{"id":600809,"date":"2023-01-24T18:52:55","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T00:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/24\/leopard-2-tanks-from-all-over-europe-are-heading-to-ukraine-as-german-resistance-collapses\/"},"modified":"2023-01-24T18:52:55","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T00:52:55","slug":"leopard-2-tanks-from-all-over-europe-are-heading-to-ukraine-as-german-resistance-collapses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/24\/leopard-2-tanks-from-all-over-europe-are-heading-to-ukraine-as-german-resistance-collapses\/","title":{"rendered":"Leopard 2 Tanks From All Over Europe Are Heading To Ukraine As German Resistance Collapses"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

Polish army Leopard 2s.<\/p>\n

Wikimedia Commons<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Germany on Tuesday not only signed off on Poland\u2019s request to export to Ukraine German-made Leopard 2 tanks\u2014Berlin also <\/em>will donate its own small batch of the world-class tanks.<\/p>\n

<\/fbs-ad><\/p>\n

And now the Leopard 2s could pile up fast. Norway on Tuesday followed Germany\u2019s and Poland\u2019s leads and pledged surplus Leopard 2s.<\/p>\n

The Tuesday decision by German chancellor Olaf Scholz, first reported<\/a> by Der Spiegel<\/em>, was a reversal of a reversal of a reversal<\/a> within the chaotic German government.<\/p>\n

Berlin, which holds the export license for the Leopard 2, for 11 months resisted European efforts to rearm Ukraine with the 70-ton tanks. Sending Leopard 2s to Ukraine would escalate Russia\u2019s wider war on the country, Scholz bizarrely claimed.<\/p>\n

As pressure mounted\u2014from Poland, mostly\u2014German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock last weekend said Germany wouldn\u2019t veto Poland\u2019s pledge of at least one company of 14 or so Leopard 2s. Scholz quickly walked back Baerbock\u2019s words, only to walk back the walk-back a few days later\u2014and then tack on an additional company of Leopard 2s from German stocks.<\/p>\n

Scholz tends to spin bureaucratic waffling as consensus-building. \u201cWe never go alone,\u201d Scholz once told Bloomberg<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true\u2014Germany won\u2019t be alone in rearming Ukrainian tank battalions. Fourteen tanks from Germany, 14 from Poland, eight from Norway\u2014these surely are just the start. Spain, The Netherlands, Denmark and Finland also have signaled they could offer Leopard 2s. There are hundreds of the German-made tanks in service across Europe, and hundreds more in storage.<\/p>\n

<\/fbs-ad><\/p>\n

Ukraine has requested a whole brigade<\/a> with at least 100 Leopard 2 tanks. There now is no reason it won\u2019t get the tanks and form the brigade, perhaps in time for a widely-anticipated offensive this spring or summer.<\/p>\n

There are lots of issues to work through. Ukraine\u2019s Leopard 2s will be a mix of different variants\u2014ex-German Leopard 2A6s plus ex-Polish and ex-Norwegian Leopard 2A4s. Each variant has unique logistical requirements. All Leopard 2 models are heavy\u201470 tons or so\u2014and that\u2019s a problem in rural Ukraine where roads and bridges might be too flimsy for the hulking vehicles.<\/p>\n

But the advantages massively outweigh the disadvantages. The Leopard 2 is one of the best and most balanced tanks in the world, with a near-perfect combination of firepower, mobility and protection. Even an older Leopard 2 easily beats any of Ukraine\u2019s or Russia\u2019s current, ex-Soviet tanks in a head-to-head fight.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Follow me on\u00a0<\/span>Twitter<\/a>.\u00a0Check out\u00a0<\/span>my\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0some of my other work\u00a0here<\/a>.\u00a0Send me a secure\u00a0tip<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n David Axe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Polish army Leopard 2s.Wikimedia Commons Germany on Tuesday not only signed off on Poland\u2019s request to export to Ukraine German-made Leopard 2 tanks\u2014Berlin also will donate its own small batch of the world-class tanks. And now the Leopard 2s could pile up fast. Norway on Tuesday followed Germany\u2019s and Poland\u2019s leads and pledged surplus Leopard<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":600810,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35457,2422],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-600809","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leopard","8":"category-tanks"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}