2023-01-26

War is a racket!

Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Ukraine… Nothing changes. Warmongers make money no matter who is in power. This would not have happened if Trump was president.

Some days ago, I brought attention to a battlefield analysis on RT.com of the new move of NATO countries to supply Ukraine with Western tanks.

How many tanks does Kiev need?

To simplify calculations, we’ll be using an armored division, the main structural and tactical unit of armored forces in the former Soviet republics, as our yardstick. According to Soviet manuals, an armored division must have 296 tanks, 230 infantry fighting vehicles, 54 self-propelled artillery systems, over 2,000 regular vehicles, and almost 12,000 soldiers and officers.

How many divisions does Kiev need? At least one per each of the three main fronts — in Lugansk, Donetsk, and Zaporozhye. The line of contact in the special military operation zone right now is 815 km long, making three divisions too modest an amount to make a difference, but let’s disregard this for the time being.

Three armored divisions combined would have a total of about 900 tanks. Apart from that, another armored division may be necessary on the Belarusian front, which could see some very heavy fighting. In case of an escalation there, an armored division or a similar unit in reserve is a must, which drives the number of required tanks up by 300 to 1,200.

Finally, no commander-in-chief can do without his own reserve, the so-called reserve of the supreme high command. Without at least one armored division, this reserve cannot really count as such, which means another 300 tanks for a required total of 1,500.

Another thing to consider is probable Ukrainian losses during offensive operations. The average daily losses of an armored unit in this case stand at 10 to 15%. About 15 to 20% of incapacitated tanks are typically irrecoverable losses, while the rest require repairs (general maintenance for 30 to 50%, medium-level repairs for 15 to 30%, and an overhaul for 10 to 20%).

Simply put, at least another 300 tanks are required to offset losses during combat operations. This gives us a figure of 1,800 tanks, which must be considered an absolute minimum.

In an NBC report, I found a strange bit of information of the 31 tanks that the USA is going to donate:

… with Russian forces entrenched in 20% of its territory — the tanks will present huge new logistical challenges. Personnel must be trained and the resources found to repair, maintain and recover the tanks if something goes wrong. Plus each tank model has its own unique issues: Abrams runs on jet fuel, not diesel like the Leopard 2.

Will these tanks be able to challenge Russian military? It does not matter. What matters is the tanks be bought and sold. The warmongers want to sell weapons. Their profits is the only thing that matters. Just last year, the USA abandoned billions of dollars US weaponry in Afghanistan. Did it make any difference? Ha!

Rumble

Code

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