Kakšno razliko lahko naredijo zahodni tanki v Ukrajini?

Spet izvrstna analiza zgodovinarja Adama Toozeja, ki pokaže, da (1) glede na številčno prednost Rusije glede tankov, in sicer tako v primerjavi s skupnim številom tankom na voljo v zahodnih državah kot tankov na voljo v Ukrajini (s temi dodatnimi 100 tanki), in (2) glede na dolžino fronte (čez 1,000 km) ta dodatna pošiljka zahodnih tankov (tudi če bi prispeli pravočasno in če bi štimala vsa logistika glede goriva in streliva) ne more narediti kakšne razlike na terenu. Gre bolj za moralno (politično) podporo kot pa za pomembno pomoč na bojišču.

The threat of an armored Soviet assault is what kept NATO planners awake at night from the 1940s onwards. In the 1980s Western analysts anxiously debated the scale and significance of the “tank gap”.

The tank forces facing each other in the Cold War were a truly impressive array.

Even if we narrow the numbers down to those immediately available in Europe, according to the estimates by Chalmers and Unterseher, the total comes to 50,000 vehicles.

The war being fought in Ukraine is being fought between two inheritors of this Cold War armory.

When Barry Posen drew up a defense plan for the newly independent Ukraine in 1994 he assumed that a Russian attack would be met on the Ukrainian side by a tank fleet of 4000 vehicles. It would be a World War II-style encounter writ large, with tank forces maneuvering around each other, as Manstein and the Red Army had done over much the same terrain in 1943.

The losses on both sides have been heavy. The Ukrainians are thought to have been losing tanks at rates as high as 100 per month. And though tank-on-tank fighting is not favored by Soviet doctrine, some at least of the anti-tank action has been done by Ukrainian tank forces, many of them firing anti-tank missiles.

So far in the war in Ukraine the tank forces on both sides have essentially been fighting with similar vehicles. Indeed, the Ukrainians are deploying large numbers of captured Russian tanks. The Western tanks introduce superior new technology. Unlike the counter insurgency wars that they have been deployed into since the early 2000s, where their record is mixed, a fight with Russian T-series tanks is what the Leopards, Abrams and Challengers were designed for. In the two wars in Iraq their superiority was considerable.

But the question in Ukraine is how they will fit into an existing mode of war-fighting and how significant their contribution can be, when the numbers are so small. In the short-run the Ukrainians will be lucky to be able to deploy a force in brigade strength i.e. c. 100 tanks. Even if the total of tanks supplied to Ukraine by its Western friends were eventually to add up to 321 vehicles, that would amount to a single armored division. The crucial question is whether the Ukrainian planners can identify a front or sector where a force of that type can make a decisive difference. Otherwise, it is hard to avoid the impression that their impact will be more one on morale and politics than on the battlefield. Deployed in small packets, their effect can be no more than local.

Vir: Adam Tooze

En odgovor

  1. Adam Tooze spet govori o nečem, o čemer nima pojma. Tale stavek:

    “And though tank-on-tank fighting is not favored by Soviet doctrine,”,

    to lepo prikaže. Najboljše protitankovsko orožje je tank! Od nekdaj. In predvsem v ruski vojaški doktrini. In v vseh drugih velikih silah. Ker za protitankovske rakete obstajajo pasivni in aktivni ukrepi , za podkalibrske granate (APFSDS) jih ni! In te lahko streljajo samo tankovski topovi.

    Primerjava s hladnovojnimi razmerami v 3.desetletju 21.stoletja tj.40 let po tem je popolnoma neustrezna. Ker je kvaliteta teh oklepnih sil popolnoma drugačna. Tudi, če je osnova tanka, pa naj bo T72 ali Leopard ista, predstavlja elektronska nadgradnja predvsem novo kvaliteto.

    “The Western tanks introduce superior new technology. ”

    Res? Katero pa? Tukaj je Tooze-ju spet spodrsnilo, ker o tej tehnologiji nima pojma in samo ponavlja propagandna sporočila medijev.

    “In the two wars in Iraq their superiority was considerable.”

    to je bilo pred 3 oz. 2 desetletji, proti iraškim tankom, ki so bili že takrat 2 do 3 desetletji stari. In ne pozabite, Rusi niso nikoli izvažali najbolj napredne tehnolgije. Niti v države Varšavskega pakta in še manj v dežele 3.sveta. Tem so bile namenjene, nekoliko rasistično imenovane (tudi Rusi niso imuni na to) “opičje verzije”.

    Ukrajinci so res imeli ogromno zalogo tankov še iz SZ, vendar so jih velik del prodali v 3. svet, največji del pa niso bili sposobni (ker ni bilo sredstev) vzdrževati. V konfliktu 2014, 2015 so izgubli več kot 1.000 tankov in več tisoč oklepnih vozil. V obdobju 8 let od 2014 so obnovili velik del stare zaloge T64 in T72, vendar je zdaj večina teh uničenih, vključno z več sto tanki, ki so jih dobili iz Poljske, držav Vzhodne Evrope in tudi tretjih držav. Rusi ne objavljajo koliko od več kot 7 tisoč oklepnih vozil, ki so jih uničili, predstavljajo tanki, ampak glede na predhodna razmerja lahko sklepamo, da je ta številka med 1.500 in 2000 tanki.

    Prispevek Adam-a Tooze-ja je še en primer “gnojenja” po medijski sceni s strani ljudi, ki za to niso kompetentni. Je pa to splošna značilnost družboslovcev in še posebej novinarjev (po defaultu). Uboga javnost, ki se mora soočati s tem.

    Spodaj mogoče eden najboljših prispevkov Scotta Ritterja v intervjuju s poljsko blogerko Ania K. Prvi del je klasičen vojaški in geostrateški, drugih pol ure pa globoko oseben, da ne rečem čustven. Redka stvar. Je pa v vsej tej poplavi nekritičnega navijaštva potrebna humana perspektiva. Ker na koncu le ta pokaže pravi obraz in ceno vojne:

    Všeč mi je

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