
If President Trump was in office, he would make 2 telephone calls and it would be over. No further deaths involved.
He would call Putin and say stop, and at the same time he would tell him what we would quit doing for the Ukraine.
He would call the Zelenski and tell him cease. Or we stop sending you any money.
Sound simple? Yes, that is.
But Trump could end it about that simply.
Facts haven’t changed in a week.
Don't worry, the government squandered many billions in material, weapons and vehicles in Ustinkistan, and you can bet the rent, they'll do it with corrupt Ukraine as well.
Egyptians run the things. Should be able to be ran by Ukies. But these will be monkey models, or refurbished.
Yes one can dispute this. Some of those videos show clear misses, and there aren’t 19 of them.
In any case a very small number out of the quantity sent, not to mention the great combat value of this aid.
The biggest diff between the Egyptian versions (and Iraqi, Moroccan, Saudi, etc.) in foreign use, vs those in US service, IIRC, are some of the armor panels. US tanks have DU, foreign ones have titanium.
Right, its 31 Abrams, with at least a hundred Leopards and a hundred Bradleys, etc. which is just the start of these deliveries. According to you that "will make little military difference". So why is the Kremlin squawking?
“... the Abrams is a complicated, expensive, difficult to maintain and hard to train on piece of equipment.”
Sounds like we’re going to have boots-on-the-ground, to train the Ukes and maintain the tanks. Not good.
I don’t want to get a stratagem away, but you are thinking they’d play man to man.
No, it would be zone.
And slow is just fine.
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