Britain was one of the first allies to make the jump, offering 14 Challenger 2 tanks this month. The question of which countries would send Kyiv tanks and when has morphed into a political litmus test of support for Ukraine within the NATO alliance. Defense Department official, describing the challenge Ukraine faces in fielding and maintaining multiple types of complex modern tanks in a war zone all at once. “It’s like having a motorcycle, a boat, and a high-end sports car all out in the open and trying to keep all of them operating in rough conditions everyday, doing the maintenance on all of them yourself, while you’re being shot at,” said Jim Townsend, a former senior U.S. If British-, German-, or American-made tanks look roughly the same to the untrained eye, then they’re a world apart when it comes to the materials and training needed to deploy them to the battlefield. Yet the deliveries also pose new logistical headaches for the Ukrainian military and its Western backers, as Ukraine prepares to receive a hodgepodge of varied NATO hand-me-downs that all have different training, spare parts, and maintenance demands-and even require different types of fuel. The United States and Germany have announced they will send modern Western battle tanks to Ukraine, capping months of tense diplomatic debates and marking a political win for Kyiv as it readies for spring offensives against invading Russian forces.
0 kommentar(er)
