Western aid to Ukraine has turned into a tangle of arms, a flow of equipment of various kinds, which Kyiv, according to officials, has handled skillfully.
The figures, contained in a Pentagon article, were released to illustrate US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s visit to Wiesbaden, a German city that is home to the Allied Coordination Center that manages support from over 50 nations. Let’s start here: The personnel consists of 200 elements from 21 countries, personnel who obeyed orders and transported 150,000 tons of material. A mountain of planes, ships, trains and trucks consisting of over 600 different models of war vehicles and systems. We are talking about tanks, armored vehicles, light vehicles, pick-up trucks, all-terrain vehicles, medium and long-range guns, ammunition, drones and radars. And each of the categories requires maintenance, spare parts, logistics, preparation of the “mechanics”.
Reports from the front revealed that in some situations the military downloaded information from the internet, in others it had to translate it. In the summer of 2022, problems arose with some Javelin anti-tank units that were rushed to delivery with “mismatched” components and no manuals. For this reason, when starting the tank program, the choice fell on the Leopards: there were a lot of them available, the same goes for the parts in stock and the auxiliary workshops, some of which were already operational and others were to be opened by the giant Rheinmetall. But despite the introduction of the Leopard option, the Pentagon has promised its Abrams (delivery expected late summer) and the UK has made the Challengers available. “Beasts of War” are completely different from tanks of German design. A condition that Berlin sets in order to offer its tanks.
No less complex is the training chapter of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s new brigades. According to US sources, around 67,000 soldiers have attended courses taught by instructors from 33 countries at 40 locations abroad. NATO has its own rules, but then individual armies adopt techniques based on location, needs and characteristics. The mission is more difficult when you have to direct entire detachments to conduct coordinated/integrated maneuvers involving tanks, artillery, aviation, helicopters and infantry. The offensive launched in recent days is not only an expression of Ukraine’s will to resist, but also a test of unity. And indeed, the experts have reiterated that the ability to move forward “together” will be crucial.
The “list” goes unanswered to Ukraine’s request to procure planes to counter the superior forces of the invaders. However, the contacts remain. The Netherlands has announced the next training of F16 pilots, likely in Eastern Europe. This initiative should be joined by some partners who own the aircraft. But that doesn’t seem to be the only way. Kiev is studying the possibility of sourcing 41 US-made F18 fighters from Australia. These are decommissioned aircraft that are to be either scrapped or nearly scrapped so that they could get a new operational life.
For some observers, they represent a viable solution, even better than the French F16 or Mirage 2000. In addition, this type of aircraft is owned by other countries – Canada, Finland, Spain – which in turn could hand them over to the resistance in the years to come , when their air forces get new planes. Thus was formed the Hornet coalition, named after the jet.