'Quality Challenges' Holding Up Joint Leopard Tank Supplies to Ukraine
08:19 GMT 07.07.2023 (Updated: 08:23 GMT 07.07.2023)
© Wikipedia / Rainer Lippert / A German Leopard 1A5 tank drives past at the at the 2015 military day in Uffenheim, Germany
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The Leopard 1 tanks were planned to be dispatched in spring, but won't be sent off until sometime in July due to technical issues, and even so they are prone to further delay, sapping Ukraine's counteroffensive, according to analysts.
The joint Danish-German-Dutch donation of Leopard 1 tanks to Ukraine has been delayed due to a number of technical challenges, Denmark's Acting Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen has announced.
In the spring, Denmark teamed up with Germany and the Netherlands to gift at least 100 Leopard 1 tanks to Ukraine. The intention was that the first tanks would arrive in the spring — just in time for the vaunted "spring offensive," which never materialized until the start of June.
"It is of course regrettable that we have not been able to deliver the expected number of Leopard 1 tanks to Ukraine. It is a large and important donation, but in connection with the renovation of the tanks, the two manufacturers have encountered a number of technical challenges, including the gun turret, which unfortunately means that right now we only have tanks for the training part," Troels Lund Poulsen said in a statement.
He furthermore admitted "quality challenges" with the tanks were uncovered with the assistance of the German Ministry of Defense.
The first batch of renovated tanks should have been ready around April in order for the training to commence the same month. Now, the first tanks are expected to be sent off in the course of July, as previously announced by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.
The first batch of renovated tanks should have been ready around April in order for the training to commence the same month. Now, the first tanks are expected to be sent off in the course of July, as previously announced by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.
Royal Danish Defense College analyst Anders Puck Nielsen suggested that while the delay may seem insignificant now, it may snowball in the future, given the required training, and if they don't arrive before the autumn rains, the deliveries may turn out to be far less useful.
The Leopard 1 is a main battle tank created in the 1960s in West Germany and produced until 1984. The German Leopards are part of the much-hyped Ukrainian counteroffensive launched in early June. However, despite the Western press touting it as a sort of Wunderwaffe or "wonder weapon" to bolster Kiev's cause, photos and videos of destroyed gear from the front are abound.
Having fewer than six million inhabitants, the modest European nation of Denmark has emerged as one of the Kiev regime's top donors per capita, with the Danish coalition government openly expressing hopes to remain among the countries that provide the largest financial assistance to Ukraine. So far, Copenhagen has dished out nearly $1 billion in financial and military aid and is planning to offer more.
Previous Danish donations include naval missiles, mine-clearing vehicles, and ammunition. Earlier in January, Denmark pledged all its 19 French-made CAESAR howitzers to Ukraine, including those still on order, later making a point of procuring Leopard tanks jointly with the Netherlands. The latest steps include pledges to speed up the delivery of F-16s, slated for a phaseout as the Danish Air Force receives more modern F-35s in their place.
The Kremlin has consistently warned against further arms deliveries to Kiev, cautioning that the gear will be destroyed — be it on the battlefield or pre-emptively. Since the start of the Ukrainian counteroffensive alone, the Russian armed forces have laid to waste 920 Ukrainian armored vehicles in the Donbass and Zaporozhye Regions, including 16 Leopard tanks, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu revealed earlier this month.
