Why does Ukraine want tanks? | The Tank Museum

this video is going to be about some of the tanks being used in Ukraine and uh I'm bound to say this aren't I I told you so I want to talk about tanks today and I want to talk about Ukraine we're coming up to a year since Russian invaded Ukraine with about one and a half thousand tanks that were there and available for the Russian forces at the time Ukraine at the time had about a thousand and we've seen that progression through the media of how Ukraine has stymied that Russian initial advance and led to a war of attrition and a winter of pretty appalling conditions all round for both armies but let's take some of that apart let's see how with the time on filming this the tank has been in the news all week as Western NATO Nations come to decisions about providing more tanks to the ukrainians and what those tanks might be being used for and why after a year in which so often the tank was on the news as being a has been thing if they're going to be taken out by top attack weapons why on Earth should tanks now suddenly seem to be so prominent in a completely different way in the media so let's go back when the Russians invaded they were using small tactical battle groups or battalions that they'd learned about from their use in going into the Crimea earlier on when Russia took Crimea in the donbass in some areas there that that idea that the Russians had reformed under Putin their military new equipment new uniforms some more high-tech the fact of these smaller tactical battalions and the idea there is that again we were very impressed in the west Western intelligence Etc looking at this thinking hang on they definitely have learned lessons and reformed here and so those battalions the way they were put together so they had combined arms together so tanks artillery self-propelled logistical support sometimes engineer supports all at a lower Battalion level rather than separated within a division or a regiment that idea seemed to be very impressive so a cause everybody was struck by the fact that when Russia invaded this failed it didn't work in the way they were expecting it to and it certainly didn't work in the sense that the ukrainians picked on and interdicted these Russian advances in a way that was quite staggering to many people so why was that what went wrong for the Russians in that way well number one the ukrainians were using in-laws and javelins top attack weapons which could take out a tank and did so the Russian efforts to protect themselves against top attack they started building things they called them cope cages cages with sandbags or metal structures on top of turrets they look like they were improvised designs many of them if you actually look at them closely they differ from unit to unit they were obviously aware of the threat of top attack but these improvisations that the Russians did just didn't seem to make any difference whatsoever the ukrainians as well were using technology in a way that perhaps for the first time we've been seeing because this has been a media War so much of what's going on has been recorded by the ukrainians and that footage released less so with the Russians but obviously they're targeting their propaganda not so much towards the Western Nations more to war India Pakistan China Etc but I'd throw a note of caution there quite quickly we are looking at this war through a glass Darkly we are not seeing everything that's going on and that's something as well that many commentators have pointed out and it's also something I'd be a bit wary of because we're going to learn much more about what went on in due course and I would also say because it's an ongoing War um we are not going to be saying things that one may give sucker to the Russians or undermine Ukrainian confidence and equally as well that there's some issues are going on that quite simply that nobody wants to see debated in The Wider press yet because some of these are still issues that they're trying to keep secret but those Ukrainian attacks we can see it's pretty obvious in a number of areas why and where they succeeded drones being used to spot where the Russian columns were where the Russian attacks were taking place Etc and being used to Target artillery fire onto those Russian positions so that was something that again that has been seen in this war in a way that just hasn't been to the extent it was you know before this is new from that side of it so Western technology clever attack tactics by the Ukrainian so some of the hit and run they're there they're back they're Communications were much better in many areas than the Russians and the Russians as well it was so obvious quite quickly that some of this front that we had led to believe about Putin's new Russian army was pretty Hollow around the edges their Supply broke down quickly vehicle maintenance it was obvious things hadn't been looked after properly training of Crews and some of the Infantry just weren't there into a standard that the ukrainians would be able to take advantage of this so those were things as well that let the Russians side down as well as that Ukrainian novelty of tactics using water courses as defensive lines you know which again slowed up these Russian columns and Russian attack forces and one extra element that I seem to think gets overlooked too often at the moment is the fact that NATO British American other countries were training Ukrainian forces before the war and their big messages come back that really work for the