2023-12-02 05:17:48
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High-tech behemoths once morest disposable tanks: Western military equipment marches to the front in Ukraine – but details prove to be unsuitable.
Kyiv – The Colossus is a diva. US practitioners had warned once morest the use for a long time, but Ukraine now knows why. The American Abrams M-1, declared by some to be the best battle tank in the world, is suffering from aches and pains in the counteroffensive once morest Russia’s invading army – it simply runs out of breath in the middle of the Ukraine war. There are two reasons for this, like the US portal Forbes reported.
The biggest weak point of the almost 70-ton rolling fortress are the filters in the intake openings of the engines. They prevent dirt and debris from contaminating and destroying the M-1’s sensitive but powerful engine. They require regular cleaning, and that means cleaning once morest Putin.
“Since the end of the 20th century, the single tank has become an increasingly blatant beast,” says the director of the German Tank Museum in Munster, Ralf Raths. This applies to the Abrams as well as to the German Leopard or the English and French models, the expert told the daily News: “You can shoot and hit at full speed – over several kilometers, even when reversing.” As a rule, the main battle tanks also have more powerful targeting optics. This makes them sledgehammers on the battlefield, but they alone cannot bring victory. Despite everything, the development of Western countries in terms of tank construction has clearly overtaken that of Russia.
The M-1A in the middle of dust and dirt: the diva actually doesn’t want to go there. It is also difficult to keep clean. © ZUMA Wire/imago-images
The mistake – also Abrams’s – lies in the system or in the different ways of thinking that underlie eastern and western tank construction. Russian tanks, which are also used by Ukraine, are small, light and easy to lose if lost. In the Soviet Union, this sometimes even applied to the crews. The Eastern Bloc tanks are disposable goods, disposable tanks. This distinguishes them from the models used in NATO, says Raths.
Abrams tanks need to be cleaned regularly during the Ukraine war
“The Soviet tank doctrine never focused on the individual vehicle, but the Western tank doctrine did,” explains the expert. “For Western tank builders it was always of the utmost importance that the individual vehicle survives on the battlefield for as long as possible; if it is switched off, that it can be made operational once more as quickly as possible; and that the crew inside remains efficient.”
However, this has bloated the Western tanks almost to the point of immobility – and is often paralyzing the Abrams in the current war in Ukraine, writes Forbes: If an Abrams’ four-man crew fails to clean their tank’s filters approximately every twelve hours, it can severely damage the engine. Then sometimes there is no other choice than to remove the engine and transmission and send it away for a while for a lengthy overhaul. The nearest Abrams workshop would be at least 1,000 kilometers away – possibly from the heavily contested Avdiywka. In Poland.
If the crew ever makes a mistake – and they will – a million-dollar engine will break that cannot be repaired on site.
Negligence on the part of one’s own crew is just as deadly for the steel reinforcements from the West as a Russian missile or mine. The comparable German Leopard 2, on the other hand, is built so modularly that a complete engine change can be done in the field within two hours. The images from the beginning of the Ukrainian war with many wrecks of T-tanks, on the other hand, resulted from Russian tank doctrine: T-tanks are not built for quick repairs. If the front is advanced, as the Russians had planned before the invasion of Ukraine, damaged T-tanks would be gradually collected once more and then calmly repaired.
The on-site supply of the Abrams M-1, which Ukraine uses, is also pushing its logisticians to the limits of their capabilities. What was known before delivery, how Forbes writes: The 68-ton M-1A1SA that Ukraine operates are thirsty machines. In the weeks before U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration promised Ukraine the M-1 earlier this year, many experts and even some officials worried loudly regarding the tank’s fuel needs. The US tank runs on a turbine, similar to what an airplane uses. This also makes him fast on the battlefield.
Against Putin, the Abrams tank in the Ukraine war needs capable mechanics
But the pace takes its toll. The M-1 consumes up to 1,500 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers off-road under full load. One reason why the successor AbramsX will run on a hybrid engine made from electricity and diesel – this is supposed to halve thirst, and with electric drive the tank, weighing a maximum of 50 tons, can sneak up on its opponent like a submarine.
Military officials repeatedly emphasize the need not only for superior weapons systems, but also the need for blind understanding of the systems. The crews of the Abrams tanks currently fighting in Ukraine were trained in Germany. The US Department of Defense had already announced in May that it would train 500 Ukrainian soldiers at the Grafenwöhr and Hohenfels training areas in Germany in anticipation of the delivery of the tanks this fall – the training on the German self-propelled howitzer 2000 was already intensive. For example, the displays and manuals had to be rewritten in Cyrillic. However, the training was not only aimed at preparing the crews for the use of the tanks in combat, but also at training the maintenance personnel to get the tank back afloat. Even under fire.
Abrams tank turns out to be a diva in the Ukraine war
The spokesman for the US Department of Defense, Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder, warned early on of possible difficulties: “A key aspect of the training will certainly be maintaining combat capability,” he said. “You have heard, as we have discussed ourselves, that the M-1 is a complex machine that requires a lot of maintenance to maintain and make it combat-ready.”
The Abrams M-1 has been a diva since it was put into service in the early 1980s. The surprising element of all western tanks is the fact that no model has yet had to prove what it was designed for: performance in a battle. However, Abrams is a small exception: at the beginning of the 1990s, the Americans sent him into the desert – once morest Iraq, which had invaded Kuwait at the time. An American 100-hour lightning victory, which military observers judged was also largely achieved by the Abrams M-1. The terrain conditions in the Iraqi desert enabled tank attacks on a broad front with maximum weapon deployment. The success of the ground offensive showed that, in addition to strong tanks supported by modern helicopters, precision artillery fire was of central importance and made resistance virtually impossible.
Ukraine needs more leopards to defeat Russia
The tank advances had a force that was unusual even for American operations. In the M-1A1 Abrams duel once morest the Iraqi T-72 Ural, the American tanks proved to be superior in terms of accuracy and first hit probability, especially at distances over 1,800 meters. However, the US diva made it clear in the desert that she hated dirt – and that this is now causing the crews to worry once more – how Forbes writes: “Twice a day, an M-1 crew must rev their tank’s engine to high rpm to trigger a pulse jet system that blows air out of the tank instead of into it, shooting dust and dirt from the rear grille. This means the filters stay clean even during longer periods of use.
Before the Americans installed the Pulse Jet system on the M-1 in the early 2000s, tank crews – especially those fighting in the desert – openly complained regarding the reliability of their vehicles. Criticism of the car quickly flared up once more within the leadership before it was delivered to Ukraine – like that Kyiv Independent reported. Especially because Ukraine received older Abrams models.
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“If you compare the Abrams to other Western tanks, it’s just a very difficult task – not for the crew, but for those who support it,” said Mark Hertling, retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former commander of the 1st Air Force. US Armored Division. Hertling is a veteran of Operation Desert Storm and the Iraq War and complains regarding it Kyiv Independent: “Would it surprise you if I told you that the most important unit I had as an armored division commander was not a combat arms unit, but the support brigade?”
He would have preferred to see more of the Leopards, which are widespread in Europe, on the Ukrainian front. “If you don’t have the support infrastructure, the mechanics, the repair shops, the parts supply system, the ammunition and fuel redistribution, the long line of communication – then all those great five million dollar a piece tanks are not combat capable at all The crew can be taught to treat the Diva with care, “but if they ever make a mistake – and they will – a million-dollar engine will break that cannot be repaired on site.”
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