Tank Wars: NATO’s Sleight Of Hand – Why NATO’s Top Tanks Won’t See Real Action

Submitted by Thaisleeze

Guest Post by Simplicius76

But instead will be coddled through a carefully curated and choreographed ventriloquist act in Ukraine.

One frothy contingent of the West is gleefully anticipating the upcoming, unprecedented infusion of Western armor into Ukraine as the prelude to Kursk 2.0, where peerless Western tanks will gloriously outman and outgun Russia’s Soviet-legacy armor. (well, the tragi-comic irony of the comparison doesn’t escape us)

But a new bombshell report is putting the brakes on those far-flung ideations.

It’s now come to light that Britain is busy furiously putting together plans to keep their Challenger-2 tanks from falling into Russian hands, so that Russia doesn’t get a peek at their much-vaunted ‘Chobham’ armor.

The plan consists of something we suspected all along: that secret teams will be in place to babysit and coddle the tanks at all times, taking fastidious care to make certain they are never in real danger of falling into Russian hands.

Britain led the world by pledging 14 Challenger 2s to Ukraine — but defence sources say it would be a nightmare if one was captured by Vladimir Putin’s invaders.

Before we lay into the report, let’s first mention that even as far back as last summer, when HIMARs first began to arrive, CNN already inadvertently blew the lid: in this video at the 1:25 mark, the correspondent admits that the HIMARs will be a ‘high priority target’ for the Russians, and as such, there are exceptional pains taken to protect the American systems:

“A lot of care is being taken to ensure it stays safe, protected from Russian eyes and weapons. Somewhere in the woods nearby…air defenses and a special ground operation are guarding this site.”

A special ground operation? Well, we all know what that would be.

Now, in the new report British “top brass are working with Ukraine’s high command to ensure UK tanks can be dragged back to safety if one is knocked out of action.”

But that’s not all. It’s one thing to have a backup plan, but the problem is, in order for them to even be in a position to “drag them back to safety” they have to make sure the tanks never “overstretch” into an area where they may be at even slight risk:

“But the worst case scenario is that a tank is destroyed when the lines are collapsing and friendly forces are in retreat.

Step one is the training and working with mission planners to try and ensure the Challengers are not used in scenarios where they think that collapse a realistic possibility.

Woah, wait a second. So step one is to make sure that the mission planners never use the tanks in scenarios where a collapse is a possibility? Well, by George! But the AFU regularly collapses everywhere. Every “military scenario”, particularly on the Ukrainian side has the risk of collapse, they are completely outgunned, outclassed, and soon to be outnumbered in vast droves. Do they intend to never use the tanks at all, other than as ‘trophy pieces’ to take photoshoots, make sparkly headlines as a boost to morale? Sort of like the equivalent of the U.S. Army’s tour of famous entertainers through frontlines during war time to cheer up the troops.

But that’s not even the biggest kicker. Here’s where it gets really tragi-comic, and quite frankly, outright despicable:

“Step two is making sure, at the tactical level, the Ukrainians are trained to recover a tank under fire. They certainly don’t lack the courage.”

Other extreme options under consideration include having private military contractors on standby to recover stricken tanks.”

Read that again (and weep). Yes, you’ve read that right. The British high command, expects the abject Ukrainian cannon-fodder to literally die for their sacred Challengers.

They quite openly value the Challenger above the life of a Ukrainian soldier. Remember these are very ‘diplomatic’ dispatches. They phrase things in vague and formal ways, but what they really mean is, part of the backhanded deal in getting those tanks was the commitment by the AFU to absolutely ensure, at the loss of their own lives, that no tank ever comes even remotely close to falling into Russian hands, and that the British command fully expects Ukrainians to sacrifice themselves at the altar of the Almighty Chobham. No matter how many dead Ukrops it takes, they expect the commissars to press them into the killing fields at the point of a rifle to retrieve that bloody expensive British armor. The little late addition of, “they certainly don’t lack the courage” is just a crass eye poke, a verbal figleaf or guffawing elbow-in-the-ribs from the fat cigar man with the BAE Systems nameplate on his tartar-sauce-stained shirt.