ukrainians and was a major change from that Old soviet-era doctrine that so many the ukrainians and the Russian military had kind of trained under the difference was that Western idea of mission command you end up saying to your forces this is what the commander wants you to achieve how you achieve that on the field of battle is then delegated much further down to the front line troops to the commanders in the field not hierarchically held onto by figures behind the scenes and that really works for the ukrainians it was a revelation to many Ukrainian soldiers that way and the fact it's been working against the Russians who were still using this very dated command and control where any sort of order had to go up to the hierarchy before it was allowed something could be changed or some maneuver made Etc which was slower their radio communications were being interdicted they were slower at this anyway what's called C2 command and control not very good from the Russians point of view so that's one of those areas is where it's not just about the equipment but it's about the training that ukrainians really benefited from their NATO teachers that were teaching them before the War Began now there's another element I would put in there as well which is again for the failures of some of that early the first six months of the Russian situation or their attacks Etc and that was again I would go back to morale um you look at some of the situations where some of those Russian soldiers again some of the tank crews even they weren't told they were actually going on a real uh attack these were Maneuvers that were going to be taking place there is obviously a corrupt system under Putin uh morally you know bankrupt in so many ways the ukrainians whatever their problems of the country behind them they are united in realizing that this is an attack they have to defend against so morally and their morale is actually very high and how they've come together has worked perfectly with the tie-in with the old and the new using new technologies getting those drones adapting things doing things just so sensibly very quickly early on they realized look if we centralize too many of our forces our supply Depots the way we're going to repair and look after equipment we are going to be attacked by Russian missiles by Russian Artillery so many ways that they could help denigrate the ukrainian's ability to supply its own troops Etc so that's been spread out you know every town garage is basically now a repair workshop for the Ukrainian military they don't have Central Depots in that way so lots of ideas like this ukrainians were picking up on and with that support this is now a nation at war with the full backing of its populace which again is something in the west certainly in Britain we've not seen for some time that idea that we've been seeing you know Afghanistan Iraq people were supportive of the troops but we certainly weren't a country at War there was no war footing industry Etc most people went about their daily lives completely Oblivion so the fact that the British soldiers were fighting in another part of the world Ukraine complete opposite of that everybody's aware of the situation everybody's involved in some way or another now what's often talked about is the supply of NATO weaponry and high-tech Weaponry to Ukraine and there's areas where that is undoubtedly given the ukrainians great Advantage we often see about in-laws and javelins taking out uh Russian tanks but there's other areas where for example um High Mars High Mobility artillery rocket systems whopping great batteries of rockets that are put on the back of trucks Etc driven around given by Western Nations the ukrainians were using those to Target Russian ammunition dumps and if you look online there's some amazing footage of quite major Russian Supply Centers being targeted by high Mars the Russians in response put their pants here anti-missile systems next to wherever the areas were they wanted to defend and they started bringing down the incoming highmar Rockets um so in response to that the Americans gave the ukrainians the agm-88 missile which it can Target um anti-missile systems it's that's what it's designed to do so what that led to is then high miles were back in business and they weren't being interdicted by the Russians so this cat and mouse game of Technology certainly that supply of some of the better technology has really helped the ukrainians in their defensive battles having said all that by the summer last summer ukrainians had lost about 50 percent of their assets if we just do that as a broad brush picture that's a lot there so those NATO's resupplying it was really important for them and another side as well that was going on as well is ukrainians because of this Russian advances trying to take territory the ukrainians it's their territory so they are desperately trying to stop Russian advances that meant they were building defensive positions and that meant as well that the Russians had the opportunity of using their great God of War artillery to actually decimate Ukrainian forces in a number of areas great if you can afford to maneuver great if you can afford to actually use the expanders of the countryside that was great in some areas for ukrainians but if you're trying to hold a serious line hold a piece of strategically important ground that means the Russians had the opportunity of firing their shells at them we think so far in the war about seven million shells have been fired by the Russians