Well the following very good pieces are dealing with some of the issues Europe is having concerning MBT modernization or development. These pieces exam the choices that
Norway and Poland face in this issue. The "Driver" is of course Russia who has moved West already and is steadily moving further North as well into the Artic Zone.
http://www.defence24.com/armoured-fo...rade-programme
http://www.defence24.com/mbt-for-pol...olish-industry
I've already reported on the
French and German cooperation in the
LEOPARD 3/or yes,
LEOCLERC.
South Korea has straightened out their K-2 issues and have recently started the production of the 2nd batch of 100 tanks. They will have 300 total upon completion of, for now, the 3rd and final batch of 100 K2 tanks.
Russia of course will have the ARMATA but not in the numbers originally proposed but, in enough numbers that Europe is certainly concerned about them. And this is I get to officially say, "I told you so." It'll be
2021 or later before Russia
fields the tank. From the ref. below...
"The
Russian Defense Ministry plans to sign major contracts to procure Armata-based armor
after 2020. "
Acceptance tests will begin this year and will continue up to the end of 2019. We have to reach the finish with
new samples in 2020 and will then decide on major serial contracts," Borisov said."
And if that wasn't enough...
"The
Main command of the Russian Ground Forces has announced in May 2017, that the 1st tank regiment of Taman division will be the first unit to be rearmed with new-generation Armata T-14.
That will happen after 2020 when the new tank passes government acceptance tests and becomes operational. At present the regiment is armed with T-72B3."
Don and I will leave it as a surprise unless he feels it necessary to do otherwise, but our tank issue of a couple of weeks ago continued behind the scenes, it would involve several countries, I think it was three continents, several tanks having started with what we thought were small issues with a T-55 which would lead to one country having I believe 3 whole series of tanks deleted because folks decided we needed them because they were planned to be modernized or bought. Problem was
no one ever followed up on them and they
ALL died on the vine. And that was just one country. To be fair, a couple were inherited from "SP" the rest however, were not.
Not how I for my part, thought I'd "see the world". Here's your ref...
https://www.armyrecognition.com/febr...n_service.html
Elsewhere the...
The
U.S. has recently just started to field the
M1A2 SEP V3 and has approved funding for the development of the
M1A2 SEP V4 more on that later.
Turkey appears to be getting back on track with the
ALTAY and as already posted, will have ANOTHER, like the above
ARMATA pushed back fielding date.
Iran well they're about to field their latest MBT it looks like possibly later this year, the already posted
KARRAR which looks like a
T-72MS but here's what a Russian tank expert thinks about it...
"According to military experts, the Karrar MBT is based on the chassis of the
Soviet-made T-72 but fitted with
a new turret. The design of the tank
seems to be very similar to the Russian-made
T-90MS. According to
retired Major General Vladimir Bogatyrev, the Karrar is a copy of the Russian-made T-90MS, the most advanced modification of the T-90 family but it
uses some features of the American M1 Abrams and British Challenger 2. Russian
military expert suggested that, in terms of certain military capabilities, the Karrar is
unlikely to match the Russian
T-90."
Hhmmmm, So given the last sentence of the last, if it's probably not as good as a
T-90, it must have
used the worst attributes of the
M1 ABRAMS and
CHALLENGER 2 and we know how bad those tanks are.
That being said this tank is a quantum leap for Iran and I'm thinking for what little it's worth, probably not as bad as our Russian expert thinks.
So for you geography types, looking at the map and the current nature of the political scene, someone is looking rather contained at least within the next 5 to 10 yrs anyway. Time will tell.
https://www.armyrecognition.com/febr...ered_soon.html
Before I forget but, they're friends (Trying to contain China.) and
India was only left out of this well because, they're India. Such potential with their heavy armor but, I wonder if we'll see the
ARJUN Mk II or FMBT before the games end. The former is "World Class" and the latter if completed could be a "Top 5" contender.
Anyway off to bed and back to work later today. I hope
EVERYONE has a
GREAT DAY!!
Regards,
Pat