And let’s not even forget the little inkblot they squeezed in at the end of the statement:

Other extreme options under consideration include having private military contractors on standby to recover stricken tanks.”

Now that’s what I call coddling. Maybe they should put a bib and pacifier on the tank, and stick the whole thing in a pram, as the Brits say. Inquiring minds want to know: will the tanks even carry ammo? Or would that make them too cumbersome for a swift and handsome “all-hands-retreat!” in case they accidentally dip a toe within 30km of Russian livefire?

One can only shake one’s head.

The rest of the article is just standard boiler-plate self-fellating of the British arms industry. Longest kill blah blah. Sure, the Challenger boasts a 4.7km kill on a run-down second-hand Iraqi tank. Meanwhile, Russian tankers are regularly and without fanfare destroying targets at ~7.5km in Ukraine, using tanks that “according to Western sources” have a max range of 2-3km and should not even be able to SHOOT at all (accurately or not) past 5km due to the physical limits of turret elevation.

But, we can say, ‘let the games begin’, because Russia apparently will not be sitting idly. This wire from the MI6 sheds light:

“MI6 transmitted intelligence to the President’s Office and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that the Russian army has begun to create special units of “tank catchers”, the main purpose of which will be to take whole Western tanks.”

Not only that, but many Russian businesses have now made internal sport of offering hefty rewards to Russian servicemen for the kill or capture of Western tanks.

As well as some battalions themselves.

On top of the now confirmed “special measures” that will be taken to secure Western tanks on the Ukrainian battlefield, the U.S., too, announced sending upwards of 200+ ‘contractors’ to service armor on the battlefield.

“They are then supposed to “embed themselves with small units near the front lines” and teach Ukrainian troops to repair their equipment without the need to send it out of the country, the report says, noting that all major maintenance of Western-supplied arms currently takes place in Poland and other NATO countries.”

But hey, in the end maybe none of that will even prove necessary. After all, with things going as bad as they currently are for the AFU, how long until they start selling pieces of Chobham at blackmarket rates? It wouldn’t be the first time, or the second….or the third…or the fourth…or the fifth…or the sixth…or the seventh…or the eighth…or the ninth….

You get the point.

-----------------------------------------------------
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal

-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
Click to visit the TBP Store for Great TBP Merchandise

20
Leave a Reply

avatar
  Subscribe  
Notify of
MTD
MTD

It’s all fake and gay with the West these days. So how many able bodied Ukrainian men are actually still left to fight? I doubt we’ll ever see the real casualty statistics from any Western sources. But it looks like they’re pretty much forcibly dragging any male over 17 into the back of a van and whisking them off to fight for the glory of Ukraine. That sure screams “we’re winning!” to me.

Hollow man
Hollow man

Lol the lies just get bigger and more far fetched to the point no one knows the truth.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Next up is the news that Commander Joe Biden will be in the lead tank.

Anthony Aaron
Anthony Aaron

Just like he did during the Civil War …

Musquo
Musquo

Drove past Halifax NS airport yesterday, couple of tanks were being loaded onto planes.

Anonymous
Anonymous

I think Canada is sending four, so you saw half our entire commitment.

Next we will be sending the Snowbirds for air cover.

I wonder if they will just leave the tanks on the transport trucks so they can run away faster.

FJB
FJB

“top brass are working with Ukraine’s high command to ensure UK tanks can be dragged back to safety if one is knocked out of action.”
Truth is the tanks are being stripped of any valuable technology and the “coddlers” are there to see to it that the tank’s armaments and weapons components are completely destroyed when they have to abandon the tank.
As to the armor; it is just metallurgy. I am sure that the Russians know what the British armor is made of and how it is made. And if they don’t have complete information, all they need is a small scrap salvaged from the debris of a blown apart tank for them to be able to fill in the knowledge gaps.
The tanks and other armaments being provided Ukraine is just a cover for a disposal operation from Western countries looking for a way to profit by selling scrap metal to Ukraine.

