The US military should start training Ukrainians on tanks M1A1 Abrams “In the next week or so,” Pentagon Press Secretary General Pat Ryder told Voa Tuesday.
How will the training of Ukrainian soldiers work?
As far as we know 250 Ukrainian soldiers They arrive in Germany for training this week, an unnamed senior military official added. The training will be conducted on about 31 Abrams that arrived in Germany earlier this month. The Pentagon said a batch of 31 more tanks would be converted in the US and shipped to Ukraine until autumn. According to US Department of Defense sources, the training is expected to last approx 10 weeks and will focus on the functioning and use of the Abrams in combat in combination with the other support equipment (e.g. the Bradley type AIFVs), without forgetting how to carry out the vital maintenance work necessary for the Abrams given the particular Requirements very specific are special features of the tank.
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In fact, unlike the Russian/Soviet-made tanks or the Leopard 2 and Challenger 2 delivered to Kiev in recent months, the Abrams are powered by one turbine engineTherefore, the technical staff must above all know how to carry out the maintenance, which is conceptually different from that of a car with a conventional internal combustion engine (both diesel and multi-fuel).
Voa informs that the structure of the course will be similar to the previous training activity conducted by US personnel to teach Ukrainians how to use the Bradleys and Strykers. However, we believe that due to the complexity of the tanks in question, the timing could be delayed longer than expected.
In fact, we know that training Ukrainian crews to use Leopard 2 tanks takes a long time about 5 weeksand in that time 28 soldiers were trained (four for each tank), but the excellent results achieved in training were achieved precisely because a Leopard 2 is conceptually more like a T-72/80/90 than an Abrams , and In fact, the number of personnel being trained is greater (because the personnel performing the maintenance needs a completely different training) and the time has doubled.
In mid-April we calculated that NATO’s best estimate, i.e. so today so many would be ready. We do not know exactly how many of the 250 soldiers from Kiev who came to Germany for training on the Abrams are crew members and how many are maintenance technicians, but we do know whether the United States expects to send the first 31 operational tanks by the fall wir An Abrams run by 4 people is easy to calculate 124 men those belonging to the crews and the rest to the technical staff.
The importance of the time factor
There timed coordination The decision to send the US tanks and start training was made quite quickly: after the political issue was resolved, in early April it was decided where to train Ukrainian personnel, and with the preparation of all the necessary structures and equipment Abrams arrived in Europe at the German port of Bremerhaven on May 12 and flew to the US Army base Grafenwoehr, the largest US land education facility in Europe. It is now necessary to clarify some aspects related to the Abrams.
The car is certainly among the best in the world, but its turbine propulsion makes it “fragile” if not properly maintained and it has high fuel consumption; In addition, it is an MBT (Main Battle Tank) that has different equipment compared to its peers, such as a armor in the turret, hull front and other key parts with advanced Chobham-type composite armor reinforced with Depleted uranium core. A unique solution of this kind, which could pose a problem for technical security issues if it falls into Russian hands.
Now let’s start with a look at the delivery times of the 31 combat modified Abrams tanks. The time horizon set for early autumn would easily exclude them from the counteroffensive that Kiev is organizing (and has been pushing ahead for months). On the contrary, it is much more likely that the first Leopard 2 and Challenger 2, albeit not in large numbers, could be used by armored/mechanized units if the Ukrainian army decides to relocate by next summer. When data on the training rate of Ukraine’s Leopard 2 crews was released in April, we assumed that the goal of having 100 combat personnel available could be set 20 weeksor in a period ranging from August to October (considering it wide).
We have no way of knowing if Ukrainian personnel are being trained on Abrams elsewhere in Europe (there are currently 42 in service in Poland), nor can we confirm if this is also the case for the Leopard 2s (used by other armies) . beyond German), but when (if) will that be counteroffensive, and we will have more data on the organization and equipment of the Ukrainian brigades, we will be able to make estimates that will help us understand the training rate. The only thing that is certain for now is that training on the Abrams has only just started and that the first operational tanks will arrive in the fall, so they will most likely not be part of the Ukrainian counter-offensive should it begin by next summer.
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