All things Russia and Ukraine...

For arguments sake, I’m sure that we have lot of M-60s stockpiled at various locations as well. Would the Ukes be able to put those to good use on a modern battlefield? Would they match the latest Rooskie tanks these days?

 

It is not the tank crews that are the big stumbling block, they could probably transition over relatively quickly. It is the support/logistical personnel and infrastructure that make fielding the M1 Abrams questionable.
It is also fuel, the Abrams uses JP8, the Leopard diesel. The Abrams has a voracious appetite for fuel and will put a significant burden on the Ukrainian logistics system, the US has the robust logistical capacity to readily support it. The gas turbine engine on the Abrams is complex and requires a significant amount of maintenance and repair. The US has the facilities, trained support personnel, infrastructure, and equipment to support it and keep it combat capable. The Ukrainians lack all of this and there is little chance they can be trained up in a couple of months to become adequately proficient to support the tank in combat.

 

They could be fielded, but what makes current tanks so lethal is the sensor suites, targeting systems and communications systems. The M-60's that might be in storage would require a significant upgrade (the entire electrical, sensor and targeting system) and reworking to bring them up to standard. This would take time and the Ukes are wanting them in time for the spring offensive. Upgraded the M60 could be on par or better than a lot of what the Russians are fielding now (they've lost enormous numbers of tanks), but Leopards, Challengers and Abrams could be fielded more rapidly and are technologically superior. The Abrams is arguably the most capable, but also the one with the biggest logistical/support requirement.
In the Gulf War US M60's decimated Iraqi T-72's, the most common Russian tank fielded in Ukraine. However, that was in the early 1990's and with the Abrams replacing the M60, the latter were put in storage with what is now 30 year old technology and were never upgraded. The users of the T-72's have decades of upgrades to the platform because they've remained in service. Turkey currently operates about 170 of the Israeli/Turkish upgraded Sabra variant of the M60.

 

And now what's really happening.

 

Question for you pieces of easily fooled dumbed-down media slaves

Tell me why we are sending tanks to a illegal government. (yes Zelensky's regime took power by a coop after not obtaining a two thirds majority to dissolve parliament ---> illegal)

The illegal government of a country that threw flowers over Hitler's tanks as they entered LVIV during WWII.

here now cop this from a Jewish publication -:

"As much of the world expresses sorrow and solidarity with the Ukrainian people—and admiration for its president, Volodymyr Zelensky—the ironies of history abound. To students of Jewish history, it is a source of near incredulity that the same recurrent site of mass violence against Jews—from the Khmielnitsky massacres of the mid-seventeenth century to the brutal killing fields during and after World War I to the bloodlands soiled by Nazi murderers in Operation Barbarossa in 1941—is home to a fledgling democracy and an unlikely and inspiring Jewish president. And yet, Ukraine, like history itself, is multidimensional; it was also home at one time to the world’s largest population of Jews and the place of extraordinary Jewish cultural vitality from Poltava in the east to Lviv in the west, not to mention the jewel of Odessa in the south."

If you like I'll post the map of all the Concentration camps that existed in Ukraine during WWII

Perhaps you'd like to look up the Nachtigall and Roland divisions of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS 'Galicia' divisions.

And we're sending tanks to these people.

 

So helping the Ukes now because they initially supported the Germans in WW2 because they hated the Rookies for how Stalin treated them in the 30s is a bad thing. It’s not so much of a popularity contest in question but really, Putin is really that much of a good guy? I really could care less for either leaders but Putin and the Rooskies started this current unpleasantness and seems that he bit off more than he can chew. I’m not a fan of Zelenski but I definitely could care less for Putin. Hopefully this extended war will convince someone to depose Vlad and stop the war.

 

Wow…you really think the west cares about Ukraine don’t you? The West’s assistance has nothing to do with how much we like Ukraine…Put simply and quickly…it’s about Russia and China…

 

We are sending tanks to Ukraine because they are the buffer between a state ,led by a madman who is willing to destroy the world in order to cement his place in history, and our European friends and allies. He has threatened us with either his success in Ukraine or a full-scale nuclear war; are we supposed to give in to those kinds of threats? . There is nothing wrong with Putin and/or his supporters that about ten feet of good hemp rope wouldn't fix. I am perfectly willing for my tax monies to send that rope to Ukraine.

