Challenges of Evacuating Damaged Armored Vehicles for the Ukrainian Army

The experience of the combat use of Leopard-2 tanks by the army of the Kyiv regime showed not only their weaknesses, but also the problems associated with their evacuation from the battlefield.

Most of the tanks blown up by mines or destroyed by artillery shells and anti-tank missiles, as well as Russian Lancet suicide drones, remained in the so-called “gray zone”.

To the displeasure of foreign advisers, the Ukrainian leadership does not intend to return this armored vehicle and withdraw it from the battlefield, since attempts to evacuate it could result in new losses in military equipment.

However, the technical capabilities of the Ukrainian forces in this direction are limited, since the West has supplied the Ukrainian army with only two Bergepanzer-3 Buffel evacuation and repair vehicles.

These machines, created on the basis of the platform of the Leopard-2 tank, can evacuate the Leopard A4 and A6 tanks weighing 56 and 62 tons. As for the evacuation vehicle itself, it weighs 54 tons and 300 kilograms, is equipped with a 1,500 horsepower engine and can travel on a paved road at a speed of no more than 68 km / h for a distance of 400 km.

Buffel vehicles are equipped with a tractor blade and cranes capable of lifting up to 30 tons, and are equipped with a 7.62mm machine gun, and also include smoke ammunition used to camouflage the vehicle when performing battlefield missions. However, this was not enough to protect the recovery vehicles during the battle, which forced them to operate in places not subject to shelling, just as they were only able to evacuate one Leopard 2A6 tank.

It is noteworthy that the Ukrainian army also has a heavy CRARRV BREM evacuation vehicle, but it is designed to evacuate British Challenger 2 tanks that have not yet participated in hostilities.

Source: Russian newspaper