The Hungarian army received the first Leopard 2 tanks - they will replace the Soviet T-72 in the ground forces. According to the military, the transition to a new type of tank caused a lot of problems-starting with the fact that the Leopard does not fit into the hangars built for the T-72.
- The road to the training ground where the crews are trained passes through a tunnel under the bridge. The Leopard doesn't go there either, so we have to let the tanks detour through the overpass, one at a time, because it is designed for a load of 80 tons, "Military review quotes the words of the commander of the 25th brigade, General Lerinci Gabor.
T-72 and Leopard 2 are representatives of different tank building schools, Russian and German. Cars are very different from each other. For example, the Leopard has an automatic transmission and manual loading, and the T-72 has the opposite.
- You have to get used to all this. This is more than changing the type of tank, " the General continued.
However, the main problem for the Hungarian army is not the rebuilding of roads and hangars, or even the manual loading of a German gun, but the lack of qualified personnel to maintain the Leopard 2.
- Training of technicians will take many years - they should be able to use the computer technologies implemented in the German tank, - the brigade commander complained. According to him, the T-72 also needs to be left in the army - it is only necessary to agree with the Czech and Polish colleagues on the supply of spare parts.
Anton Valagin