On February 3 the German authorities introduced an help bundle to Ukraine together with 88 Leopard 1 tanks, which was valued at €100 million and can see the automobiles drawn from reserve shares. After Berlin introduced within the remaining week of January that it will ship extra trendy Leopard 2s to Ukraine, with tanks from the identical class being despatched from throughout a number of European NATO member states, the power of the a lot older Leopard 1 to meaningfully bolster the Ukrainian warfare effort stays in query. The tanks, alongside T-54/55s delivered from Slovenia, would be the oldest and by far the least succesful in Ukrainian service, and can additional improve the upkeep pressure because the nation approaches a dozen totally different tank courses both in service or scheduled for supply – all of which have very totally different operational wants. These embody the T-54/55, T-62, T-64, T-72/PT-91, T-80, T-80UD/84, T-90, Challenger 2, Leopard 1, Leopard 2 and the M1 Abrams. The Leopard 1’s primary gun, an previous rifled design, not solely has a really restricted efficiency in comparison with trendy smoothbore weapons, however can solely make use of 105mm rounds. This ordinance sort was completely absent from Ukraine’s pre-war shares, and could be very scarcely obtainable within the West as a result of conversion to 120mm tank weapons over 40 years in the past. Soviet tanks transformed to 125mm smoothbore weapons from the Nineteen Sixties.
The Leopard 1 first entered service in 1965, however has by no means seen fight in peer stage tank on tank engagements. Even in its time, nevertheless, it was thought-about removed from a prime finish car significantly in comparison with the Soviet T-64 – which at present varieties the spine of Ukrainian armoured models. It’s successor there Leopard 2 has confirmed extremely susceptible in fight, taking heavy losses in Turkish arms once more calmly armed Kurdish and Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq, leaving the viability of the a lot older and extra susceptible Leopard 1s in even higher query. Their introduced supply comes as Russia has additionally pulled Nineteen Sixties T-62 tanks out of storage for frontline service, albeit in Donbas militia models somewhat than the Russian Army itself.
Not like the Leopard 1, the T-62 makes use of a smoothbore gun making it appropriate with trendy ammunition sorts, and people being delivered are being modernised with thermal sights. Russia has additionally developed a extra formidable modernisation bundle for its mid-range T-72 tanks, with these first seen being delivered in December, as nicely considerably rising manufacturing of its prime finish tank the T-90M. Deliveries of the Leopard 1 mirror the truth that each NATO and Russia are more and more sending every kind of armour they need to the Ukrainian entrance, with the T-62s and Leopard 1s being on the low finish, and the T-90Ms and British Challenger 2s on the prime finish for the respective opposing sides.
