Come on. They somehow managed to start using Krabs and HIMARS with remarkably little preparation. I fail to see how training on new tanks is such a qualitative difference from artillery. As far as I can see the delays are almost entirely political.
Not entirely political, as Shonus points out, but mostly political. It's why breaking the "taboo" is so important, and why countries like Estonia, Poland and the UK were significant
politically as well as materially. When countries were debating whether it was safe to deplete their own stocks of arms, Estonia sent literally all of their artillery to Ukraine whilst bordering Russia themselves. When countries were debating whether it was safe to send "offensive" weapons to Ukraine without "escalating" the conflict or facing Russian retaliation, the UK was sending all of its anti-tank missiles and Poland was sending all of its artillery munitions in those vital early weeks of the war. And whilst other countries were debating whether they could send IFVs, Poland had already been sending its tanks and the UK had promised western-standard tanks. In each case a political taboo had been broken and the public case for sending weapons became not just palatable, but obvious. We can't exactly mock the German half-heartedness regarding sending materiel to Ukraine too much, for example, without acknowledging how traumatised their history in eastern europe is. For the german populace to actually go from supporting a limp German foreign policy to sending leopards to Ukraine is a political shift which will have great impacts for Ukraine, especially since the war will be a long one, and Ukraine will need armaments even after the war is over.
Also Ukrainian pilots are being trained to fly F-16s in Poland soon and will be trained to fly more advanced western aircraft in the UK which will hopefully lead to breaking the next taboo of not supplying Ukraine with offensive fixed wing aircraft.
“It was the same, by the way, with tanks – it was a breakthrough moment when it was necessary to move the reluctance of all other allies. And, if you remember, despite the fact that the announcement was made, the official confirmation by the Prime Minister took almost a week, for him to officially repeat it,” Prystaiko said.
“At this time, the British were trying to convince all the other allies that there were two options: either the UK proceeds with this announcement alone and makes this breach that everyone else has to go into, or let’s do this very important step all together as one front, as NATO. The UK was successful this time. I think the same process is happening now with fighter jets,” he added.
The political angle is very important, especially for helping NATO allies who are more afraid of doing individual pledges of support but are fine with doing NATO-level support
What? Has anything been delivered apart from the 14 Leopard 2s from Poland? I'm honestly asking, it's hard to keep up with all the info.
Also, how do you count few hundred latest-gen tanks? If you don't count the Leopard 1s (and you really shouldn't), there's maaaybe two brigades worth - less than a 100 pieces - of pledged vehicles. Pledged. FFS. With deliveries spread out across months. This is maybe replacement rate, not creating potential.
Even among those the 'last-gen' is arguable, as e.g. half the L2s are of older variants.
-28 Challenger 2s pledged from the UK, for delivery undisclosed time in March (as per earlier article)
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Poland already sent some, is sending more soon with the aim of getting all 14 across in a few days. It's possible already all 14 leopards have crossed the border but Poland doesn't want to announce that yet for security reasons.
Also note:
Warsaw's commitment to its neighbour has been instrumental in persuading European allies to donate heavy weapons to Ukraine, including tanks, a move opposed by several governments, including Berlin, until recently.
This is what I mean about how countries like Poland and the UK have been instrumental to breaking taboos in Paris and Berlin about "escalation" or offensive armaments, and even tiny ones like Estonia broke taboos about depleting defence stocks.
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Spain is sending half a dozen from March-AprilAnd while the other European countries had been waiting for Germany to give them permission to send Ukraine their leopards,
last month the Germans finally ok'd other Euros the green light for sending their leopard IIs to Ukraine. So with that political barrier out of the way Ukraine should get everyone's leopards by the end April or May
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Topic: Emotional Responses to War in Ukraine - Personal Diary & Mutual Support (Read 136671 times)