Anonymous
Anonymous

The armor is nothing too special. Ceramics, metals and polymers in layers, with ablative charges. Works good against conventional stuff and RPGs but does basically fuck all when attacked from directly above.

Many anti-tank munitions are specifically designed to attack from above.

No need to recover anything. Some Ukies will steal portions and sell them to the Russians. Assuming the Russians don’t already have samples and all the tech specs, which I doubt.

Long ago I remember a Russian saying something to the effect of “we don’t need to copy Western equipment, it is too fragile, high maintenance and not appropriate for Russian style combat”.

The West deludes itself into thinking they have the best of EVERYTHING and therefore everybody else wants it.

Russian practicality vs. the over complicated West is exemplified in the space race writing implements. The US spent hundreds of thousands developing a pen that would work in zero G. The Russians just used pencils.

B_MC
B_MC
Dying Sun
Dying Sun

Since this weapon has not been tested on the battlefield, we have no idea how it will perform. At one time, the T-72 tank was much feared in the West. It turned out to be a “Ronson” (lights first every time). Let’s wait and see how it actually performs on the battlefield.

Gaol Ann Iggy
Gaol Ann Iggy

What happens to the optical sensors
on these “AI platforms” when
you point a 5 watt laser into them?

anon a moos
anon a moos

Battlefield untested platform. Thats why the US starts conflicts everywhere so it can test its newest killing machinery. The ‘west’ throw all kinds of high tech into their weaponry which is prone to failure and costs a shit load of money to produce.

Like most weaponry there is a lot of hype, the arms dealers like to sell shit. Will this platform be a US tank killer?? Quite possibly. If its hard to spot and has a useful fire range of 5 plus Km’s, then I’d venture its a big concern. To blind it from 2 – 3 Kms away with a laser… you’d have to see it first and by then, it may be to late… boom

B_MC
B_MC

Reminded me of this article. I guess Russia wants to play too….

Ukraine invites arms makers to ‘test’ weapons against Russia

“We are interested in testing modern systems in the fight against the enemy,” Reznikov said during a conversation with former US Ambassador John Herbst as part of an online event hosted by the Atlantic Council think tank. “We are inviting arms manufacturers to test their products here.”

https://nypost.com/2022/07/20/ukraine-invites-arms-makers-to-test-weapons-against-russia/

Montefrio

Has anyone done a meme featuring the Michael Dukakis tank video with JB’s face replacing that of MD? Or is it being saved for 2024?

musket
musket

For a superior read on the WW2 situation in the Ukraine, Pritt Buttar’s “The Reckoning” “The Defeat of Army Groups South, 1944” is the best book that I have read on this subject. Brilliantly researched and written and tells the story of the portion of the war. Although today’s Ukraine war is not near as terrible as was WW2 there in 1944 it is for those fighting it.

Dying Sun
Dying Sun

I’m still waiting to read his new book “Meat Grinder – The Battles for the Rzhev Salient, 1942-43”. He is an excellent author.

musket
musket

Darn…….slipping and I must buy a copy……..Thanks

anon a moos
anon a moos

The British high command, expects the abject Ukrainian cannon-fodder to literally die for their sacred Challengers.

The Russians should file a suit against the UK/USA for crimes against humanity. Use the same tools and tactics these scum sucking asswipes in the ‘west’ use against everyone of their so called enemies.

Just to make things interesting Iraq should also file suit for crimes against humanity against bush’n company. No real downside to any of it as what would the US do, bomb the shit outta them again?? Not likely, they left most of the bombs in Afghanistan and Ukie.

Anonymous
Anonymous

They quite openly value the Challenger above the life of a Ukrainian soldier.

They quite openly value their ideology above the life of EVERYONE.

John Doe
John Doe

“Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.”
-Henry Kissinger

Discover more from The Burning Platform

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading