Quote:
Originally Posted by Rockstar
Thinking about it I thought the t72 has an auto loader too.
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"too"...?
Since when has the Leo-1 an auto-loader like the T-72? It has a crew of 4 for sure, like the Abrams. Commander, gunner, driver, loader.
I think the Italians or the Spanish once build one single prototype with an autoloader. if it is not a myth.
The mothballed Leopard-1 in Germany all seem to be 1A5s. 178 tanks is the possible maximum, whether these all translate into tanks refurbished and developed until - so the plan - summer next year, is somehign different. Its possible that the total number is reduced due to the need to cannibalise some tanks for the sake of reactivating others. Possible that in the end it will only be around 100 or so.
I doubt, seriously, they will invest the money and time for developing a solution to fit in a 120mm. I would almost rule that out. You would need to take the whole turret apart. It costs time, it needs to be bug-hunted. It needs much money. And factory capacity - by the Leopard producers in German currently cannot produce more than 1 Leopard-2 in two weeks. Go figure. No workers. No factory capacity. No ressources.
The Ukraine needs no perfect super-wonder-miracle solutions.
It needs bigger numbers, and quick.
Thats 24 Leopard-2s per year. I was shocked when i heard that number, totally shocked. But its no rumour, its fact.
In Russia they have moved towards full war production. All their tank-capable factories produce tanks day in, day out, 24/7, mostly refurbishing mothballed ones currently, since that is faster.
Now we know why the Polish bought 900+ new MBTs - in S-Korea. The germans have no profitabel production capacities anymore. And as this Austrian colonel Reisner so very correctly remarked, this should be an alarm signal of the highest order to Europe. The Polish decision shows that they do not think there is a future for a European arms industry anymore. At the same time the Swedish find it incredibly difficult to sell their new Gripen-E - the plane that would be perfect for ukraine, since its can be maintained easily on the meadow, in the forest, it needs no hangars, is extremely maintenance- and repair-friendly , and needs only short runways. Exactly what the ukrainians need. But Sweden could not produce them in the needed time, its industry - Saab in this case - has shrunk to too low size. So the German, the French, the British.
Europe becoming a sovereign self-supplying military power? We are beyonds that. This idea now is nothing but a still birth, it will not happen, arms sales will more and more go to the US, and Asia. With a result that capacities in Europe and the knowhow will shrink further.
The Russians do what was to be expected, they cannot compete wiht tehcnology, so they make big nubmers count. Very big numbers. Its their doctrin since - since before WW2 already. If it takes - just a guess - 4 old tanks to make one working one,
by their reserves they will soon have 2000-2500 additonal ones. Additional to those they already have, in the Ukraine, and in other regions fo their territory.
Catfish linked that 2 hour video from that conference in Auzsdtria. Try to use it with english subtitles, bot-translated. Its should serve as an eye opener for many. That man has done his homework, and he is mercilessly beyond any illusions. The colonel holds a lecture first, that already sets some exclamation marks, than there is a very good lecture by a former defence minister with solid pltical strategic insight, and then Q&A, again with Colonel Reisner answering a lot. He is brutally open.
And he is right. Compared to him, what we hear from our politicians and media is simply blatant bullsh!t. If we continue like we do now, the Russians will not just win - they will
triumph. Boiling the frog - will not work. The rus sians learn. They adapt. They do already now better than our media want to let us know. I am warning of this since weeks and weeks. Fightign and winning wars with extremely high own casualties - IS PART OF THEIR DAMN DOCTRINE. Always was.
Those new 150 km missiles will command them to re-adapt again. But this again comes at more losses to the Ukraine inflicited. And the Ukraine, different to Russia, cannot as easily compensate thes e losses anymore, even more so since it does not get the replacements in numbers as it needs them. Resiner and as well the Neue Zürcher Zeitung recebtly voiced: the Russians will create many little Verduns. They must not win any of them, they must no drive hueg affeenive and get victories. All that counts is that they make the Ukrainians spending their ammo, and make them bleeding. By this, Russia will win the war.