Free Republic

NATO has a huge problem that will take decades to overcome. Put most simply, the armor vehicles NATO has won’t survive in a firefight with the Russians, notwithstanding the fact that Russian armor is far from the best. Russia has demonstrated in Ukraine that in conventional warfare it can knock out some of NATOs best tanks and decimate Western armored fighting vehicles like the US Bradley and the German Marder. NATO does not have enough tanks, does not have sound logistics to support them, and faces significant problems coming up against modern Russian ground forces. The Leopard tank has performed...

The world's only intact Roman shield and body armour that was found in a German field after being buried for more than 2,000 years are set to go on display in a new exhibition at the British Museum.The shield, which is on its maiden transatlantic loan from Yale University in the US, was found in Syria in the 1930s.Although discovered in pieces, it was restored to its former glory by experts and will be seen by the British public for the first time in the Legion: life in the Roman army exhibition, which opens on February 1 next year.The segmental...

The first U.S. Abrams tanks pledged to Ukraine have arrived in the country and are being prepared to send into battle, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Monday. “Good news from Defense Minister [Rustem] Umerov. Abrams are already in Ukraine and are preparing to reinforce our brigades. I am grateful to our allies for fulfilling the agreements!” Zelensky wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. Zelensky added that Ukraine is “looking for new contracts and expanding the geography of supply.” The Pentagon confirmed the tanks arrived in Ukraine, with a spokesperson saying “the mere presence of Abrams tanks serves as a...

In the 13 weeks since launching a long-anticipated counteroffensive along several axes in southern and eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian army has lost just five of its 71 Leopard 2 tanks. Many more of the German-made tanks—at least 10—have suffered damage. But the Ukrainians are repairing the damaged tanks at depots in Poland and Germany and returning them to the front. The fundamental toughness of the 69-ton Leopard 2 means tanks might take damage, visit a repair depot, return to the fighting then again take damage and head out for repairs. So on and so forth. The Leopard 2 lends itself...

The service is returning to its roots as an island-hopping tornado to face off against Russia and China. The U.S. Marine Corps is in the process of reinventing itself to deal with future threats . . . and future budgets. The service is concentrating on island and littoral missions, and going lighter and more mobile as a result. The plan, Force Design 2030, aims to make the Corps an indispensable tool in America’s toolbox. The U.S. Marine Corps is undergoing its biggest reorganization in decades, slimming down and chopping weapon systems, such as tanks and howitzers, in an effort to...

The engineer battalions of the 33rd Mechanized and 47th Assault Brigades, the lead formations in Ukraine’s 2023 counteroffensive, suffered heavy equipment losses in their assault just south of Mala Tokmachka last week. The losses include at least five of the battalions’ specialized engineering vehicles. Fitted with mineplows and minerollers, these vehicles lead tanks and infantry fighting vehicles through minefields, plowing and rolling a path so the tanks and IFVs can break through enemy defenses. ...

Russia upgraded its main battle tank fleet to take on Ukraine's western tanks. As per TASS, Russia is installing the modern Arena-M reactive armour and high precision systems group on its tanks like the T-72, T-90, and T-80. Russia's T-72 main battle tank successfully passed tests using Arena-M armour. The Russian defence ministry is planning to quickly replace armoured troops with the Arena-M suite. Watch this video to know more.

Germany will supply Ukraine with armored personnel carriers and a Patriot missile battery, the government said Thursday. The announcement came in a joint German-U.S. statement after Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke with U.S. President Joe Biden. Germany's decision to supply Marder armored personnel carriers comes after France said it will soon hold talks with Ukraine to arrange for the delivery of armored combat vehicles. France's presidency said that will be the first time this type of Western-made wheeled tank destroyer will be given to the Ukrainian military.

After a Century, Has the Age of the Tank Passed? – As Russian losses in Ukraine mount, the main battle tank (MBT) could soon join the battleship in the boneyard of military history. While a true game changer when the first tanks rolled across the battlefields of Europe during World War I, these metal behemoths could be just the latest weapon from another era whose time has passed. The truth is that from the introduction of the tanks at the Battle of the Somme in September 1916, enemies have looked at ways to counter the armored platforms. In the final...

DRAMATIC footage shows the moment a column of Russian tanks is destroyed by a Ukrainian ambush near Kyiv. The attack reportedly claimed the life of yet another senior Russian commander as Vladimir Putin’s forces press in on the capital city.

