[REGNUM] The "Ramstein meeting" has not yet become the final point in the supply of NATO tanks to Kyiv. However, experts believe that sooner or later the supporters of such supplies will achieve their goal and Ukraine will receive these tanks. How will they perform on the battlefield?
On Friday, January 20, a meeting dedicated to the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine was held at the Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. It was expected that the meeting would approve a delivery schedule for German Leopard 2 tanks for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but this did not happen.
As German Defense Minister Oscar Pistorius stated following the meeting, the partners failed to reach a consensus on this matter. At the same time, Germany stated that it does not mind if Ukrainian crews begin training on Leopard tanks in other countries.
The Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov said that the training of tankers in European countries will begin in the near future.
Experts note that the issue of supplying tanks to Ukraine will be resolved one way or another in the near future. Especially since Poland and Great Britain have already agreed to supply armored vehicles. The authorities of Finland have already declared their readiness to supply tanks, while the Czech Republic and Slovakia intend to refuse the supply of tanks from Germany in favor of Ukraine.
As Alexander Mikhailovsk , a reserve officer of tank troops, noted in a conversation with IA REGNUM , in the case of Poland, we are talking about Leopard 2A4 tanks, which will have a number of advantages during the Ukrainian conflict.
"In the Ukrainian conflict, tanks are usually used to fire at dispersed manpower and manpower in cover. This applies to almost all models of tanks and both sides of the conflict. If we are talking about Leopard 2 tanks, then they are unified in terms of weapons with all NATO tanks, including those made in the USA. There are multi-purpose programmable high-explosive fragmentation munitions with ready-made submunitions DM 11. These projectiles in the conditions of the Ukrainian conflict will be dangerous for manpower, since they are equipped with a programmable fuse and can provide detonation on the trajectory with subsequent hitting the target both from below the projectile (shrapnel the projectile itself and high-explosive impact), and in the direction of flight of the projectile with a beam of ready-made submunitions (shrapnel)"- said the expert.
The tanks available to European countries were produced at different times and differ greatly depending on the modification. The most modern Leopard 2A7 models are only available to the Bundeswehr, and in very small quantities. So it is extremely unlikely that they will be transferred to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The most massive modifications are Leopard 2A4 and 2A5. So deliveries can be made using machines of this model, which are in service with Finland, Poland, Norway, Germany, Denmark, Portugal, Spain and Greece.
Modifications differ significantly in their "stuffing": the presence of modern equipment, including fire controls. But, according to Alexander Mikhailovsky, tanks of the Leopard 2 family have one common advantage, which is extremely important when conducting a maneuvering battle.
"If we are talking about the battle of two tanks, then in the context of Ukraine, two circumstances matter: maneuverability and maneuverability. As the experience of recent battles shows, the one who moves faster survives. If you delay with this, then the enemy will have time to direct artillery. The modern transmission allows the Leopard 2A4 to reach speeds of 75 km/h.
"The specific pressure on the ground corresponds to the same for the T-90A tanks, slightly exceeds the T-90M in this indicator and is slightly inferior to the T-72B3. This parameter is responsible for the cross-country ability, therefore, when conducting an oncoming tank battle, the Leopard 2 will not be inferior to domestic vehicles in soft ground conditions. As you know, constant rains turn Ukrainian black soil into viscous mud, in which both our and Ukrainian equipment stalls. Therefore, the Leopards will have an advantage here," - said Alexander Mikhailovsky.
However, with all the advantages, German-made armored vehicles were predicted to have a short life in the conditions of the war in Ukraine. The only experience of using Leopard 2A4 tanks in the conditions of modern military operations showed their vulnerability to manual anti-tank weapons.
We are talking about the tanks of the Turkish army, used during the battles for the city of Al-Bab in northern Syria. Then at least three tanks were destroyed by militants with only hand weapons.
"In a word, Leopard 2, even in the A4 modification, is good for its time, but with the modern saturation of the battlefield with anti-tank weapons, survivability drops dramatically. I don’t presume to name the exact timings, but it’s obvious that when they get to the front, these cars, with all the pluses described above, will not live long," the expert sums up.