Leopard_1A5_Main_Battle_Tank_MBT_Germany

by Andrei Martyanov at Reminiscence of the Future

Larry posts Mr. Smith’s excellent summary of NATO. It is short and to the point. It is also brilliant, enjoy it at Larry’s blog:

THE REAL NATO BY HELMHOLTZ SMITH

Clarity is a gift. Then Larry explains a strategic miscalculation of the West.

Thanks to former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett we now know that Washington and London sabotaged diplomatic efforts to end the Special Military Operation in Ukraine. The West made the stupid bet that Russia could be defeated through a combination of economic sanctions, propaganda and military aid for Ukraine. The Americans and their NATO partners bet the lives of Ukrainians on their imperialist dream and now are becoming more desperate trying to fend off the looming defeat that confronts Ukraine and, by extension, NATO. The West has poked the Russian bear and are having great difficulty coming to grips with the reality that Russia is not impotent and Putin is not on his last legs. To the contrary, the failed Western strategy has awakened the Russians and cemented their resolve to defeat the NATO threat. Take a look at Putin’s recent remarks commemorating Russia’s victory at Stalingrad 80 years ago. It remains a fresh memory for the Russian people.

Well, the idiot Brzezinsky who prescribed a lot of catchy geopolitical BS to the US, never understood a simple fact of the chessboard, of which he pretended to know something, while being clueless, that even the pawn can mate the opposition when supported by proper heavy figures. But then again, can you imagine explaining the whole framework of geopolitical realities to a political “science” major from the US “academe”? There you go.

But not to be outdone, Germany does this:

I mean this:

Bundesverteidigungsminister Boris Pistorius (SPD) ist zu einem unangekündigten Besuch in Kiew eingetroffen. Wie ein Sprecher des ukrainischen Verteidigungsministeriums sagte, traf Pistorius am Dienstag in Kiew den ukrainischen Verteidigungsminister Oleksij Resnikow. Resnikow veröffentlichte auf Twitter ein Foto, das ihn mit Pistorius und einem Panzermodell zeigte, und schrieb dazu: „Der ‚erste’ Leopard-2 ist in Kiew angekommen.“ Die Ukraine soll nach Angaben von Pistorius von einer Gruppe mehrerer europäischer Länder mehr als 100 Kampfpanzer des älteren Typs Leopard 1A5 erhalten. Bis zum ersten oder zweiten Quartal 2024 sollten mindestens drei Bataillone damit ausgestattet werden, sagte er. Wenig später teilten Wirtschafts- und Verteidigungsministerium mit, dass Deutschland die Ausfuhr von bis zu 178 Kampfpanzern des Typs Leopard 1A5 in die Ukraine genehmigt. „Wie viele Leopard 1A5 Kampfpanzer tatsächlich an die Ukraine geliefert werden, hängt von den erforderlichen Instandsetzungsarbeiten ab“, heißt es in der Erklärung weiter. Zuvor hatten „Der Spiegel“ und Reuters berichtet.

Translation:

Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) has arrived in Kyiv for an unannounced visit. According to a spokesman for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, Pistorius met the Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov in Kyiv on Tuesday. Resnikov posted a photo on Twitter showing him with Pistorius and a model tank, and wrote: “The ‘first’ Leopard-2 has arrived in Kyiv.” Older Leopard 1A5 Main Battle Tank received. At least three battalions should be equipped with it by the first or second quarter of 2024, he said. A little later, the Ministry of Economics and Defense announced that Germany approved the export of up to 178 Leopard 1A5 main battle tanks to Ukraine. “How many Leopard 1A5 main battle tanks will actually be delivered to Ukraine depends on the necessary repair work,” the statement said. “Der Spiegel” and Reuters had previously reported.

This is Leopard 1A5.

It is also an obsolete piece of shit not survivable on the modern battlefield and it features the lack of serious armor and the gun which, let’s put it this way, is a little bit “outdated”. 1A5 is a 1990 version of a 1960 tank and on the battlefield dominated by much more capable Russian tanks, BMPT Terminator and CAS all packed with extremely capable ATGMs, one can only conclude that Germany tries to be “slightly pregnant” under the circumstances when Russia views Germany as an existential threat:…