Question is actually "captured or sold".......saw reports that an Abrams has also been captured but these versions of both tanks have been around awhile and I'm pretty sure there wasn't anything about them that was still "secret."
As of last February it had been estimated that Russia had lost over 6,000 tanks and over 12,000 armored vehicles. Those numbers will be higher now, two months later "but we have a Leopard tovarich!
The tank shown in the field has a broken track, left track is incomplete just below the front idler wheel. Watch at 2.21 and you can see the end of the track in front of the first road wheel. Author of this vid has no real idea what he speaks of. Disregard everything except what you can see. I wouldn't take a poke at a main battle tank with ANY RPG. Best I would expect was what happened, a broken track. I doubt there are any secrets unknown about the Leopards.
I doubt there are any secrets unknown about the Leopards.
Exactly Jim. This more of a propaganda win than an Intel find. I expect to see it towed through Red Square on May Day with a sign on it saying, "Inferior tank of the Running Dog Imperialists destroyed by superior Russian weapons and Heroic Russian Fighters!"
Probably not but I think Chobham armor is still classified if that's what the Germans are using on their Leopards given how weak the T90 has proven to be they may decide to reverse engineer that type of armor protection for their tanks.
I'm all for giving the biggest gangster in the world a bloody nose and seeing him off but not contribute anything from the West that may advance his domination on the battlefield. Russia has never worried one iota about battlefield casualties nor losses they will just keep throwing stuff in there till it gets to inhibitive for the West to maintain the arms flow how many T55 - T72's do they have lying around 10-15000!
How long will it take to build stocks up again after all the OOD ammo is expended and it starts to eat into existing current dated ammo, plus in WWII they estimated Russia lost 20 million souls some estimates have said the number may be as high a 50 million so don't think Putin will just stop because he looses a few Alligators or T90's!
It sounds like the tank was left abandoned for some time. One would have thought that Ukraine could have found some way of either destroying it or recovering before Russia got it's hands on it.
I was under the impression that many of the tanks that Russia has in so called "storage" require a virtual rebuild before they can be used again in Ukraine. Obviously if a tank has been "stored" outside for years, in all weathers, it is probably not going to be in the best of condition.
F10 they have the capacity to upscale don't think the Bear is weak or to far behind the times to gear up with China probably helping in a sly way it's just a war of attrition.
We have seen first hand how Putin works ppl falling to their deaths from windows in hotels and hospitals and Wagners boss dying in a plane crash with innocent souls on board do you think Putin's worried about bad press we have another 6 years of him again unless he is retired.
Anyone who thinks Russia is a push over seriously needs to lay down on a couch and talk to someone, what is scary was his reference to using nukes if NATO joined in the fray maybe not a Megaton one but possibly a neutron type bomb which offers less damage but kills every living thing!
I don't think anyone considers Russia a push-over Cinders but many are surprised at how Russia, the 3rd most powerful military in the world has struggled with beating Ukraine who is ranked 15th. I admit I'm surprised. I grew up in the Cold War and well remember scary times such as the Cuban Missile crisis. I expected tens of thousands of Russian tanks pouring through the Fulda Gap at any day sweeping aside Western armies so it's always been in the back of mind to not poke the Russian Bear. It was not too much of a surprise when the Mujahedeen and the Northern Alliance were able to wear the Russians down in Afghanistan but this is a straight-up conventional war between two militaries of vastly unequal strength. I'm surprised Russia hasn't rolled over the Ukrainians. Like you, I too fear the criminal Putin would resort to nukes if things go badly for him.
The point that I think you are missing, Cinders, and I was trying to make, is that I don't believe it is a case of Russia "taking tanks out of storage and sending them to Ukraine" but more a case of "Russia taking tanks out of storage, rebuilding them and then sending them to Ukraine". There is a difference and it takes time to rebuild an armoured fighting vehicle which probably explains why Russia has struggled to replace it's lost tanks and other armoured vehicles. It has been said that many of the Russian tanks in "storage" are stored outside; if this is correct it is easy to understand why they need rebuilding before they can be used again.
I wouldn't have thought it likely that President Putin would resort to nuclear weapons because he knows the consequences if he does. It is pointless worrying about something that is not likely to happen.
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Originally Posted by 
