Martineleca

I think it's deeper than that, regardless of political tensions flaring up at times Israel remains Americas most trusted ally. Even after a decade of close cooperation and commitments of support Ukraine has still not reached the trust level of even Poland, let alone the Five Eyes countries, the fact this country is in a war with a geopolitical rival of the US doesn't seem to move that needle much.

But that isn't what's happening at the moment, a very public discourse between governments has been going on for months where any current or future customers of advanced US-made weaponry are left wondering if those arms will be little more than dead weight at a crisis point when there may not be enough time to ask Washington for permission to fire.

Another issue would be the wider use of the Tomahawk missile, outside the US and UK the navies of Japan, Australia and the Netherlands will also be operating it in the near future, it remains to be seen if the ground launched variant is cleared for export though significant interest in it certainly exists, will any use of these missiles be subject to the same restrictions regardless of situation?

I'm just happy that the NATO Europe Big Three + Italy are finally discussing restarting local new MBT manufacturing this decade, rather than their favored 20 year plans for everything. The Leclerc Evolution/2? is said to be practically ready for production, Leopard 3 and Panther IT as well, Challenger 4 would be a bit more "challlenging" due to all the cross-border supply logistics involved, but hopefully RM can help get it done.

Battle tank concepts mushroom at Paris arms show https://www.defensenews.com/industry/techwatch/2024/06/17/battle-tank-concepts-mushroom-at-paris-arms-show/ The Leclerc Evolution tank is proposed as a new build. And while existing Leclerc platforms could potentially be refitted, “that’s a question of economics,” Groshany told reporters during a walk around KNDS France’s offering Monday. The French tank is meant to complement the Leopard 2 offering rather than compete with it “to address markets for which the Leopard isn’t relevant.” The company sees realistic possibilities to find buyers, “otherwise we wouldn’t launch it,” Groshany said, adding that there’s a market for hundreds of main battle tanks in the next 10 to 15 years.

Because it busts their "great power" narrative apart, they could theoretically bring the Iranian instructors to Russia as it would likely be more cost effective, but they don't do it because of the danger of drone attacks, which is an admission that they cannot defend their airspace.

Iran said to ship missiles to Russia https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2024-10/news/iran-said-ship-missiles-russia He said Russian military personnel were trained in Iran to use that system and suggested that Russia will use the Iranian systems for “closer-range targets.” - If this is true then it's a new low for Russia, not just for begging third world despots for arms, but actually sending personnel there to train as if they've completely lost all capacity for that at home.

Well I read somewhere that Nexter was originally supposed to build 1500 Leclercs which would have dropped their unit price closer to other Western models, the decision of France to significantly reduce that order eventually led to the factory shutting down. I'm not even sure if under the MGCS workload sharing agreement they're supposed to produce any complete hulls, or if all of them will come from the existing KMW plant in Germany.

The insistence of Westerners to criticize the lack of "professionalism" of a military that straps toilets and loot directly on top of their vehicles every time they've invaded a European country in the last hundred years is baffling to me...

Since it's been twenty years since the last tank body was assembled in Britain, does it matter if it's a Challenger or Leopard/Panther hull, won't it work with the new turret just the same?

If the choice on which existing model the UK's future tank will be based on is between Panther, Leopard and Black Panther I think they're more likely to opt for the comparatively tame Abrams. 😉

New Leopard 3 tank could 'revolutionize ' tank warfare https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/new-leopard-3-tank-could-revolutionize-tank-warfare-212959 - Whether MGCS is eventually approved or not it seems that in any case the German variation will be called Leopard 3, the ball is in France's court now to decide whether to continue with the joint project or restart production of an upgraded Leclerc as both countries need expanded armoured forces in the near future.

Yeah, but their range is only 2000 nautical miles whereas Japan is a lot farther away than that, won't be the first instance of drunken paranoia from the Muscovites...

I imagine rustproofing the separate iron elements would have been a nightmare during the five or more years it took to build a large russian warship, since the process couldn't be sped up due to a host of inefficiencies it made sense to bring it indoors when possible, obviously for huge ships like the Borodino battlecruisers it wasn't at all feasible.

Not sure if any damage was done to the north German coastline during that chaotic passage, but did it give further impetus to strengthening the Kaiserliche Marine so it could deter against any such provocations in the future?