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23-05-2024, 10:31 AM
Ukraine Mobilizing Tens Of Thousands Of New Troops. They Need a Lot More Armored Vehicles.
New brigades are infantry brigades—not mechanized. There’s a reason for that.
After mths of contentious debate in Kyiv, a new mobilization law finally came into effect Saturday. Law lowers age at men can be drafted from 27 to 25 & create penalties for men who flee to foreign countries to avoid conscription, confident that reforms will add tens of thousands of people to its rolls, Ukrainian military is expanding—by a lot. But there aren’t enough heavy vehicles for all these new troops.
There is problem. Just ask Russians, who lost more than 15,000 armored vehicles in Ukraine are struggling to replace them. It’s not for no reason more Russians are riding into battle in open-top golf carts and 1950s-vintage military tractors with paper-thin armor. The de-mechanization Russian mechanized units “likely to result in slower & more limited advances, hampering overall progress of Russian forces,” Ukrainian analysis group Frontelligence Insight explained.
Ukrainian forces are risking same devolution as they grow. Defense ministry in Kyiv is forming 10 new 2,000-person brigades, expanding battalions into brigades, shifting a lightly-equipped territorial brigade into marine corps & adding an artillery brigade to national guard, the changes could boost 100-brigade Ukrainian ground forces by around 10%. As largest armed forces, the army benefits the most. The army is standing up five new infantry brigades.
Note: 156th, 157th, 158th & 159th Infantry Brigades are not mechanized infantry brigades—they lack tracked armored vehicles mechanized troops ride into battle. Ukraine’s shortage of heavy vehicles is severe, one recently-formed mechanized brigade, 153rd, actually downgraded from a mechanized unit to an infantry unit. Since Russia widened war on Ukraine 27 mths ago, Ukraine has received around 7,500 armored vehicles from its foreign allies, also restored, from long-term storage, thousands of older vehicles dating from Soviet era. This 10,000-plus vehicles joined thousands of vehicles already in service.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/20...d90b151fe5
New brigades are infantry brigades—not mechanized. There’s a reason for that.
After mths of contentious debate in Kyiv, a new mobilization law finally came into effect Saturday. Law lowers age at men can be drafted from 27 to 25 & create penalties for men who flee to foreign countries to avoid conscription, confident that reforms will add tens of thousands of people to its rolls, Ukrainian military is expanding—by a lot. But there aren’t enough heavy vehicles for all these new troops.
There is problem. Just ask Russians, who lost more than 15,000 armored vehicles in Ukraine are struggling to replace them. It’s not for no reason more Russians are riding into battle in open-top golf carts and 1950s-vintage military tractors with paper-thin armor. The de-mechanization Russian mechanized units “likely to result in slower & more limited advances, hampering overall progress of Russian forces,” Ukrainian analysis group Frontelligence Insight explained.
Ukrainian forces are risking same devolution as they grow. Defense ministry in Kyiv is forming 10 new 2,000-person brigades, expanding battalions into brigades, shifting a lightly-equipped territorial brigade into marine corps & adding an artillery brigade to national guard, the changes could boost 100-brigade Ukrainian ground forces by around 10%. As largest armed forces, the army benefits the most. The army is standing up five new infantry brigades.
Note: 156th, 157th, 158th & 159th Infantry Brigades are not mechanized infantry brigades—they lack tracked armored vehicles mechanized troops ride into battle. Ukraine’s shortage of heavy vehicles is severe, one recently-formed mechanized brigade, 153rd, actually downgraded from a mechanized unit to an infantry unit. Since Russia widened war on Ukraine 27 mths ago, Ukraine has received around 7,500 armored vehicles from its foreign allies, also restored, from long-term storage, thousands of older vehicles dating from Soviet era. This 10,000-plus vehicles joined thousands of vehicles already in service.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/20...d90b151fe5
