German MP: Most Leopard 2 tanks given to Ukraine are no longer working

RT
Wed, 03 Jan 2024 20:56 UTC

A lack of spare parts has left Kiev's Leopard 2A6 tanks stuck in a repair shop, Green Party politician Sebastian Schafer said

Very few of the Leopard 2A6 battle tanks given to Ukraine by Germany remain in service, Green Party MP Sebastian Schafer has claimed. Many of the tanks are battle damaged and spare parts are reportedly in short supply, he added.

Berlin announced the delivery of 18 Leopard 2A6 tanks to Ukraine back in March, after months of pleading from Kiev. Hailed as a 'game-changer' by pro-Ukraine pundits, the 2A6 tanks are among the most modern in Germany's arsenal. However, most are currently sitting inert in a repair shop in Lithuania, Schafer explained in a letter this week to arms companies Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW), seen by Germany's DPA news agency.

A Ukrainian Leopard 2 tank and several Bradley fighting vehicles destroyed by the Russian forces in Russia’s Zaporozhye Region.

"Unfortunately, it has to be noted that only a very small number of the battle tanks delivered can now be used by Ukraine," Schafer wrote, explaining that there is "an urgent need for action" to get spare parts to the Lithuanian repair hub and get the tanks back in action.

Apart from damage sustained in battle, many of the tanks are out of operation due to wear and tear, while some have been further damaged by Ukrainian mechanics attempting repairs, he added.

In addition to the 18 2A6 tanks, Germany and other operators of the Leopard platform have provided Ukraine with around 90 of the earlier 2A4 variants, and more than 100 outdated Leopard 1A5 variants. Within weeks of their arrival on the battlefield earlier this year, Russian forces had destroyed some of them with missiles and kamikaze drones, while at least two Leopard 2s have been captured intact by Russian troops.

Back in November, Forbes reported that Kiev had lost "a quarter of its best German-made tanks," referring to its Leopard 2s.

The Leopards were used extensively during Ukraine's summer counteroffensive, a failed operation aimed at punching through Russian lines and seizing the city of Melitopol on the Azov Sea, thereby cutting off Crimea from 'mainland' Russia. As it transpired, Ukrainian forces only managed to seize a handful of villages in the region of Zaporozhye, losing nearly 160,000 men and 16,000 pieces of heavy equipment in the process, according to the latest figures from the Russian Defense Ministry.

Ukraine is currently facing not just a shortage of German-designed tanks, but a shortage of personnel to operate them, Die Welt reported last month. With Kiev struggling to mobilize troops to replace almost 400,000 lost since February 2022, German training centers for Ukrainian soldiers who will operate Leopard 2 tanks are currently working at half capacity, the German outlet claimed.

Reader Comments

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greenbowlerhat · 2024-01-04T11:32:26Z

The problem is not that the tanks need regular maintenance - that is a common problem with these complex machines and even the russian T90 or T14, said to be excellent tanks, need maintenance.

However, Ukraine experiences a logistic nightmare as they have a wild collection of vehicles across many manufactures, models and generations of models, each needing their own kind of maintencnae, tools, spare parts, mechanics crews etc.

In WW2, when the quality of the tanks was lower, it was estimated that at any given time only 40% of all German tanks were ready for battle, and the others needed maintenance/repairs. I do not know the numbers for US or russian tanks of the time, but I would not be surprised to learn their reliability was not much better. IT was said that the "Tiger", the most advanced German Tank at the time, needed a cleaning of their air filter prior to each start of their motor, and if the crew was not careful to wait until the oil was warm enough, the tank could easily selfsdestroy its motor after a few hundred meters. Many Panzer battles were determined not so much by the tanks themselves but by the avialability of workshops and cranes where maintenance could be done - the Tiger required regular revisions of their gearbox and in order to do that, the turret had to be removed. No crane for heavyweight meant no maintenace meant no tank.

In the early days when Ukraine was sent the old russian tanks left from the Sowjet area, these tanks may have been outdated, but they were well known to the Ukrainian troops and maintenance could be done. But nowadays, they have a complete Zoo. I thin this may be one of the reasons why they are so keen on long distance weapons as these are often of the fire-and-forget type and need less maintenance than, say, a tank.

A tempest in a teapot. Who cares ? But hey, it's the NYP ...

codis

Surely nanny states are not the way. But hey, here we are: Name a country that does not have this in some form or another.

Ectomorph

'They Are The Dark; We Are the Light' The more we know, the closer we are to the end of tyranny by ELIZABETH NICKSON APR 28, 2024 [Link] . "This...

parzival

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eulogical

"Look him in the Eyes.....Nonsense. . how do I read that ? I read it as it written, as if it said, "look him in the eyes and tell him you really...

Shangri

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German MP: Most Leopard 2 tanks given to Ukraine are no longer working

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