All about the tanks that France will send to Ukraine
Macron's office said France will send AMX-10 light tanks to Ukraine. They are the first vehicles of western design supplied to Kiev. Here are details and perspectives
French President Emmanuel Macron's office announced today that France will supply light tanks to Ukraine to help it repel a Russian invasion.
More specifically, these are AMX-10RC model vehicles, which the French forces are gradually withdrawing from service to replace them with the most modern Jaguar battle tanks.
THE OTHER TANKS SENT TO UKRAINE
Ukraine has already received tanks from other countries, such as the Czech Republic, but these were vehicles of Soviet origin; the AMX-10RC, by contrast, is a western product.
PREPARE UKRAINE FOR A NEW RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE
As reported by POLITICO , an adviser to the French Ministry of the Armed Forces explained that Paris took this decision and broke the delay – Kiev had been pressing for months to be sent tanks – because it wants to help Ukraine prepare for "a possible offensive Russian” in the spring.
“Ukraine,” he added, “is now at a turning point, at the forefront. Russia is trying to terrorize the population with its drone strikes that sometimes reach as far as Kiev, but Ukraine could start a counter-offensive."
WHAT UKRAINE WAS ASKING FOR
The Ukrainian requests, in reality, were different. In December, Kiev had formally asked Paris to send it another tank model, the Leclerc, the main fighting vehicle used by French forces. Being a light tank, the AMX-10 weighs less than the Leclerc, has less armor, and has a shorter range. In essence, it is not a real battle tank, but a support one.
WILL GERMANY FOLLOW FRANCE'S EXAMPLE?
Nonetheless, deliveries of the AMX-10 are equally important for Ukraine, as they could prompt other governments to follow France's lead. Michel Goya, a retired French colonel, told POLITICO precisely “we can boast of having been the first to send tanks, even if they are not of the same class as the combat tanks used in Ukraine. But the move can also have an inciting effect on others."
Today, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz renewed his commitment to supply Leopard-2 model tanks to Ukraine. In an interview with AFP , Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, head of the German parliament's defense committee, criticized Berlin's inaction and added that “once again, France has assumed the role that was expected from Germany".
HOW MANY TANKS WILL BE SENT?
Macron's office did not specify how many tanks will be sent to Ukraine. However, considering the rate of replacement of the AMX-10 with the Jaguars, there could be around thirty: so far the ground forces of the French army have in fact received thirty-eight Jaguars.
FEATURES, PURPOSES AND USES OF THE AMX-10
The AMX-10 is a highly mobile light armored vehicle equipped with a 105mm gun. It has been used by French forces in reconnaissance missions: its most recent deployment was in the Sahel region of Africa, as part of Operation Barkhane against Islamist terrorism which officially ended in November.
It is a vehicle designed in the 1970s and 1980s with the aim of monitoring the advance of the land forces of the Soviet Union. In a sense, therefore, it fits into the context of the war in Ukraine, since Russia's military tactics today have not changed much since the Soviet era.
WHAT WILL CHANGE IN THE FIELD?
According to Jérôme Pellistrandi, director of the specialized security portal National Defense , light tanks could be deployed in front of Ukrainian battle vehicles if Russia were to carry out a new large-scale offensive in the spring.
Colonel Goya, however, points out that a few dozen AMX-10s won't change the situation on the battlefield much. The supply of French vehicles "may help", he said, "but in numerical terms it is not much, given that there are hundreds of thousands of armored vehicles in Ukraine. The Ukrainians will use them well [the AMX-10s, ed ], but they don't shoot as much as the Russian tanks".
– Read also: The West must not abandon Ukraine: the role of the defense industry
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/francia-carri-armati-ucraina-amx-10/ on Thu, 05 Jan 2023 14:56:29 +0000.