and it's the artillery of course that's really doing the damage on the media all the time we tend to focus on these high-tech weapon systems odd moments it's that attritional Warfare of heavy barrages and we are talking you know World War one type barrages now going down onto Ukrainian positions early days the ukrainians were in a position they could almost counter battery fire and match that Russian fire As Time wore on their stocks got so depleted the number of tubes or weapon systems they've got for firing back end up being diminished as well hence that great need for NATO to replenish their stocks ammunition Etc Russia can probably make about 3 million rounds a year we think seven million has been fired they may well have about 10 million still uh in stocks but the higher end Weaponry they've got through much quicker so again the Russians once their initial attacks were stymied they start using missile attacks initially not that effectively later on going for Ukrainian infrastructure power stations Etc that's where again they've had an effect so if you look at satellite photos of the Ukraine lit up at night before these attacks look at them now and most of the countries dark so that idea the Russians were changing their tactics to try and pick on areas of the Ukrainian defenses that they knew would be vulnerable and I want to bring that in now because there has been a little bit of a tendency certainly in NATO and the West to denigrate I've just done it by saying about how poor some of those Russian troops seem to be in those early attacks but rusi the Royal United Services Institute they've done a number of reports they again they often say at the beginning of their Reports look this is how we're looking at a situation from the best we can understand it not a full clear picture yet and equally they're saying we're not going to tell you too much about what's going on at the moment because again they don't want to to give the Russians any false information or other information that might benefit them but rusi said this in a recent report and this is why I want to read this quote because I think it's quite an important one that we don't underestimate that Russian army and don't fall into the Trap of belittling them in a way as if they're ineffective so they said the perception that Russian forces are systematically incompetent irredeemably corrupt that their weapons are ineffective and unreliable and that the force is incapable of adapting this narrative is dangerous both because it is inaccurate and also because it encourages complacency so I mentioned that because obviously the Russians are learning lessons from their earlier mistakes they are reconfiguring forces they've actually done very well in some battles that perhaps we've been in the west given the impression that they've failed there but actually they maneuvered 30 000 troops they got them out of of what they would consider a Dunkirk type situation they redeployed them they saved most of their equipment there's there's I there's things that go on where actually it's obvious that they are learning lessons and that again is always a worry because how much longer will it be will Putin be able to Rally the Russian people in the sense of a Great Patriotic War will industry start re-gurgitating starting to come back to the Russian army with upgraded bits of vehicles New pieces of Kit things taken out of store that obviously were not being effective will they be refurbished enough and the fact that those Russian resources are potentially greatest certainly than new cranes but certainly with Ukraine and NATO backing can they match each other who's going to run out of puff first is one of those big sort of questions now we're into a year into the war so looking at that the debate that's been going on recently which is Ukraine asking for 300 Western tanks now at the moment it could well be that about 1 600 Russian tanks are being knocked out in the fighting so far some are very well documented some are underestimating it's perhaps estimated about a hundred thousand on both sides have been made casualties you know these are huge numbers this is a really serious War we're looking at so how could just perhaps 300 western or NATO tanks make a difference in the future the Ukraine obviously wants tanks which again I would come back to a bit of an irony when in the west we were saying actually with these top attack weapons tanks are out of business now and uh old hat they've been superseded on the battlefield by other systems wrong as is so often in the past been said before just recently a U.S general came out out with a line you know you don't need tanks unless you want to win and that's why the ukrainians want tanks back in their inventory and tanks that will overmatch the t-64s the t-72s the t80s not many of them but now some t90s that the Russians are deploying they like the idea of the western tanks because of their Mobility their Firepower and obviously they're much better protected with defensive Aid Suites Etc and laminate armor than their Russian army equivalents and their own tanks that they've been fighting up to this stage the thought is a couple of core will be formed and if they do get those 300 tanks they've got that opportunity of bringing Mobility back so that when they are going to Counter-Strike and one assumes both sides are building up for a spring or summer offensive they will have that Mobility again and a superior Edge on the battlefield now there's been dangerous things said in the Press