Both standardized production on one affordable, medium-weight, good-enough design - the American M4 Sherman, widely used by all the Allies, and the Soviet T-34 - and built them, in a range of variants, by the tens of thousands. In World War II, the US and the USSR advanced their armored forces on largely parallel paths. So not only tank crews, but commanders, planning staff, supply units, and maintenance troops will need to learn to use and support their new tanksproperly.Įast and West weren’t always so far apart. Perhaps most problematic of all, at 55-plus metric tons, they are too heavy to safely cross many Ukrainian bridges. The bad news is the bigger Western tanks have a harder time hiding under cover, guzzle more fuel, and need a larger crew, four troops instead of three. The good news for Ukrainian tankers is their roomier new rides will boast better armor, greater comfort - critical to combat efficiency after long days in cramped machines - and better electronics. And that size difference is just the most visible manifestation of a fundamentally different design philosophy that requires different training, tactics, supply, and maintenance. To start with, modern Western main battle tanks, tipping the scales at over 60 tons, are much bigger than the Soviet-derived designs, weighing 40 to 50 tons, that Ukraine has used for years. Yes, Ukrainian soldiers now have as much experience of tank combat as anyone in the world, but they’ll still face a steep learning curve with whatever type or types of tanks the West provides. Ukrainian support troops already have to make heroic efforts to maintain a hodgepodge of often-incompatible equipment, from Western tech to Soviet-era holdovers to captured Russian machines, all with different requirements for training, supplies, and spare parts. What’s more, sending many small batches of different tanks is a logistical nightmare. So the numbers are too small to matter much militarily - so far. Poland has pledged about a dozen German-built Leopard IIs, Finland has suggested a Europe-wide effort to send Leopards, and Britain is rumored to be sending ten of its home-grown Challenger IIs, but Ukraine’s top commander, Gen. Now for the hard part: getting Ukraine enough of these heavy tanks to matter - and then teaching Ukrainians how to use them, because Western war machines are very different from the Soviet-derived designs they’ve fought with since 2014. WASHINGTON – The dam has broken for main battle tanks, with Poland pledging to provide Ukraine small numbers of the massive armored vehicles and more nations expected to follow. 25 Berlin and Washington announced they would send Leopard and Abrams tanks, respectively, to Ukraine. Tara Fajardo Arteaga)Įditor’s Note: On Jan. A Polish Leopard II advances past American M1s during the Defender Europe wargames in May 2022 (US Army photo by Sgt.
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