What message is Zelenskyy going for here? Aid right now or I'll surrender?
The War in the Ukraine
- Thread starter SampanViking
- Start date
NATO doesnt have much room left for giving help unless they start making new weapons and put factories to work at 110% just look at how painfully slow Leo transfers are, many of these package systems are in fact, not from stock but in use gear.
Chances are most Europe will not ramp up production to sustain this war, so this last aid package is kind of the last bullet. If the situation starts to look like a grinding war that Ukraine can not win unless supported in full by Western economies, many of this western countries (Germany is officialy now in a economic reccesion) will start voicing the need for peace talks, which will mean territorial concesions.
If they are doing that it's a good deal. The troops inside them are still in a worst situation than newer tanks but if they stay far enough in support it will not be so bad for them.
We will see but if they are taking refurbishing time of better tanks to bring them to the front, it's still a bit sad. Stockpile of ammo to spend probably is a part of the decision.
In terms of parts there is hardly any difference, the T-62 and T-55 use mostly the same automotive components. If you have parts for one, you have parts for the other. The T-72 shares a fair amount as well FWIW. Not sure why 100mm D-10T ammunition should be more or less abundant than that for the 115mm U-5TS. Both tanks are in service in large numbers around the world, and as I've mentioned before, Russia had no problems supplying Syria with T-62s and ammunition during the civil war there (or Libya in 2020).
I find it curious that they are dragging old T-54s and un-upgraded T-55As out of storage. Surely a newer T-55AM or T-55MV with all the applique armour and upgraded systems would be a better option? Are they maybe going for a deep upgrade, or are they conversion candidates for recovery vehicles and heavy APCs/urban combat vehicles? I'm also wondering if maybe the reactivation of T-55s is maybe related to Russia having a bunch of production lines sitting around that were never refitted to handle newer tanks?
I find it all pretty puzzling, and I am not buying the idea that they simply ran out of T-72s and T-62s to reactivate, because they are seemingly also spitting those out of the factories as fast as they can, and it doesn't explain why you take the oldest T-54/T-55s you can find. Even as dug-in artillery, a T-55AMV is still preferable over a vanilla T-54, or am I missing something?
Or simply, the rumour of Russia starting to reactivate and deploy its T-54/55s are simply a misinformation.
If you think about it, this whole recebt debacle regarding Russia started to deploy its T-55s are loosely based on few photos of T-55s on trains on the middle of nowhere with no information regarding its destination. I'm really sceptical regarding the deployment of T-55s by Russian side to be honest, and i will starting to believe IF they really get deployed.
What do you think about that? hahaha
The statement is fake news, because the first profile that posted this photo was on March 22 and the source mentioned that it was a photo from the period 2021-2022, a day later the reproduction began stating that the image is recent and that it was being sent to Ukraine.
If the automotive components are the same, could they be disassembling for parts to speed up repair of other models?
Is it for sure kontakt 1 and not Ukraine's indigenous ERA?