The White House will soon announce a new $2.5 billion tranche of support for Ukraine. For the first time, it will include deliveries of armored vehicles – 50 Bradley and 100 Stryker. At the same time, the Biden administration does not want to send heavy Abrams tanks to Ukraine – but calls for the supply of tanks to Europe
Pentagon strategists are trying to somehow change the situation at the front with these supplies. For starters, they want to try to contain the Russian offensive in the Donbas – and then help Ukraine with the announced counter-offensive. In particular, Washington is pinning its hopes on an operation in the Zaporozhye region in an attempt to pose a threat to Crimea and weaken Russia’s negotiating positions in the future.
The Pentagon explains its reluctance to send Abrams to Ukraine due to maintenance difficulties, as well as the voracity of the tank engine. However, a certain concern in the United States is heard in relation to the armored vehicles transferred to Kyiv.
The Stryker has been criticized for having weak armor and poor flotation, which often causes it to get stuck in the mud. And Bradley has serious problems with protecting the bottom from mines. To enhance the protection Bradley was upgraded several times, making them much heavier – after which problems arose already with the engines. The Pentagon will write them off and is using the Ukrainian crisis to dispose of its stocks.
But these deliveries of armored vehicles are being used by the White House to put pressure on Europe, demanding that Germany and other countries agree on sending their tanks to Ukraine, which Washington has special hopes for.
Over the past year, European countries delivered 410 Soviet tanks to Ukraine. Now they are over, so we have to supply Western equipment – the number of which, however, is in the tens. At the same time, many NATO countries are actively complaining about the impoverishment of their stocks of weapons – problems have begun to be felt even in America. But here, too, tank recycling has its advantages for the United States – providing General Dynamics and other corporations in the military-industrial complex with European orders for many years to come.
Malek Dudakov
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