According to former army commander Mart de Kruif, it is very militarily important that European countries have received permission from the German manufacturer of Leopard tanks to send them to Ukraine. “Tanks are desperately needed and every day you wait is one less day you have to train and ship tanks.”
And that training in particular takes a lot of work, thinks De Kruif. “Experienced tankers—who know Russian tanks—can learn to work with a Leopard relatively quickly,” he says. “They won’t have a good understanding of the system yet, but we have to realize that this war will be decided in the coming months. So Ukraine would rather have tanks with less trained crews than no tanks at all.”
abrams
One condition on the table at the start of the Leopard negotiations was that German Chancellor Scholz would send tanks only if the Americans sent their own tanks: the M1 Abrams. If the Americans did this, you would have two tanks of completely different calibers on the battlefield.
The Americans were previously concerned about logistics, not least because the Abrams tank weighs more than 20 tons compared to the Leopard tank, which weighs 55 tons in combat readiness. Additionally, the Abrams tank is powered by a gas turbine that runs on kerosene. And while this provides a greater range (500 kilometers compared to the diesel Leopard’s around 400 kilometers), according to De Kruif it also creates a logistical problem. Where does kerosene come from? Of course, a gas turbine could also run on diesel, but still in huge quantities.
Difference
De Kruif also points out that the differences are not too great, because both tanks are built to NATO specifications. “The position of the loader, gunner and commander is not much different from that of other NATO tanks. You’ll need to train the crew, but you just need to want these devices in the area.’
How different Russian tanks are. De Kruif says that Russian T-90 tanks are of good quality, but that there are two big differences. “They have less armor and therefore weigh less.” For comparison, a T-90 weighs about 45 tons in combat readiness.
Crew
Another big difference between Western tanks and Russian tanks is the crew. Where it’s four men in NATO tanks, it’s three men in Russian tanks. “Western tanks have a loader, the man who puts the grenades in the cannon,” De Kruif continues. “It’s necessary because the ammunition in Western tanks is very deep in the tank itself.”
This is for security reasons, De Kruif points out. Russian tanks, on the other hand, have an automatic loading system, which makes them much more dangerous. “That loading system extends into the turret, and you often see that if a Russian tank gets hit, the whole turret flies off.”
Quantity
According to De Kruif, support will be much easier if a decision is made to supply a uniform type of tanks, instead of increasingly different types. “It shouldn’t be dozens, but several dozen. It’s better to get a lot of tanks from one type than a few from three types. The biggest crap job right now is the logistics guy, because he has to fix everything.’
Abraham’s M1
Weight: 67.5 tons
Main armament: 105mm gun or 120mm gun
Secondary Armament: one 0.50 in machine gun and one 7.62 mm machine gun
Motor: 1119 kW (1500 hp) Honeywell AGT1500 gas turbine
Speed (road): 67 kilometers per hour
Autonomy: 498km
Armor: 450-900mm
Leopard 2
Weight: 55 tons
Main armament: 120mm Rheinmetall 120/L44 smoothbore gun
Secondary Armament: Two 7.62mm MG3 machine guns, 12 smoke launchers
FLW 200 with 40 mm grenade launcher or .50 caliber machine gun
Motor: MTU 12-cylinder engine with an output of 1500 HP
Speed (road): 72 kilometers per hour
Autonomy: 450km
Armor: armor-piercing with a maximum thickness of 1500 mm in turret
T-90
Weight: 46.5 tons
Main armament:125mm 2A46 smoothbore gun
Secondary Armament: 7.62×54mm PKMT machine gun and one 12.7×108mm Kord 6P50 machine gun
Motor: twelve-cylinder diesel engine with an output of 1000 hp
Speed (road): 70 kilometers per hour
Autonomy: 375km
Armor:830mm