The lieutenant colonel on the tanks to Ukraine: "Logistics is absolutely crucial"

It has been clear since last week that the US, Germany and the UK intend to send tanks to Ukraine.

No dates for when they will be delivered have been given, but according to Joakim Sturesson, lieutenant colonel at the Norwegian Defense Academy, it is reasonable to assume that they may not be in operation until spring or early summer.

- It will not happen tomorrow.

Purely in the short term, it will not have any effect, but it is in the slightly longer term.

It's a number of months away, he says in SVT's Morgonstudion.

"Logistics are crucial"

At the same time, a number of challenges await once they are in place.

In addition to training the Ukrainian military for the respective models, which is estimated to take at least three months, the logistics must work.

- They live in a risk environment, maintenance and spare parts will be required.

If you look at the Leopard 2, spare parts are available in countries around.

The American Abrams, on the other hand, has the manufacturing and perhaps the spare parts elsewhere, says Joakim Sturesson and continues:

- The logistics are absolutely crucial to make this work when they are put into operation.

"A tank by itself makes no difference"

The models in question are the American M1 Abrams, the German Leopard 2 and the British Challenger 2.

According to Joakim Sturesson, they can have a decisive role for Ukraine's ability in the war.

And it is then mainly the amount of tanks that is at stake:

- After all, Ukraine has tanks and they have units with tanks, and they have had great success with them.

But they have been inserted now for a number of months, so they need to be replaced.

They also need to get more units, because you have an opponent in Russia who is pumping in new units all the time.

The battle tank will be very important to achieve success with the ground armies, says Joakim Sturesson.

- A tank in itself makes no difference.

But a lot of tanks where you talk about platoons and battalions, together with other weapons systems such as indirect fire, anti-tank gunnery, infantry - then you can create these brigades that can be decisive in achieving a breakthrough and then winning the war, he says.