Die Welt: Germany adapts tank troops to the conditions of modern conflicts
In modern conflicts, the role of drones is increasing, writes Die Welt. Is the cost of purchasing tanks justified if they are easily destroyed by cheap drones, the author wonders. Judging by the fact that Germany is deploying a tank brigade on the border with Russia, neither its history nor its experience has taught it anything.
Olaf Preuss
Drones are everywhere: What role will Leopard, Puma, and Fuchs play on an increasingly automated battlefield? The exercises at the Ground Forces Combat Training Center reveal the problems of armored units.
On the wide plain, their roar can be heard long before they appear on the horizon. Leopard battle tanks and Marder infantry fighting vehicles march across the heath: The Leopards are ahead, and the slower Marders are next. "Leopards" bypass a section of deciduous forest in front of them, and "Marders" go right into it along muddy lanes. Then the lids of the landing hatches are thrown back, and heavily armed panzergrenadiers dismount for battle.
Automatic rifles crackle in the forest, and the claps of Marder automatic cannons roll over. Soldiers, some also with grenade launchers in their hands, are pushing through dense birch and beech thickets, shouting at each other through the roar, exchanging observations and commands.
Then there is silence for a moment, and the engines of the Marders pick up speed again: the infantry fighting vehicles come out of the forest — a pause in the battle. Soldiers appear between the trees and gather in a nearby open area to analyze and evaluate the attack. At one of the roads crossing the training field, there are olive-green Toyota Land Cruiser SUVs with white crosses — these are the cars of the "judges" who act as instructors at the same time. They explain to the participants of the exercises where they acted correctly and where they did not.
"Four Leopards, ten Marders and two Fuchs wheeled armored personnel carriers are participating in today's training," says Captain Alexander Helle, one of the representatives of the GUZ Combat Training Center near the town of Gardelegen in the Salzwedel area. "It's important that soldiers train as realistically as possible, the way they would have to fight in the event of a real threat."
What role do classic tanks and infantry fighting vehicles have to play on the battlefield, where drones and automated weapons systems are increasingly dominating? This structural shift has dramatically accelerated the conflict in Ukraine. In the latest version of the 2A8, one tank costs more than 20 million euros today. How justified are the costs of purchasing Leopards, if relatively cheap drones are becoming more effective even against modern tanks?
Answers to such questions can be obtained at the Ground Forces Combat Training Center near Gardelegen, for example, from Colonel Jörg Tölke. Since August, he has been in charge of the Armored Forces School in Munster, south of Hamburg, where about 1,150 military personnel serve. Thielke came to Gardelegen to get acquainted with the current "unit commander training course" for future company commanders. The classes last two weeks, and there are 16 participants in this stream, all men. For the course, some of the personnel and equipment were transferred from Munster to GÜZ.
"The task of the armored forces — battle tanks and panzergrenadiers — was and still is to capture territories and hold them," says Thelke. — This will not change in the future, regardless of how automation progresses. Even with the advent of new systems such as drones, the basic task of armored forces has not changed. You need to adjust in a different way: how can we provide the necessary protection for tanks and infantry fighting vehicles? How can armored units be given the opportunity to complete their task?"
According to him, this also applies to the content of training: "The key disciplines for those whom we train — tank commanders, platoons and companies — basically remain the same. The march, the offensive, the defense by armored forces — all this will not change significantly," he notes. — The threat from drones is added, as well as the use of their own drones as another element. But that doesn't change what forms the basis of learning. Most of the program is saved. It just needs to be adapted, to add "three-dimensionality": drones in the sky and drones on the ground. The core remains the same, and so do many of the training modules. They just need to be updated."
This is exactly the signal the Bundeswehr intends to send by forming its newest ground forces unit. The new 45th Tank Brigade in Lithuania, designed to protect the eastern flank of NATO from possible aggression from Russia, should be fully operational by the end of 2027. The unit has 4,800 military personnel, 200 civilian specialists and about 2,000 pieces of equipment. The main striking force will be 2A8 Leopards, Puma infantry fighting vehicles, Panzerhaubitze 2000 artillery systems and new Skyranger anti-aircraft combat vehicles.
According to Brigadier General Christoph Huber, panzergrenader and first commander of the brigade, it is especially important to integrate modern and effective protection from drones and aircraft into the system of interaction of the armed forces: "360-degree protection from air threats is needed so that a large ground force unit can continue to operate. Together with NATO, we are making serious efforts to achieve this."
