Apparently, both the European NATO nations and the US have been waiting for each other to commit to sending their most advanced tanks to Ukraine. Germany decided to go ahead, and the US followed suit. The American Abrams tank uses jet fuel and can overwhelm anything the Russians have.
Do you think this might convince Trumputin to throw in the towel?
Nope. If the tanks are anything like our artillery, it takes about three months of training to operate them and about a year to learn how to maintain them. With a fuel economy of 1/2 miles per gallon, the infrastructure to keep them on the road is phenomenal. You need tanker trucks, an engineer corp, and infantry to help protect all of the above. (Russia didn't pay attention to this lesson.) And the oncoming Spring will turn much of the Ukraine battlefield into marshland, which is not tank friendly. The German Leopards will be more useful in the short term.
What Ukraine really needs is long(er) range artillery to disrupt Russian logistics, and I wish the Biden administration would get off their asses and supply it. Battles aren't going to decide this war, attrition will.
Originally posted by: MisterPicture
Nope. If the tanks are anything like our artillery, it takes about three months of training to operate them and about a year to learn how to maintain them. With a fuel economy of 1/2 miles per gallon, the infrastructure to keep them on the road is phenomenal. You need tanker trucks, an engineer corp, and infantry to help protect all of the above. (Russia didn't pay attention to this lesson.) And the oncoming Spring will turn much of the Ukraine battlefield into marshland, which is not tank friendly. The German Leopards will be more useful in the short term.
What Ukraine really needs is long(er) range artillery to disrupt Russian logistics, and I wish the Biden administration would get off their asses and supply it. Battles aren't going to decide this war, attrition will.
Well, that's what I was thinking, that the US tanks would arrive and be ready for a summer offensive (and not any earlier than that, anyway). Ukraine wants to retake its lost territory, and that part of the country is relatively flat and well suited for tank warfare. Lots of good lines of sight for what will be far, far superior ranging and targeting.
Unfortunately, Biden doesn't want to give them anything they could use to attack Russia directly. I wish he would. A few artillery barrages raining down on Donetsk or other Russian cities would give the assholes a taste of their own medicine and maybe...just maybe...inch them close to the bargaining table. As it is, Russia itself isn't suffering, except economically.
