Tanks are instruments of war that "provide mobility, protection and firepower," military sources who are experts in armored combat explain to La Vanguardia. These capabilities are what the command of the Ukrainian army longs for to achieve a decisive change within the current stalemate – except for the battle of Bakhmut – of the fronts. However, the mere shipment by the West of dozens of modern tanks does not by itself mean achieving those objectives and certainly not in the short term.
It was precisely the stagnation of the war fronts that made the Allied side manage to create an artifact during the First World War that allowed them to pass over the trenches, break the lines, cause havoc with their mobile artillery system and mounting a protection system (armor) that made the ammunition of that time useless.
"From then until now, history has been a competition of the cannon against the armor," explain these expert sources on tanks. The tank allows you to advance while resisting the increasingly specialized enemy fire that breaks your protection. "That is why one of the continuous challenges is the improvement of armor," they add.
“The tank, if it is well guarded, is the most important tool to conquer and defend terrain, but the tank must always carry support and reconnaissance units to avoid precisely what happened to the Russian columns at the beginning of the war. on which targets were made as if it were a clay pigeon shot”, explains reserve lieutenant general Francisco Gan Pampols.
This enormous capacity for “precision and penetration”, as a Spanish commander stationed in Latvia explained to La Vanguardia in 2017, is what Ukraine needs for its plans. Spain has stationed in that Baltic republic since then a dozen Leopard 2E battle tanks.
“It is very likely that what Kyiv wants is to break some of the lines now established: the center front, the one from Jerson or the one from Kharkiv,” the consulted military sources explain.
However, to carry out an operation of these characteristics, a huge deployment of troops is needed. In a quick calculation and assuming that all logistical complications and training of the crews had been resolved, to break any of the three fronts indicated "300 tanks would be needed and triple (900) in motorized infantry vehicles", Military sources who are experts in mechanized combat point out to this newspaper.
Ukraine will only have this heavy and decisive weaponry to the extent that the West delivers it and that is, precisely now, a question that is being resolved between the allies, especially focused on the delivery of the German-made Leopard 2 armored vehicles and with technical specifications that perfectly match those of its Russian T-90 counterpart and surpass the previous T-72. It stands out in the Leopard 2 that it is capable of hitting a target at 3,500 meters while moving at 60 kilometers per hour.
The fact that Germany has decided to send its own units of the Leopard 2 to the front and not cause problems for third countries so that they can re-export them clarifies the panorama a bit with regard to this heavy weapon.
The need for this weapon for Ukrainians is very high. Until now, the clearest commitment in this regard had been that of Great Britain, which already confirmed a couple of weeks ago that it would send 14 Challenger 2 armored cars to Ukraine. These will be added to the Leopard 2 sent by Germany, Poland and the Baltic republics that have already announced their intention to do so, an initiative that other countries may join with this or another tank. The United States has already talked about sending Abrams tanks.
Will it be possible to reach a significant number of tanks on the ground and in the appropriate conditions so that Ukraine can modify the conditions of the war?
"Sending the Challengers has been a first step that has served to continue breaking taboos on supporting Ukraine," explains Nicolás de Pedro, head of research at The Institute for Statecraft, a British think tank, whose founders come from the world of of the armed forces with NATO experience. The taboos to which De Pedro refers are those supposed limits that the West placed on its support for Kyiv, such as sending Patriot missiles or certain anti-radar ammunition, and which little by little have been skipped. Now the same would be happening with the battle tanks.
However, General Gan has another take on the case. “The matter of the cars is an attempt to capture the firmness of the Western story in this war, but the weapons systems that are going to be sent are testimonials. Sending 20 or 30 tanks is a gesture. Training crews is a long process. The cars require high maintenance. At 100 hours, you have to change the engine or change the barrel”, explains this command in the reserve with extensive experience in international destinations.
The logistical complication of integrating different weapons systems, especially of material as specific as armored cars, is great. “By itself, moreover, the car is useless. It has to have reconnaissance patrols that go ahead of them and anti-drone protection," military sources explain.
This last aspect, that of prevention in attacks with drones, is one of the last great challenges in tank combat because, precisely, its most vulnerable part is the upper surface. The most powerful armor of the tank is in its first third, given the tradition of frontal clashes with the enemy. However, the arrival of drones on the scene has definitely changed that paradigm.
Armored cars are a weapon that in Ukrainian hands can be tremendously useful in the eyes of experts, but for it to be useful they have to arrive in several hundreds, the crews should follow very accelerated training courses (in peacetime It can take from six months to a year, periods that can be shortened in times of war), they should be accompanied by motorized infantry, have compatible transmission equipment in all vehicles and a powerful bank of spare parts.
