BATIUSHKA—While Western Europe is prepared to pay for the last Ukrainian to die for Western Europe – Germany, France, Finland, the UK and some other countries are prepared to get rid of some more of their old armoured vehicles and even tanks, palming them off on the Neo-Nazi Kiev regime. Thus, the UK is thinking of sending 14 of its 25-year old Challenger 2 tanks. How the UK will train Ukrainians to operate them, how it will supply enough ammunition for them to fire, how they will supply the mechanics and spare parts to repair them, how – and when – they will deliver them to Poland and then get them to the Kiev front, over 1,000 kilometres further away, nobody can tell us.
Category:
US MILITARY
JAMES TWEEDIE—The Pentagon’s excuse for not giving some of its stock of more than 6,000 M1 tanks (compared to Germany’s 300-odd Leopards) to the Ukraine is that they are high-maintenance, voracious gas-guzzlers, even by tank standards, and are fitted with technology that they can’t afford to let fall into Russian hands. But the US has previously exported ‘Nerfed’ versions of the Abrams to several Middle-Eastern countries without the depleted uranium armour inserts and other top-tier systems. The problem is that they turned out to be quite vulnerable.
Andrei Martyanov: pushing back against Western BS on battlefield tanks and related matters.
Despite NATO's constant boasts, the West currently lacks a tank capable of matching the latest Russian models.14 minutes readANDREI MARTYANOV—I am on record, remember? US and NATO cannot do strategy, they never could after WW II. It is a cold hard fact of life. Sure, they love to use the term “strategy” but very few in the military-political top in the US have a grasp of what it is. So, what can I say–I already get flack for my pointing out that John Mearsheimer has no clue about strategy, Russia, and balance of power–he doesn’t have a toolset, as wouldn’t any political “scientist”, to grasp it. His early 1970s background from USMA at West Point and a few years in the USAF are radically not enough, especially lacking serious military engineering background, for understanding modern operations.
West flooding Ukraine with arms—to no avail.
2 minutes readBRIAN BERLETIC—Despite the relatively large size of the package compared with the last several months of aid, the weapons and ammunition fall far short of replacing even Ukraine’s losses let alone granting Ukraine the ability to match or over power Russian forces. Ukraine will likely use many of these systems to patch up elite units within its deteriorating brigades. Germany and France are also sending armored vehicles, the Mauder infantry fighting vehicle and the AMX-10 RC respectively. This is likely paving the way to send additional heavy weapons like main battle tanks.
THE SAKER—Furthermore, I also think that Russia, China and Iran should create a multi-national observer battalion ready to be deployed in combat areas which involve Russian, Chinese or Iranian interests. Further down the road, these three countries could invite other countries, but only if their national leaders have true sovereignty and are not comprador administrators for their colonial masters.
