More Tanks Ukrainians Training In US - Col Do... !!LINK!!
So we need to continue to provide support to Ukraine for as long as it takes with capabilities but also with training.Last week I visited a training facility in the United Kingdom where different NATO Allies provide training to Ukrainian soldiers. I welcome the EU decision to establish training for Ukrainian forces. This will complement what NATO Allies already do. It is important that we provide more training because the Ukrainians are fighting a battle, which is bloody and extremely challenging.
More Tanks Ukrainians training in US - Col Do...
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg:You know, many EU members have already participated in different ways in the training activities with NATO Allies. So this is something we work together. We do it together in different formats, but primarily we speak about the same nations providing training to Ukrainian forces. NATO Allies have provided training to Ukrainian forces since 2014. In particular, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, have conducted significant training in Ukraine since the illegal annexation of Crimea, but also some EU NATO members have been part of these efforts. And then for instance, in the United Kingdom, where they're already trained close to 10,000 troops just this year. We have Denmark, we have Sweden, we have the Netherlands, we have several other EU members that are also NATO Allies participating in those training activities. Together with other partners of NATO like New Zealand and Australia. So countries may be members of different organizations but the good thing is that they work together in different formats to provide more training for Ukraine. So therefore welcome the EU efforts, it will complement the efforts by NATO Allies that has taken place over several years. Of course, also NATO Allies stepped up after the invasion. But tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops have been already trained by NATO Allies and this has helped the Ukrainians to just stand up against the Russian invasion.
Over the course of nearly four decades, I spent a lot of time either engaging or working with the two armies now engaged in a bitter struggle in Ukraine. I met their leaders, observed their maneuvers, and watched their development closely either up close or through reading intelligence reports. Strangely, one memory that stands out had more to do with trumpets and rim-shots than tanks and rifles.
The decision to speed up the delivery of tanks and Patriots comes as Ukraine is preparing to launch a spring offensive against Russian forces, built largely around the more powerful and more advanced systems Western countries have agreed to send, including tanks and other armored vehicles.
The US had previously announced it would send the more modern M1-A2 version of the Abrams battle tank, but that would have required either building new tanks or modernizing existing older tanks, then training Ukrainian crews on the more advanced system. The M1-A2 has a newer digital targeting system that makes it a more capable tank, but it also required more training for Ukrainian troops to operate the more complex tank and to maintain the system.
The US on Sunday began giving more advanced training to Ukrainian troops, suggesting that US authorities expect a ramping up of the conflict over the coming months, with Ukrainian forces aggressively taking the fight to Russia.
When Russia invaded in February, it met winter weather conditions that dramatically hampered its progress. The onset of another winter is partly why the war has become more static in recent months than it has been at any time since its beginning, with a relatively definable front line separating Ukrainian forces from their Russian counterparts strung out across occupied territory ranging from the east, along the Black Sea Coast, to Crimea. That pattern is unlikely to hold as the weather warms. Both sides have reason to increase their operational tempo and launch offensives to disrupt the status quo, and that is likely in the spring. Whether Ukraine can count on the new tanks it has been pledged when those offensives begin will be a major factor in their outcomes.
All of the tanks recently committed to Ukraine, including the Leopard 2, are advanced and complex systems. Like any machine, that means more parts and more sophisticated components. High-end fire-control systems are effectively computers and require very different support than less sophisticated systems. Laser rangefinders, however ruggedized, are finely calibrated tools that must be maintained in that state. Repairing and replacing explosive reactive armor is an entirely different proposition than bolting on more steel or adding sandbags. And training crews to operate any high-end weapon system, including tanks, is a much more time-intensive process than it is for simpler systems.
Ukrainian artillery such as BM-21, 2S1, and D-30, as well as air-defense capabilities such as the SA-6 and the SA-13, stem primarily from lower-tech Soviet, domestic, or regional production. Ukraine does not have the latest technology in self-propelled howitzers. While older systems are useful for imprecise area fires, the latest NATO systems and their munitions are faster, more lethal, and more survivable. They would allow Ukraine to do things it cannot currently do well: quickly determine locations of enemy artillery and target them with counter-battery fire, and destroy tanks and other armored vehicles with artillery, rather than only with anti-tank guided missiles and other tanks.
With at least 1,600 tanks already lost in Ukraine, the Russian military is faced with a dilemma. It can either deploy more of its most advanced tanks there, hollowing out its forces for other contingencies, or it can empty its warehouses of older model tanks in the hopes that enough of them will run to make a difference on the battlefield. Both choices come with problems. Russia only has about 600 of its advanced T-90 tanks, and only about 400 of those are serviceable. It has even fewer of its most advanced tank, the T-14 Armata, considered on par with the best tanks fielded by NATO militaries. Russia originally planned to buy 2,300 T-14s but has scaled that back to only 132. Several hundred advanced tanks would certainly make a difference in Ukraine but would leave Russia dangerously exposed elsewhere, especially along its Western flank bordering NATO countries.
Both Poland and the Czech Republic have already sent the Ukrainians T-72 tanks, but neither the United States nor any of its allies have provided Ukraine with more modern battle tanks made by Western countries.
Until now, the U.S. has resisted providing its own M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, citing extensive and complex maintenance and logistical challenges with the high-tech vehicles. Washington believes it would be more productive to send German Leopards since many allies have them and Ukrainian troops would need less training than on the more difficult Abrams.
(CNN) -- The US will dramatically accelerate the time it takes to ship Abrams tanks to Ukraine by sending older M1-A1 models of America's main battle tank instead of the more modern version of the tank, according to two US officials.
"We have to deliver swiftly and fully on our promised commitments," Austin said at a news conference following the latest meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, an unofficial organization of some 50 countries providing aid to Ukraine. "That includes delivering our armored capabilities to the battlefield and ensuring that Ukrainian soldiers get the training, spare parts and maintenance support that they need to use these new systems as soon as possible."
A number of other countries are poised to send western tanks to Ukraine in the coming weeks. Germany said last week that Ukrainian crews have nearly completed training on Leopard 2 battle tanks and that it would soon be feasible to send them to Ukraine. Norway announced on Monday that it had delivered Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, and Spain said Ukrainian crews would finish training on their Leopard 2A4 tanks this week. Meanwhile, the UK said it was aiming to send its Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine by the end of March.
Poland will send an additional 60 tanks to Ukraine on top of the 14 German-made Leopard 2 tanks it has already pledged, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was quoted as saying. Poland is ready to send other tanks that are Polish-made battle tanks developed from the Soviet-era T-72 range. Western battle tanks could be a game changer, but only if there is proper six-week training and if they arrive soon.
But that reluctance has largely crumbled, particularly this past month, as U.S. and NATO countries have offered up a range of new weapons, including the Patriot missile air defense system, hundreds of armored vehicles, and now, the tanks.
The Abrams is considered the world's best tank, and also the most sophisticated. It requires extensive training and maintenance, and it runs on jet fuel, rather than the diesel fuel used by other tanks.
Last Friday, the U.S. led a coalition of more than 50 countries that met in Ramstein, Germany, to offer additional support for Ukraine. While much of the public discussion focused on the U.S. and German refusal to provide tanks, Ukraine did receive extremely strong support overall. The U.S. promised an additional $2.5 billion, including more than 500 armored vehicles. The Germans offered up an additional $1 billion in military hardware. 041b061a72