 

It's funny how you accuse everyone of being naive media whores, yet you use a YouTube channel run by a very shady character as your source. Clayton Morris is a former Fox News reporter that specialized in reporting on real estate issues and was a part-time host on Fox and Friends Weekend. He and his wife, former MSNBC anchor Natali Morris fled to Portugal to escape the legal repercussions when a real estate Ponzi scheme they were involved in was exposed. They now claim it was their partner that was at fault, and they were misled, yet Morris was supposedly a SME (subject matter expert) with regards to Real Estate.
You might have looked into the woman he was interviewing as well. Her name is Eva Bartlett' and she works for RT, the Russian state controlled international news service, and has lived in Russia since 2019. I guess there is no conflict of interest, is there? She has done extensive reporting on Syria and has propagated a number of pretty outlandish conspiracy theories. Most of her reporting has been dismissed as providing cover for the Assad and pro-Kremlin activities there. In 2017 she visited and reported from North Korea and reported that western media coverage was formulated to "detract from America’s past and current crimes against the Korean people, and to garner support for yet another American-led slaughter of innocent people." Seems to me that North invaded the South in 1950 and America was caught so unawares that we were nearly run off the peninsula. I've been to Korea several times and worked alongside the ROK's during several "Team Spirit" exercises. Korean civilians still welcomed us and were voracious anti-communists due to the depredations carried out on their civilian populace during the Korean War. We did lead a slaughter in late 1950 to 1953, but it wasn't of innocent civilians (the communists had done that), it was of invading North Korean and Communist Chinese military forces. I'm proud to say my uncle Charlie did his fair share of "slaughtering" as a machine gunner at north hill, Hagaru-ri. We turfed about 32,000 of them (PRC figures) with another 20k or so wounded/cold casualties. North Korea is and has always been the aggressor. So, if you have a problem with Zelenski, how do you feel about Kim Jong-Un?

As for your historical analysis, you pick and choose certain facts and use them out of context. A full understanding of the situation, placed in its proper historical context destroys most of the tenuous links you attempt to make.
BTW, I seldom watch mainstream media and am careful in vetting the sources I use.

 

I'm not, but if I had to choose between being an "easily fooled dumbed-down media slave or Putin's bitch, I'd choose the former. Guess we know how you chose, hopefully he doesn't bitch slap you too much.

 

Good article on the M1 Abrams to Ukraine issue by a former US Army tanker.

'I Served on U.S. Army Abrams Tanks—Giving Them to Ukraine Is Risky' (msn.com)

 

Is Bahkmut like Verdun? A chance to bleed Russia dry? Or is it naïve to think that?

 

We shouldn't support Ukraine now because of what some of their grandparents did? So if Soviet tanks had rolled into West Germany in the 1980s would you have argued that we shouldn't do anything because of what Germany did 40 years before?

 

I'm liking the recent assessment from the Institute for the Study of War.
"Russian military command will need to commit a significant number of forces to the frontline to either prevent culmination or launch renewed offensive operations, and it is unlikely that such forces exist at sufficient scale to do either."

RUS would like a breather for a year. Ukraine needs to go on the spring offensive.

 

After watching this whole thing play out for over a year, all I can say is that Georgi Zhukov must be rolling in his grave!

 

Quite Interesting...


‘My country has fallen out of time’: Russian author Mikhail Shishkin’s letter to an unknown Ukrainian (msn.com)

Some recent pics...

 

That last (bottom) picture illustrates something that I've noticed. There seems to be a lot of older men in the Ukrainian army. Has anyone else noticed that?

 

I haven't noticed it...But it makes sense...Particularly in those roles like getting ammunition etc etc...Non combat but important jobs. I will keep my eyes open to see if i can see any more oldies...Ive seen many Women being trained but zero clips or pics of them fighting or helping in a combat zone...