{"id":79332,"date":"2023-01-18T01:00:42","date_gmt":"2023-01-18T06:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=79332"},"modified":"2023-01-17T09:01:12","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T14:01:12","slug":"qotd-tanks-for-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2023\/01\/18\/qotd-tanks-for-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"QotD: Tanks for Ukraine?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Lately we’ve been tap dancing up to even heavier gear [for Ukraine]. The US has announced we’ll be sending some M2 Bradley IFVs, and France chipped in some AMX-10 RC heavy armored cars. While referred to as a char<\/em>, or tank, in French service and apparently some obscure EU regulation classifies anything above a certain weight and with a big enough gun as a tank … and the AMX-10 clears those hurdles … war nerds will insist that unless it comes from the tank region of France it’s just a sparkling armored fighting vehicle.<\/p>\n

It looks like the inhibition on sending tanks is finally cracking, though. While Germany is still dithering<\/a> over letting Poland send some of its Leopard 2’s, Britain has announced it’s sending 14 Challenger 2<\/a> main battle tanks.<\/p>\n

I found that particular number interesting. Late Cold War and post-Cold War Russian armored units use three-tank platoons and three platoons plus a commander’s tank make a ten tank company.<\/p>\n

The British Army, from whose stores the Challengers will be pulled, uses some archaic TO&E, possibly left over from the Wars of the Roses or Cromwell’s New Model Army, wherein four tanks equal a Bonnet*, and four Bonnets plus two more tanks in a headquarters Bonnet equal an eighteen-tank Spanner\u2020.<\/p>\n

Fourteen tanks, however, is enough for three four-tank platoons plus two tanks for an HQ platoon, equalling a fourteen tank US-style armored company. Apparently the Ukies are using a US\/(most of)NATO TO&E for their armored units. So the Ukrainians will have at least one company of Western MBTs.<\/p>\n