It seems quite a few of the far right nationalist leaders admire Putin and Putin's domestic political methods.
Leo1 has very little armour and no protection from even the most primitive Russian AT weapons. The reason the Leo2 was introduced was that the Leo1 did not measure up to the T-72, the very tank the Russians are using in Ukraine. I'd rather we send Ukraine the Leo2s they asked for. As I understand it, it's politics, not a lack of availability that is holding up the Leo2s for Ukraine.
If there's any European tank that's not in front line service today to send, it has to be those four hundred Challenger 1 tanks that Jordan is retiring. Let's collect those now, today, clean them up, and send those to Ukraine.... alongside three hundred Leo2s.
British Gulf War tanks may be modernized and sent to Ukraine
Rheinmetall is ready to buy Jordanian Challenger 1 tanks, bring them to Germany, refurbish and repair them, and send them to help Ukrainian ground forces.bulgarianmilitary.com
Even Canada, one of the most parsimonious military spenders in NATO scrapped their Leo1s for Leo2s a decade ago. Sending Leo1s to Ukraine when Leo2s are available is just setting up the UAF for failure and sending Ukrainians to unnecessary death.
I wish NATO would decide how they want to help Ukraine. On one hand we send the highest tech kit, such as HIMARs, GMLRS, MANPADS, MANPATS, Patriot SAMs, MQ-9 Reaper drones, and other top drawer systems. Then on the other hand we treat Ukraine like a dump for army surplus junk, like Leo1s and retired Sea Kings first produced in the 1960s.
I'm not so sure. Unlike the heavier and slower Panther, the Leopard 1 sacrificed nearly all its protection from anything above auto-cannon calibre weapons for greater mobility and firepower - on the assumption that no level of protection could stop the latest HEAT rounds. As such, the Leopard was at least two tonnes lighter and ten km/h faster than the Panther, with a gun that was 40% larger. I think an equivalent to the Leopard 1 concept in WW2 would be the Sherman Firefly, a virtual egg-shell battlecruiser capable of killing anything on the battlefield but unable to withstand much of any counterfire. I wonder if the Germans ever considered the concept of a fast, heavily armed, but thinly armoured tank, with a proper turret rather than a casemate tank destroyer?
My boss back in the late 1990s was Serbian. I asked him why Serbs, Croats and Bosnians couldn't get along, and he replied that from childhood he'd been told to hate them, and to feel nationalistic about a Serb nation. He then said that every Serbian who doesn't feel this way has left, leaving only the crazy, apathetic and radicals behind. I expect that's what will happen to Russia, with anyone with intellectual curiosity, a free/open mind and some intelligence/education along with marketable skills emigrating if they can, leaving behind just those Russians crazy, apathetic or radical enough to go along with whatever the current strong man tells them.
GEHEIM??????
Birds of a feather stick together...dictators, tyrants...want-to-be dictators...
www.abc.net.au
www.abc.net.au
They don't give a shit about public opinion. Money on the other hand ......
Swiss neutrality on the line as arms-for-Ukraine debate heats up
Switzerland is close to breaking with centuries of tradition as a neutral state, as a pro-Ukraine shift in the public and political mood puts pressure on the government to end a ban on exports of Swiss weapons to war zones.