Video, You Tube link to follow. A 30-second video released on Friday went viral, after it shows a Ukrainian citizen trying to stop a Russian armored convoy moving towards a Ukrainian city at risk of of his life. The video was shared on social media by Ukrainian news network HB, and soon garnered millions of views worldwide, with many comparing the brave Ukrainian citizen to a Chinese student standing in front of tanks in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989. The video shows the man, whose identity is unknown, standing in the middle of the road while the Russian armored...

British troops arrive in Estonia transporting military equipment and tanks

Two suppliers are competing for the tender, and the choice is between Leopard 2A7 from German Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) and K2 Black Panther from South Korean Hyundai Rotem. The outgoing government has not set aside money for new tanks in the proposed state budget, but the signing of the contract is planned for 2022. The new tanks will not be delivered until 2025 at the earliest. Until then, the Armed Forces must manage with the approximately 40-year-old Leopard 2 tanks that were bought used from the Netherlands in the early 2000s.

This 1941 M3 Stuart tank is a riveted-hull light tank that was produced in November 1941 and reportedly sent to Australia for training purposes until 1946. It remained in the country until it was acquired by the current owner in 2018 and reimported to the US. The tank is powered by a replacement gasoline-powered 668ci Continental W-670 seven-cylinder radial engine that sends power to the tracks via a four-speed manual transmission. Equipment includes a manually rotating turret, a de-milled M22 gun with a shoulder mount, a Mark 19 radio set, and canvas seatbacks. The fuel lines and filters were replaced...

After seeing his friends get cut down from the West Wall to the Bulge in their M4 Sherman tanks, elite gunner Clarence Smoyer is assigned the experimental T26 Pershing, armed with the 90mm gun he needs to keep his buddies alive. But with the new tank comes a deadly new role that culminates in a legendary tank duel at the Cologne cathedral. We now present to you the official trailer for Spearhead, the new book by Adam Makos, the bestselling author of A Higher Call.

Oldest Roman body armour found in Germany Archaeologists have discovered the oldest and most complete Roman body armour at the site of the  Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in Kalkriese, Germany. Before this find, the earliest known examples of Roman lorica segmentata — iron plate sections tied together — were found in Corbridge, UK, and date to the 2nd century. Those were fragments. The Kalkriese armor is a complete set, and includes an extremely rare iron collar used to shackle prisoners.More than 7,000 objects have been found at the Kalkriese battlefield site, from weapons to coins to items of everyday...

On January 3, 2020, near Baghdad's airport, a U.S. air raid targeted Qasem Soleimani, commander of Quds Force, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (“IRGC’s”) terrorist arm. He was killed instantly. To understand how important this is, one needs to understand who Qasem Soleimani (1957-2020) was. Soleimani, a one-time construction worker and weightlifter, joined the IRGC after the 1979 revolution and soon headed one of the IRGC’s main cadres. Khomeini assigned Soleimani to suppress a Kurdish movement in Mahabad, Western Azerbaijan. Soleimani's brutality earned him command over a Quds Guard Corps unit in Kerman. The Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) gave Soleimani opportunities...

White-bellied tree pangolins are being hunted illegally in large numbers in West Africa. Photo courtesy of Justin Miller/Pangolin Conservation ========================================================== ORLANDO, Fla., Oct. 16 (UPI) -- Researchers from Florida and Illinois are leading a global effort to understand and protect the world's most trafficked mammal -- the little-known pangolin. Also called a scaly anteater, the cat-size pangolin is hunted and killed for its scales and meat in Africa and Southeast Asia. New research includes the so-called "Pango-Cam" attached to their backs to provide crucial information about the pangolin diet and territory. Without quick efforts to understand how to breed the...

MIT researchers say that lobsters could offer a solution to the problem plaguing most modern body armors: the more mobility an armor offers, the less it protects the wearer’s body. Guo told MIT News that the idea for developing body armor inspired by lobsters arrived while he was eating one and noticed that the transparent membrane on the animal’s belly was difficult to chew. Unlike the crustacean’s bone-like outer shell, the animal’s softer tissues remained a mystery, he said. Once researchers began to dissect those tissues, they made a surprising discovery. Making significant cuts into the membrane didn’t affect the...

In May 2018, the Russian military revealed it had combat-tested its Uran-9 robot tank in Syria. The diminutive remote-control tank is noted for its formidable gun and missile armament. However, just a month later Defense Blog reported that Senior Research Officer Andrei Anisimov told a conference at the Kuznetsov Naval Academy in St. Petersburg that the Uran-9’s performance in Syria revealed that “modern Russian combat Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) are not able to perform the assigned tasks in the classical types of combat operations.” He concluded it would be ten to fifteen more years before UGVs were ready for such...