almost as if these Western tanks are you know invulnerable Etc they're not let's just be honest about these things um that's not the case tank for tank of course they tend to have better technology better crew protection uh better sighting and longer range Firepower but we're still only talking at this moment in time about modest numbers Challenger 2 Abrams leopards leopards often cited as the tank the ukrainians want because we're talking larger numbers are available and larger stocks of spares and supplies are all ready to go and that's quite important of course because they really need these vehicles sooner rather than later there's another element to this as well I just want to bring into play which is very important as well we seem to think as well as those tanks going on forever because we're talking about building bases perhaps in Poland the tanks can come back to be looked after logistically to be refurbished or to be re-kitted out if they suffer any damage in Ukraine it may well be that just the supply of those tanks help Ukraine win a battle on a given day and this were not knowing where that future is going with the war why that winning a battle on a certain day may be vitally important think of it potentially like a boxing match again the sluggings going on this attritional Warfare over the winter but what out what if there's that chance for a knockout blow then those tanks being operated being used just for one day may make the difference and that's why again so sometimes when we're looking at what's going to be a tank that's sustainable that the crews can train more easily on that we've got enough ammunition and spare parts for ETC actually it could be a one-off weapon system sometimes that does the business now I mentioned about tanks because again watch this this is going to be changing even by the time we actually publish this video No Doubt there'll be more news Etc but last week British intelligence not only have they been talking about what tanks of Russians had been deploying and the failures of some of those tanks against Ukrainian defenses but they also mentioned the T14 tank and this famous the Russian armata that so much was said about in the media again was being offered for the first time according to British intelligence to the Russian army fighting in Ukraine the Russian army has refused it because citing engine problems the sighting systems not being working properly and they can't replenish those because they're not actually Russian sighting systems so there's a number of issues with those t14s that has meant and really they're a test body of vehicles that are being built so far but it looked like it's a Russian Field Army has turned down actually operating them as being just simply too risky let alone the propaganda problem of if they're falling into uh Ukrainian hands or being knocked out Etc it's just not going to look good this uh the latest big thing supposedly from the Russian tank industry um fails that way Ukraine obviously wants tanks for the very good reason they can help bring Mobility back on the battlefield but isn't it interesting how we see the tank in the media all the time when they were being destroyed they were being seen as a symbol of power being destroyed now they're being seen again as perhaps the answer um to the ukrainian's prayers they're one of only many weapon systems the ukrainians are going to be needing in the future and they're going to be needing a lot more than perhaps has been promised at the moment but they're still and the way commentators have suddenly taken on board now that the tank is still essential on that Battlefield in a way that only months ago it was almost considered old hat now I just want to end by saying one of those things that we talk about here sometimes is we're talking about this too often in the abstract these are real people fighting out there I've just said earlier that figure a hundred thousand potential casualties on both sides that's a lot of young people and from the Ukrainian size a lot of their infrastructure a lot of their homes people killed there this is something we need to end sooner and the irony of course is if the NATO is supplying these with this equipment one hopes that's going to help and not just prolong a war but also we're seeing a war where that moral element is so important and the fact that we're watching things going on Simplicity and high tech Runners taking messages because radio communications cannot be trusted on you know things that happened back in the first world war trenches scenes that looked like the first world war sometimes in Ukraine at the moment and again high-tech weapons all of those are on the battlefield at the same time and that ability that adaptability the need and the ability to use whether it's high-tech or simple systems gives me the feeling that the ukrainians are going to win this foreign

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Keywords: Bovington, Dorset, Tanks, Tankfest, tanks, tiger, chieftain, tank museum, second world war, world war two, top five tanks, tank chats, david fletcher, british army, tiger 131, royal armoured corps, tank regiment, RAC, tank museum bovington, tanklife, bovingtontank museum, military history, ww2, ww1, armoured car, tankchats, army, veteran, wwii history, war history, royal navy, ww2 history, royal air force, wwii museum, wwi, ww2 tanks, ww2 weapons, ukraine war, ukraine

Id: oEmWE83P2LA

Length: 23min 59sec (1439 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 03 2023