The German
Parliament approved a proposal to develop a new generation of tanks. The
program will be included in the medium-term planning of the German Ministry of
Defense.
The decision comes amid tensions from
the “Ukrainian crisis” where the number of Leopard 2A6 tanks 225/7 that the
Bundeswehr (German military) aims to maintain operational would become suddenly
inadequate. The German Army just received its first Leopard 2A7’s and they’re
already off and running for a new MBT (main battle tank).
The new Tank will be a Leopard 3 and
will be designed from the ground up and will not be a modification of a Leopard
2. Upgrading old tanks is fairly routine and accounts for the dangers of the
present. Developing a new advanced tank, instead, is a bet on the future. In
August, German company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW), makers of the current
versions of the Leopard tank, merged with French defense company Nexter.
Speaking to the merger, KMW CEO mentioned the idea of a Leopard 3 tank, noting
that There are few details at present about what, exactly, the Leopard 3 program will entail, and what improvements it will have over previous generations of tank design. As
Cold War 2.0
A report released in November 2014 highlighted the fact that close military encounters between Russia and the west (mainly NATO countries) had jumped to Cold War levels, with 40 dangerous or sensitive incidents recorded in the eight months alone, including an alleged near-collision between a Russian reconnaissance plane and a passenger plane taking off from Denmark in March 2014 with 132 passengers on board. The 2014 unprecedented increase in Russian air force and naval activity in the Baltic region prompted NATO to step up its long-standing rotation of military jets in
Nuclear Weapons in both USA and Russia are beyond START treaty levels
The US government's October 2014 report claimed that Russia had 1,643 nuclear missiles ready to launch (an increase from 1,537 in 2011) – one more than the US, thus overtaking the US for the first time since 2000; both countries' deployed capacity being in violation of the 2010 New START treaty that sets a cap of 1,550 nuclear warheads
It took quite a while for Western Europe to wake up and it still is half awake. The refugee crisis and economics have driven the threat coming from Russia far away from the headlines.
ReplyDeleteRussia is not only active in the former CIS-states, it also is expanding its sphere of influence in the Arctic (the oil rich Komsolosk-ridge among others).
As for MBTs: Western Europe has done away with them much too soon and far to eagerly. My country has sold a large chunk its Leopard IIA6 to Canada for only a fraction of the price our Army payed for its upgrade alone. Reason: we'll only fight insurgencies in the future.... So much for thinking.
However, in a war-by-proxy scenario - the favorite one of Vlad Putin - MBTs are indeed of little value. Because, if one cannot tell the difference between a dressed up Spetsnaz or a Ukranian Army regular, one might up killing the wrong guy.
We all better wake up to reality real fast and start studying Tsun Tzu as an A-class student, or we all will perish because of stupidity. But who will tell the politicians?
I hope the new Canadian PM and his cabinet ministers are every bit as capable as they look in the European press. For here, in the Netherlands, we are governed by a bunch of clowns with their brain stuck up in their behind.
Keep up the good work!
Kind regards