Because the initiation of Ukraine’s mass offensive towards Russian positions the Ukrainian Army and allied paramilitaries have begun to actively deploy new batches of armour acquired from Western nations, together with not solely very massive numbers of Leopard 1 and Leopard 2A4 tanks, but in addition the way more succesful Leopard 2A6 which, alongside the British Challenger 2, is taken into account probably the most succesful within the nation’s stock. Whereas Leopard 2A4s have confirmed extremely susceptible in fight with armour safety that’s successfully out of date, as greatest demonstrated by Turkish use of the automobiles towards native militias in Syria and Iraq, the Leopard 2A6 has lengthy been marketed as a way more succesful automobile. Costing near $8 million per automobile, benefits of the brand new variant embrace use of third era composite armour, integration of a an extended barrelled and extra highly effective fundamental gun, set up of further armour modules on the turret, and use of a lot improved fireplace controls. The lack of these tanks, which have extensively been thought of probably the most succesful in manufacturing throughout the Western world, has vital implications nicely past Ukraine itself.
A Leopard 2A6 tank was proven in shut up aerial footage burning and fully destroyed, with options such because the gun mount confirming the category of auto seen. A second Leopard 2A6 was proven in the identical formation broken on its left observe and deserted, alongside a number of American M2 Bradley infantry combating automobiles. personnel losses could also be heavy, with Western tanks requiring 33% extra crew than Russian or Soviet ones at 4 males every, whereas Bradleys usually carry 9 personnel together with three crew. Footage of the destroyed automobiles comes amid experiences of very heavy losses for Ukraine’s Western provided armour in tried offensives towards Russian positions, with different footage printed from each side displaying vital losses amongst Leopard 1 and Leopard 2A4 items.
It stays probably that Leopard 2A6 items have taken additional losses, as solely a small fraction of destroyed automobiles within the battle can have closeup movies taken from the air. Leopard 2A6s stay very scarce property inside the Ukrainian stock, and inside NATO extra broadly the big majority of tanks in service are much less succesful, which means the category’ vulnerability may draw the longer term viability of additional Western arms shipments to Ukraine into query. Germany was initially extremely reluctant to permit Leopard 2s to be provided to Ukraine, with this purported to have been largely influenced by issues that fight may tarnish the tank’s repute. This could be a serious loss as a result of its central significance to the German defence sector’s repute and to its arms export profile as maybe the nation’s most iconic defence product. Though a extra succesful Leopard 2 variant the Leopard 2A7 has been developed, enhancements stay conservative notably when in comparison with the hole between the A4 and A6 variants, with the A7 additionally having been relegated to a really small manufacturing run as a result of restricted overseas demand.
