How Ukrainian Troops Are Training To Use Western Tanks

The Ukrainians are experienced - and famously quick learners - but the most important lessons may be less about using technologically advanced tanks than about teaching maneuver and combined arms warfare at the company and  battalion level. JL 

Pierre Bouvier reports in Le Monde, image Wajtek Radwanski, AFP:

In recent weeks, the first crews have begun training on Leopard 2A6 tanks in Germany and Poland, as well as on the Challenger 2 in the UK. The equipment is more modern than the Russian tanks currently being used in Ukraine. They're heavier because they're better protected against mines and anti-tank missiles, but they're also more mobile. They can locate targets and shoot at a greater distance – up to 5,000 meters. NATO emphasizes the necessity of adapting to the technology, lengthening the already intense training, six days a week and 12 hours a day. After training a crew, it must be taught to maneuver, to operate as a platoon – four tanks – and then a squadron – 13 tanks.
Since the summer of 2022, Ukrainians have been clamoring for battle tanks to launch a counter-offensive against Russian troops. In January, after months of talks, Kyiv finally obtained the promise of 120 to 140 Western tanks from a coalition of 12 countries. While waiting for their arrival – Poland announced on Friday, February 24, that it had delivered its first armored vehicles – Ukrainian soldiers must be trained in these unfamiliar machines.

In recent weeks, the first crews have begun training on Leopard 2A6 tanks in Germany and Poland, as well as on the Challenger 2 in the UK.

Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, believes it is possible to train his troops on Western tanks in three to four weeks. But Western tank commanders and land warfare analysts are more skeptical.

Adjusting to Western tanks

"On a fairly simple old-fashioned tank, with a crew that has what we call 'armored prerequisites' – that is, they've been in a tank turret before – the training can go fairly quickly," said Yann Boivin, an armored equipment specialist and creator of the blog Blablachars. Still, he estimated that this could take from five to eight weeks.

 

The expected equipment, however, is more modern than the Russian tanks currently being used in Ukraine. They're heavier because they're better protected against mines and anti-tank missiles, but they're also more mobile. They can locate targets and shoot at a greater distance – up to 5,000 meters. "Western tanks are not designed like Russian tanks, where ergonomics are less of a consideration," said Boivin. This former officer in the Armoured Cavalry Arm of the French Army underlines the necessity of adapting to the technology, something that risks lengthening the delays of already intense training, based on six days a week and 12 hours a day, with courses in translation.

For obvious reasons, Ukraine has focused on the Leopard 2, a model widely available in Europe and still assembled by Krauss-Maffei. For Colonel Markus Reisner, this choice was all the more clear because the Leopard 2 is easy to operate and maintain. "The idea behind the design of the Leopard [in the 1970s] was to build a tank that was easy to master because the German military was essentially a conscript army," recounted the head of the Austrian Military Academy's research & development department and commander of his country's honor guards. In Austria, which has the Leopard 2A4, training lasts three and a half months for tank drivers, loaders and gunners – who are conscripts, unlike the tank commander who will be a career soldier. "It also takes six months to get everyone coordinated," said Colonel Reisner.

Specialists are therefore wondering about the outcome of the accelerated training being offered to the Ukrainians. They will be called upon to face Russian crews that are perhaps more seasoned and certainly more familiar with their tanks. Moreover, the Russians have missiles – Kornet, RPG-29 and RPG-30 – that are as effective as the American Javelins and British NLAWs, which have wreaked havoc on Russian tank formations. "We're training Ukrainian crews who are going directly into combat, and for whom consequences [from the enemy] will be almost immediate," Yann Boivin emphasized.

Technical and tactical training

If they want to launch an offensive, the Ukrainians must be able to count on numerically superior forces, in a ratio of three attacking elements for one defender, a figure that increases to eight attackers for one defender in an urban environment. "They need 300 tanks, 600 to 700 infantry fighting vehicles and 500 pieces of artillery. Then it all depends on how they will assemble these different elements in a combined force grouping," said Colonel Reisner.

In addition to technical training, there is also tactical training. After training a crew, it must be taught to maneuver, to operate as a platoon – four tanks – and then a squadron – 13 tanks enrolled in an Inter-Arms Battle Group (IATG). "It's complicated to train soldiers from an army that isn't applying its own doctrine. I can't see myself forcing French thinking on the Ukrainians," said Yann Boivin. He then added: "I think that tactical training will be minimal, on safeguard measures and basic measures, and will be adapted to the terrain."

Above all, the Ukrainians will find themselves with a collection of equipment of various origins, with many different spare parts and ammunition. Their supply and maintenance will be a logistical headache. The same goes for their transportation from the Polish border to the front line. They won't use the railroad, but tank carriers carrying one vehicle at a time and taking different routes.

 

The Russians know this and they aren't going to try to destroy one tank at a time with missiles, but rather wait for the Ukrainians to bring them within range of their artillery. "We have to assume in principle that these tanks will be observed. We'll have to make arrangements, move them around at night and scatter them during stops," said Yann Boivin. "We'll see Leopards on fire," said Colonel Reisner.