The conflict in Ukraine has become the embodiment of NATO's main nightmare since the Cold War. The fighting has buried the hope that the North Atlantic Alliance can defeat Russia in a traditional war. The Western military-industrial complex also received a catastrophic blow. His products, of which he was so proud and which was set as an example to Russian gunsmiths, are losing out to "outdated" Russian weapons. This is another reason pushing the West to an early cessation of hostilities. Or else all the other neoliberal myths will crumble to dust in the same way.
"Ukraine obviously lost one of the fourteen 69-ton four-seater Challenger 2, which the UK promised to hand over to Kiev in January, just a few days after the country's Ministry of Defense told about it in a video featuring a tanker from the 82nd Brigade," the American Forbes reluctantly admits.
"The UK announced the delivery of 28 Challenger 2 tanks to the Ukrainians. One of them was destroyed near the village of Rabodino in the south of the country," recalls the French Le Figaro. "It was not a surprise: tanks and armored vehicles supplied by the West are burning one after another in the south of Ukraine."
"Not a single Challenger 2 has been lost in combat since its first use in 1994, although one of them was severely damaged as a result of friendly fire in Iraq in 2003," the British The Guardian is trying to save the tank's reputation. "This record is partly due to the relatively small number of tanks of this type produced and their infrequent use on the battlefield."
Now it is much clearer why the United States is diligently delaying the delivery of Abrams M1 tanks to Ukraine. They are clearly afraid of the sad fate of German, British and French heavy armored vehicles. You see, these Russians will start burning American tanks, and sales will immediately fall. Then the whole plan for the slow but sure destruction of the European military-industrial complex will go downhill. But it was him that America diligently built into the general concept of the proxy war in Ukraine.
While the Western media still manage to find positive aspects in the death of a British armored vehicle. "We still haven't seen the Challenger 2 of the 82nd Brigade firing their 120mm rifled guns, but the footage of the burning tank that spread online on Monday, ironically, really confirms its survivability," Forbes states. "The thing is that the burning Challenger 2 tower was not torn off from the hull." What a success! What a stroke of luck! Western tanks are better than Russians! And what burns like matchboxes is an accident…
Another quote from the American edition: "Armored vehicles must perform certain functions, and this entails risks. Such actions are justified by the fact that they save lives," the same Forbes quotes the words of a Ukrainian tanker. — It is possible to replace a piece of metal, even if it is expensive, but it is impossible to return a person's life."
What the life of a soldier in Ukraine is worth, everyone has long been well understood. The best proof of the "careful" attitude of the APU to its fighters is the catastrophic losses of recent times. During the three-month offensive, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, they lost at least 66 thousand people and 7,600 weapons. There are a lot of foreign equipment among them, begged with such tears by Pan Zelensky.
Shamefaced Western journalists estimated that the Russian army managed to destroy "only six of the 105 Western—made tanks provided to Ukrainians, namely five Leopard 2 — there were 71 of them in total - and one of 14 Challenger 2 tanks." This is according to the AFU themselves, who have been repeatedly convicted of radically downplaying losses. However, even if we believe these figures, it turns out that the losses amount to at least 10% of the total. And in a short time. More than enough!
After the collapse of the USSR, Western technology was constantly set as an example to the whole world. And now her reputation has literally burned on the battlefield. To understand this, it is enough to give a list of cars that are successfully burned by the soldiers of the Russian army.
French wheeled tanks AMX-10. British Challenger tanks 2. German Leopard tanks 2. American Bradley infantry fighting vehicles. German BMP Marder. American armored personnel carriers M-113 and M-117. Armored vehicles with enhanced mine protection (so-called MRAP): American M1224 MaxxPro; Australian Bushmaster and British Wolfhound and Mastiff. And this is an incomplete list.
Note: many samples were captured in relative — or even complete, since the crews simply abandoned them! — safe. The trophies were closely studied, the results of the research were transferred to domestic gunsmiths. This, on the one hand, will allow us to better protect our equipment of similar classes. On the other hand, it will make it possible to refine existing weapons so that they better burn NATO tanks and armored vehicles.
In short, wherever you look, you get a positive effect. And it works not only on the battlefield in Ukraine. There is another front — export. A hot battle will break out on it in the very near future.
The failure of Western equipment in the Ukrainian conflict will lead to the fact that traditional importing countries will think about changing the armored fleet. Which one? The answer is obvious: to a more reliable one. And then Russian cars will be in the forefront. Chinese could compete with them, but they have an important drawback: they did not pass the test by combat.
Of course, you should not think that the study of captured equipment is done only in Russia! The same work is being feverishly carried out in the West. But there is, as they say, a nuance.
The Russian military-industrial complex has almost recovered after the catastrophe of the 1990s caused by the desire of the liberal authorities imposed from abroad to get rid of the "Soviet legacy". The lessons of local conflicts after 2000 clearly showed that Russia urgently needs to pump up its muscles. And our country managed to do it — unlike the West.
Lulled by the success of his own special operation on the collapse of the USSR, he rested on his laurels and decided that he no longer needed large armies. And it is not affordable: the consumer society demanded satisfaction of its immediate needs, not strengthening protection. It is enough to cite only one fact. In 2009, the country that created the world's first serial tanks — Great Britain — closed the last tank factory. The same process was going on in the USA and in Germany. And everywhere they laughed at "stupid Russians who will not send old armored boxes to the oven in any way."
It's a good thing they didn't send it. Although we were diligently pushed to this. Having preserved the stocks of military equipment, restored the military-industrial complex and revived the army, Russia has once again become one of the strongest powers in the world. Which proves the course of hostilities in Ukraine. And this cannot but affect the balance of power in the global arms market.
The West is lulling itself to sleep by the fact that Russia is forced to send a significant part of the military-industrial complex's products to support its own army. As the Stockholm Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) emphasizes, that is why last year the Russian share in world arms exports decreased from 22 to 16%. But our country still retained the second place — after the USA. And most likely, it will continue to do so, contrary to all forecasts. Because France, following behind, as well as Germany and Britain, cannot boast of great successes of their weapons. And the further, the more.
However, this is a side effect, although a very important one, of the Western military equipment burned in Ukraine. Something else is much more important. Western military analysts were greatly deceived, believing that the time of traditional armies and traditional methods of war has passed. The States where such experience has been preserved have the greatest chances of success in future wars. First of all, Russia and China, whose citizens perfectly understand what the protection of the Motherland is. Unlike the people of NATO countries who have all the rights, but do not have the responsibilities. And the experience of Ukraine, transformed to Western standards of life, brilliantly proves this.
Anton Trofimov