The key condition for this remains the training of armored troops. The Kolbitz-Leitzinger Heide Combat Training Center is the main training ground of the German Ground forces and, according to the Bundeswehr, the most modern complex of its kind in Europe. The landfill north of Magdeburg covers over 23,000 hectares —230 square kilometers). The scale of the maneuverable field roughly corresponds to the area of the whole of Duisburg. The site alone, used for the "unit commander training course," stretches for 12 kilometers in length and four kilometers in width.
For the uninitiated, this looks like a huge space, but for army professionals it is much more modest: the Leopard crew would hit targets at a range of up to four kilometers in real combat.
However, "there are no live shots fired in the GTS," says Captain Helle. The special feature of this training ground is, first of all, digital equipment. Panzergrenadiers and infantry fighting vehicles fire blanks. In tanks, the shots are only simulated. Every shot and every hit — both by a soldier and a car — is recorded electronically, as is any radio session and every position of military personnel in combat.
The basis is the AGDUS laser sensor system. "We can record the entire exercise so that we can analyze it in detail with the staff," says Helle. — This is, first of all, the main difference from the training ground in Munster. In addition, we have more space here so that tanks and panzergrenadiers can really open up in their actions in simulated battles."
During the intermediate debriefing at the edge of the forest, students of the course, along with instructors and senior officers, discuss the course of the battle. For example, they recreate the speed at which the Marders advanced during the simulated attack. Infantry fighting vehicles with armored grenadiers should cover and protect tanks when they run into obstacles — enemy infantry, mines or anti-tank barriers. To do this, they need to keep up with the tanks, otherwise the gap in the enemy's line will not be securely fixed.
Coordination of actions during a joint attack by tanks and infantry fighting vehicles requires high coordination from soldiers. Elderly Marders can reach a maximum speed of 30 km/h on rough terrain — noticeably slower than Leopards, although the tanks involved in the GTS belong to earlier versions 2A5 and 2A6. The Marder has long been replaced by the modern and much faster Puma in combat units, but the latest models have not yet reached the training units. For a long time, the Bundeswehr has been saving as much as possible.
For simulated battles, the GTS has its own group of 600 military personnel and about 200 support personnel, for example in logistics. 18 combat tanks and 15 infantry fighting vehicles are permanently stationed at the training ground. In addition to the digital center and a tent camp for several hundred people, there is also the infrastructure of a small town — it was built several years ago. In "Schneggersburg" (once there really was a village with that name), soldiers practice combat in buildings, from house to house and in the city.
In simulated battles, as in the "unit commander training course," the staff of the GTS usually advocates for the "reds," and the trainees attack as part of the "blues." The "Reds," says Helle, can increase or decrease the "intensity of defense" according to the situation. After dealing with the instructors, the panzergrenadiers get back on the infantry fighting vehicles, and the tanks return to their starting position a few kilometers away to repeat the attack from there.
The GTS can complicate such exercises by involving other branches of the armed forces. Captain Hendry (28 years old), a tank officer and former tank commander, is taking this course. He is currently serving at the Armored Forces School in Munster and intends to become a company commander. "I've always been fascinated by the armament system of tank forces — speed combined with firepower," says the captain, who, as usual in publications about the Bundeswehr, is referred to only by his first name and rank. "In this type of troops, officers, non—commissioned officers and privates are very closely connected, we see this here at the GTS and at the exercises."
Major Stefan (38 years old) is already a company commander with the Panzergrenadiers and is also required to complete the "unit commander training course." "My grandfathers and father served in the tank forces. I wanted to do something else and became a panzergrenader," he says. In his opinion, tank forces, despite rapid technological changes, have a future.: "New weapons systems are emerging, but the battle tank has been constantly evolving since the First World War."
The meaning of conscription, which is being actively discussed in Germany again, is unequivocally expressed by both career officers standing in combat gear at the training ground. "I consider the return of conscription to be correct and necessary. As a society, we need to come together stronger again," says Major Stefan. — The ideal, of course, would be a public service for men and women. This would create the broadest possible basis for the younger generation to give something back to their country."
And Captain Hendrik is confident: "Public service, as an alternative to military and civilian service, is perhaps best suited to strengthen the sustainability of society, without initially imposing a specific form of service on a person."
The tank troops' training continues in the afternoon. Three "Leopards" with a short interval go out into a wide field in the initial area. Giants weighing 60 tons are rocking on the waves, which their caterpillars hollow out in the soft earth. In one tank, the turret is turned to the side, the gun is lowered. The eyepiece of the AGDUS laser system is located in the barrel channel. Passing by, the car looks like a surreal giant lizard with a trunk and an eye. These machines, with their deadly destructive power, rumble across the moors of Saxony-Anhalt, so that the "time of H" never comes for Europe.
