Russia and Ukraine flashpoint

[crissindahouse]

SecondWar said:

crissindahouse said:

I hope chancellor Scholz realizes that Ukrainian soldiers need training as well before they can use the Western tanks and that Russia is already on a little upswing in some areas so that even yesterday was a little too late to agree to tank deliveries. We complained about Switzerland not allowing us to send Swiss-made ammunition for Gepards to Ukraine but then he does this shit with the Leopards...

Wasn’t it reported that the vast majority of Germany’s Leopard tanks are essentially derelict and it would take about a year to get sufficient number into a condition suitable to be deployed in combat?

Even so, it does make me question why Germany kelt them in that condition. If there was a scenario where they required at short notice to fend off an invasion of German territory they would be as good as useless. And if the excuse if they were held back until such a time that ‘we had advance warning then we could get them into fighting order’, well shouldn’t that time be now?

There are many retired Leopard 2s in stock which aren't ready yet but Germany has also some hundred modern versions of Leopard 2s which are ready but not supposed to be send since they are part of the own forces. The retired ones are probably older Leopard 2 used for parts or to get upgraded to better versions. And when they talk about sending Leopard 2s to Ukraine it's about those older versions not used anymore from Germany's forces. Not the Leopard 2A7s

But like Ryuu said, it's not only about Germany sending tanks (and they could have started to repair those in stock months ago already just in case) but about allowing other countries to send theirs.